Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: chug4u on June 26, 2004, 11:34:07 AM

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: chug4u on June 26, 2004, 11:34:07 AM

Which is best gaming CPU for the $$$                                       AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache, 940-pins, Windows Compatible 64-bit Processor - Retail
 
Price: $811.00

 Intel Pentium 4/ 3.2E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache       Price $279.00


Intel Pentium 4 Processor "550" 3.40GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB L3 cache, LGA 775 Hyper Threading Technology - Retail Price $425.
 

Model# BX80547PG3400E  
Item # N82E16819116182
Specifications:
Model: Intel Pentium 4 w/ Hyper Threading
Core:Presscott
Operating Frequency: 3.4GHz
FSB: 800MHz
Cache: 512KB L2, 1MB L3 cache
Process:90nm
Socket:LGA 775
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, SSE2
Packaging: Retail (with Heatsink/Fan)

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Orig on June 26, 2004, 12:35:36 PM

From what I've read in reviews, the new 64 bit Athlons are pretty much unbeatable for games.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Rasker on June 26, 2004, 01:27:39 PM

Geek.com was putting together a reasonably priced gaming rig based on the  AMD 2800 64, havent  been able to find the article again.

I've read that the Amd 64 can take full advantage of the new DDR2 533 memory, but the Pentiums can't do that until their bus speeds reach 1066 Meg or higher.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: XtrmeJ on June 26, 2004, 03:28:24 PM

Everyone has their own opinions. I like AMD.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Reschke on June 26, 2004, 05:10:57 PM

Don't drop the cash on that high dollar CPU. Go with the socket 754 CPU to keep your cost down. That FX based CPU is great but why spend $800+ on a component that is as much as the rest of your system will cost to build around it.

I have a "Clawhammer" Socket 754 Athlon64 3200+ that I spent around $250-$260 for it now its a bit higher with the 1MB L2 cache.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: guttboy on June 26, 2004, 09:33:26 PM

My 3 centavos.....

DONT GO WITH THE TOP OF THE LINE.....back up a few steps and go with that!  Much cheaper in the long run.....

Was an INTEL guy forever but the AMD 64 3000+ I got running in my rig absolutely KICKS BUTT!!!!


Regards,

:)

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on June 28, 2004, 12:35:23 AM

The new Athlon 64 socket 939s are way better for games than the P4s.
I have an Athlon 64 3500, 2 x 512Mb Corsair TwinX mem, and a 9800SE modded to a 9800 pro. Works awesome.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Rasker on June 28, 2004, 12:39:45 AM

how does one mod a 9800 se into a Pro?  do you save much $ doing it that way?

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: deSelys on June 28, 2004, 04:27:23 AM

I just build a system with AMD Athlon 64 3200+ on an ASUS K8V SE Deluxe socket 754. It seems pretty impressive so far.

AMD Barton are still very good for gaming and very cheap, but your upgrade road is closed.

Pentium 4 is better when compressing audio/video tho.

I would avoid the Prescott at all costs: it performs worse than the Northwood, and contributes a lot to the Global Warming.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: deSelys on June 28, 2004, 04:27:50 AM

Holy Double Post Batman!

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: deSelys on June 28, 2004, 04:28:19 AM

Holy Triple Post Batman!!! :eek:

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: FOGOLD on June 28, 2004, 04:59:13 AM

I used to think "don't buy cutting edge", but I find that if you can afford to buy it, you are not champing at the bit to upgrade the whole rig quite as quick. If you buy last years kit a bit cheaper, a year or so and you're feeling like it's a bit slow.  I bought an xp2000,  Ti500 Rig 2 and a half years ago and although I now have an 9800 Pro and another 512 Mb RAM, I'm thinking it'll do me another year at least. It still runs Far Cry and Halo no probs. Hopefully It will  last untill PCX and BTX are out good and proper.

