Author Topic: AMD Proccessors (Read 681 times)

Yeager · « **on:** April 10, 2003, 12:28:06 PM »

Any good?

Im a Intel man meself but a family member needs an upgrade and the closest place to get it done really promotes the AMD over the Intel.

So, what say you?

WoofBoy · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2003, 01:12:16 PM »

Until you get to the absolute top of the line chips...

AMD's are just fine. And generally the new naming convention will give you an idea of how fast an Intel chip they compare to.

Of course if this is just an upgrade, you can't merrily bounce from an Intel cpu to an AMD cpu. There is more to it than that.

If it's more of a replacement path, it's their call. It really depends on how much cash is riding behind the whole endevor.

If you need more than a boring OK, I can probably dig up some reviews showing off Intel and AMD chips on a few hardware/game oriented sites. (Nifty graphs and all)

-Woof

Eagler · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2003, 01:48:49 PM »

last three upgrades have been AMD

no problems here

Skuzzy · « **Reply #3 on:** April 10, 2003, 02:53:47 PM »

Here's my two coppers worth.

1) The stock HSF that comes with a P4 is good enough for a lot of overclocking. The stock HSF that comes with AMD is a pretty lowly part. So figure the expense of a decent HSF in for an AMD.

2) With the Nforce chipset, you can finally get away from VIA, which is a good thing. My biggest complaint about AMD has never been the CPU, but with the surrounding chipset. NForce seems to be a good product.

3) Look at what video card you are going to use. ATI cards and drivers make use of the P4 SSE2 floating point instructions, which clock for clock yeilds better performance on P4 systems than AMD systems. For NVidia it seems to be a wash.

4) AMD, at the lower end, is much cheaper than Intel. At the higher end, they are pretty close in cost.

Overall, I still lean to Intel.

Staga · « **Reply #4 on:** April 10, 2003, 03:34:52 PM »

I'm running a AMD XP2400 (2,0GHz) with 2,3GHz speed (watercooled) and BIOS thinks the CPU is a XP2800.
Mobo is a Soltek SL75-DRV5 with VIA KT333 chipset and several months old 4in1 drivers (if it works don't fix it...).
Pretty fast rig and only way I can kill it is with a power-button or shut it down from windows. Stable as a rock, much better than my old A7M266

Reschke · « **Reply #5 on:** April 10, 2003, 04:18:32 PM »

About to dump my ASUS A7V266 on some poor unsuspecting soul here in a few days and grab an ASUS N-Force2 board and 1GB DDR RAM and a new CPU if I can encourage the wife to just say "Yes". She asked me for a new little one and he is due in a few weeks so I might as well get what I can now.

ALF · « **Reply #6 on:** April 10, 2003, 05:00:16 PM »

Yea...get the nforce 2 boards! While the onboard video isnt the tope of the line, you can still put in a nice ATI 9700. Im looking to get the new Shuttle SN41g2, its small and fast.

bloom25 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 10, 2003, 09:09:23 PM »

It depends on the budget. Up until around the 2600+ level the AMD chips offer a better bang for the buck for sure. Above that, it's pretty much a wash.

As far as which CPU is faster, that's a topic for heated debate. They both have their strong points. There are very few areas in which one is a lot faster than the other. For gaming certainly, they are very evenly matched.

If you choose to go Intel, I'd recommend you go with an Intel i845PE chipset board (Asus P4PE as an example). The newer Granite Bay chipset seems to have unresolved fairly serious bugs in it when it comes to support for newer AGP 8x graphics cards. You should also be aware that the next Intel CPU to be released will not work on current motherboards. You should also really only be looking at the 'B' type P4s (533 MHz FSB parts). The 'A' type P4s are not very good performers.

If you choose to go with AMD I'd definately take a hard look at the nForce 2 chipset based boards. Some of these boards feature truely superb integrated sound which is unmatched by any standalone sound card in performance and features. (The Asus A7N8X Deluxe is the most popular motherboard in the enthusiast market right now. It has nearly everything you could want in a motherboard built on, except for graphics.) It is most definately worth the extra money to get the "deluxe" versions of nForce 2 boards with the full nForce 2 onboard sound option. ( Look at: http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html )

As far as CPUs go, for Intel, the 2.53 'B' is about the best for the price. For AMD, the 2400+ or 2500+ are very good as well. For a budget system, the 2100+ is a good choice.

(I rarely disagree with Skuzzy, but I'm not seeing any significant Intel lead with 9700 and 9800 pro benchmarks. The nForce 2 platform really helped AMD make up a lot of ground. Intel wins the Quake 3 benchmarks, 3dmark 2001 se is a tie, and AMD wins the Serious Sam 2 tests and UT 2003 tests. All others are pretty much a wash.

It's hard to find good reviews comparing the fastest Intel and AMD offer, but here's a small sample:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDI2LDQ=
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1783&p=12

Pfunk · « **Reply #8 on:** April 10, 2003, 09:18:36 PM »

Got an EPOX 8rda+ and its one hell of a board, just got a new xp1700+ Jihub dl3tc core, this processor....if you can find one.... overclocks like a madman. 1.47 Gz standard, I have it running at 2.4ghz on aircooling, 1.75vcore and temps never over 50C under load

Nilsen · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2003, 05:00:53 PM »

Im building an AMD/Nforce2/ati system to prepare for my re-entry into AH and im hoping it will serve me well.

Cant see why it shouldnt

Vipermann · « **Reply #10 on:** April 16, 2003, 03:22:07 PM »

Just to throw this in

My Abit KD-7 RAID board with the KT-400 chipset has been running perfectly since install.

I'm not saying VIA didn't have problems but they aren't as bad anymore as what they used to be.

Anyone considering a new build should be going with an NForce2 board however, if they want the best performance

maddog · « **Reply #11 on:** April 17, 2003, 11:24:12 AM »

Running 2800 on an333? Asus deluxe with swiftek cooler..... XPpro..... fast and flawless........ 2 SATA drives.....