[Crispy]

Im putting a new comp together next week and i can't (as many other) if I should but Athlon XP or Pentium 4...

Im planning to buy either a pentium 4 2.4Ghz or Athlon XP 2400+ (2000mhz) ... The pentium 4 costs aprox. 15 dollars more than the Athlon XP ...

My problem is ... I know that a pentium 4 can be pushed to 3.0 GHz without any problems. The Athlon can be clocked to around 2250mhz which would be the same as as 2700/2800+ ...

Then theres the mather of chipsets. For AMD there is the KT400 which is quite good (No coments on crappy features plz). For Intel theres the i845E (Something from SIS worth buying??) ...

So ... What do ya think? What should I do (suicide not an option) ... AMD or Intel???

[gamehead200]

I would go with the P4. Even though it is Athlon XP, I still don't trust it...

[Crispy]

gamehead200, on Oct 5 2002, 05:36 PM, said:

I would go with the P4.  Even though it is Athlon XP, I still don't trust it...

So you're saying that you think that the Athlon XP are too unstabil?

[FthrJACK]

no hes just been reading at tomshardware too much, and NO gamehead, linux is not a comunist plot, AMD are not owned by colombian drugs cartels, and yes microsoft is headed by satan

my athlon XP is stable, runs at 43'c and is a **** fine cpu

Crispy, this is your decision! BUT:
i would get the fastest you can afford, and im leaning towards P4 (yuk) intel will aparently be keeping the current Socket type, but dont take their word for it because they always say that, and never do. if you go with the intel then you should be alright for future upgrades, if you get the athlon then the new clawhammer is going to need a new socket type.
although the kt400 chipset is new, ive heard mixed reports about it, some are now going back to kt333 etc.
ill look into that more.

[zipp51]

My main workhorse computers have always been AMD.No one has asked me specifically for Intel for a new computer order.Personally I believe both are close in performance so that only benchmarks will declare an edge.However a user could not tell the difference with everything else that's hardware and software the same.Flip a coin.

[Snoop]

u should get the new XP chip with 300mhz fsb bus.
btw intel are lamers

[Crispy]

€L1T€, on Oct 5 2002, 08:04 PM, said:

u should get the new XP chip with 300mhz fsb bus.
btw intel are lamers

Naaa .. to expensive! ... anyways I hate those crappy paper launches ...

Hmm ... I posted this so I maybe could a definitive answer, but it's as usually a mixed crowd ...

I will say, I'm leaning towards the Pentium 4 2.4 ... But then the next problem comes! Should I chooese the one 100mhz bus or 133mhz ??? Which is best i terms of overclocking?? ... There are no real pages on this subject ... Anyone?

[zivan56]

Its best to buy the 133, since then you have a 533 FSB instead of 400, and it costs about the same. If you want overclocking, the ones with the lower multiplyer will get you the best FSB speeds.

[Crispy]

zivan56, on Oct 5 2002, 08:46 PM, said:

... and it costs about the same.

Actually the 533mhz model is 1 dollar cheaper

[MSNwar]

Awesome Package, though Pricey!

P4 Northwood 2400, FSB 533, 133 MHz, i850E Chipset

Motherboard, Gigabyte GA-8IHXP (U-133 RAID, LAN and Sound)

Average Price here in Germany,

P4 2400, Boxed with Fan, Retail, US 269.00
Gigabyte GA-8IEXP, Retail, US 194.00
Samsung 256 MB, PC800, US 119.00

Total US 582.00

[zivan56]

MSNwar, the cost in Canada (converted to USD)

Retail 2.4GHz 512K 533MHz $200.43
Gigabyte GA-8IEXP i845E FSB533 MOTHERBOARD $131.31
PC800 RDRAM 256MB $93.61

Total: $425.35 USD

why is it so expensive there?

[zivan56]

Crispy, on Oct 5 2002, 01:08 PM, said:

zivan56, on Oct 5 2002, 08:46 PM, said:

... and it costs about the same.