Having said all that, the upgrade cycle is abit longer than it used to be.;)

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on July 03, 2004, 03:52:14 AM

Rasker - If you have a 9800SE with the ram arranged in a 'L' shape on the board and not an 'I' shape the only difference between your 9800SE and a PRO is the number of pipelines.
PRO has 8 (256 bit), SE has 4 (128).
Good news though - If you do have 'L' shape ram use drivers from http://www.omegacorner.com and when installing choose the softmod option. This opens up the other 4 pipelines on the SE making it a PRO.
Powercolor Sapphire 9800SE have a very high success rate.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: zmeg on July 03, 2004, 01:13:10 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Kev367th
Rasker - If you have a 9800SE with the ram arranged in a 'L' shape on the board and not an 'I' shape the only difference between your 9800SE and a PRO is the number of pipelines.
PRO has 8 (256 bit), SE has 4 (128).
Good news though - If you do have 'L' shape ram use drivers from http://www.omegacorner.com and when installing choose the softmod option. This opens up the other 4 pipelines on the SE making it a PRO.
Powercolor Sapphire 9800SE have a very high success rate.

 The other 4 pipelines on the SE are closed because they're defective, opening them up will only cause system crashes.
The best upgrade for an SE is a sledge hammer.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: SunKing on July 03, 2004, 01:25:41 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Rasker
Geek.com was putting together a reasonably priced gaming rig based on the  AMD 2800 64, havent  been able to find the article again.

I've read that the Amd 64 can take full advantage of the new DDR2 533 memory, but the Pentiums can't do that until their bus speeds reach 1066 Meg or higher.

ever find that article?

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on July 03, 2004, 06:10:52 PM

zmeg - All the people I know (me included) have had no problems using the softmod. Get no artifacts or any other problems, seems to depend on make of 9800SE. Like I said the Powercolor Sapphires seem to be the best brand. Best to buy one from a store where you can return it, if you don't get artifacts, keep it, else return it.

SunKing - Yes they can by overclocking the cpu (no fsb on an Athlon 64 based system). But I have never seen the need for it with an Athlon 64 based system. Already get over 5.4Mb/s memory transfer speeds with DDR400.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Rasker on July 04, 2004, 12:56:46 AM

Quote

Originally posted by SunKing
ever find that article?

In Tomshardware, on building sub $1,000 gaming machine:

http://www.tomshardware.com/game/20040529/index.html

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on July 04, 2004, 01:38:13 AM

I'm shocked, Tom is well known for being an Intel man!
Must of hurt to do an article with an AMD as the cpu of choice.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: McGuinn on July 04, 2004, 03:45:41 AM

For AH how much better does the AMD 64 compare to the P4 3.2?
I'm going to by an Ambit MO, but if the Athlon 64 is infact way better i'll get the Ambit MO that is compatiable for the AMD 64.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: BUG_EAF322 on July 04, 2004, 01:57:51 PM

well
it works smooth for me

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: McGuinn on July 05, 2004, 03:39:30 AM

OK well i'll go with the Athlon 64 3200+

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Rasker on July 05, 2004, 01:07:05 PM

you can delete those exta posts you know, just click on edit icon, then check delete box and click delete button :)

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on July 05, 2004, 05:04:33 PM

McGuinn
There's now 2 versions of the Athlon 64
Socket 940 - Usually 1mb on chip cache, single channel memory
Socket 939 - 512 cache (apart from FX53), dual channel memory

Ensure the mobo and cpu socket type match.

for reviews try
http://www.amdzone.com
http://www.athlonmb.com

Hope this helps

And don't forget to goto Microsoft website and get your free beta version of Windows XP64. I personally use a dual boot Win2k/XP64 system.

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: McGuinn on July 05, 2004, 06:04:39 PM

Wow thanks Kev.
Almost made a stupid mistake on that one.
Thanks again!!

Title: Athlon VS. P4?
Post by: Kev367th on July 06, 2004, 05:50:54 AM

YW , have fun with your new system.