Actually the 533mhz model is 1 dollar cheaper

INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.4GHZ Socket-478 533FSB CPU $329
INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.4GHz mPGA-478 400FSB CPU $329
source: here

Its the same price here, in CAD

[MSNwar]

Everything cost more in Germany and I don't know why. Some people say its the taxes. There are cheaper sources here in Germany than the one I quoted. If you can find a buddy that has a wholeseller licence than the price would be about 40% cheaper for each item. The savings are substantial but then the buyer really has nothing to fall back on other than the individual items manufacturer warranty.

The P4 and The P4 Northwood cost the same here too. I don't know why.

But thats a sweet combination.

[Crispy]

Hmmm ... Why would you choose the GA-8IEXP ??? It's features are quite crappy ...
see the features

Roughtly 200$ and it don't even have SATA, APG 8x, bluetooth, firewire or more then 2 USB ports ...

Am I missing something here???

[MSNwar]

Well, I like the Promise ATA 133 RAID, Intel LAN, Creative Sound, (All major manufacture products), Dual BIOS that supports overclocking stepping, and it is a 4 layer board.

The 8X AGP and Bluetooth would be nice, but I can't afford a 8X card right now and I don't see any Bluetooth products in my home environments future. It will be at least two years if not more before game developers have anything ready for 8X. Two USB ports are kind of standard, but $5 - $10, gets you an additional two port panel if you need it (mounts on the fron or back of the case). It is feature rich I suppose and the documentation is excellent compaired to most boards for slightly more money and less features.

Some of the Intel boards look good, but I can't find anything with all of the above features for that price except in the US and by the time I add shipping and handling to include the conversion rate I take a 16% hit on I could probally add another stick of RAM. I perfer name brand RAM. There are 256 MB Infineon Brands here for half the price of Samsung, but I have returned a lot of Infineon sticks in the last year.

Take back kinda, I don't overclock my personal home machine, but my kids like to overclock their game machines. I like to have two or three machines with matching parts, so I usually buy two machines at a time. Actually, here at home I just upgrade everything at once. Me and my friends usually go in together and buy at least 6 of everything once a year. We get at least 30% off the package this way. Computer clubs do that a lot. I couldn't price more than one at the time of the post.

Here is something I used to do as a part time work-from-home job. On my web site I would maintain a private list of parts from mostly eBay sellers and make the list available to friends and associates. When we had enough to meet discounted volume deals ... I dealed. The profits were kept at a minimal, but I usually scored an extra stick of RAM or something now and then for free.

[Crispy]

Well, not everyone buy 5-6 PCs every year! ... I can see why one don't need APG 8x, no cards for it and it will propely be killed by PCI-express next year (much faster) ...

But I see your point ... hmm ... then what ...

[MSNwar]

So that I do not mislead you when I buy the 5-6 PCs every year ... I mean that 5-6 friends and I buy them at one time from one source so we get a volume discount. They are "all" certainly not for me personally. And we sell our old machines at the same time so we get the best bang for the buck. When you sell 5-6 PCs with the same parts on ebay they sell fast versus trying to sell one machine at a time. This year it looks like some of the same people who bought from us in the past are going to be repeat buyers. Hope it stays this way.

This is a good and honest method to keep yourself in new "PC innards" every 12 to 18 months. Again we just upgrade the CPUs, Boards, and RAM occasionally replacing power supplies, fans, and the like.

Almost nothing looks better under the Christmas tree than a new Board with a pretty red ribbon. Well, when I was younger my wife once tied a red ribbon around ... er another subject.

[Snoop]

Quote

I borrowed my friends AMD 1800, and I couldn't tell a difference from the P4 1.8 over here....

amd 1800 owns a pf 1.8ghz in practicly every benchmark there is if not all of them

[rstryker]

AMD all the way.....................