Athlon VS Intel

shrek

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I'm thinking of upgrading my computer. Now what would you prefere? INTEL or Athlon (2.666 - 2700+). I use the computer for gaming and developments. I uses to had a Athlon 1333mhz and thing was loud at least the cooler. Does Athlon still have this heating problems? Any expirences???

thanks
 

Nights_L

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wah..now your question will start a war..but anyway, I will just give my opinion here
If you have extra money, you should go for Intel's CPU, if you want a good cpu with a cheaper price, then you should go for Athlon
I think 2700+ should be able to kill P4@2.66, with the price for P4@2.66, you can get XP2800+ even a little cheaper
also, with T-Bred B, you should not get heating problem.. (at least from what I know)
so, I would say go for Athon XP for the moment
obviously I'm supportive for AMD, but I must say if you have extra money, you should go get Intel P4
what speed for P4 you should get? let someone else tell you then!
 

shrek

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You see here in switzerland the two prices are nearyly identical. so the pentium 2.66 cost the same like XP2700+ only like 10$ difference.

One more small question? Is the speed boost alot if you use 400mhz rams compred to 333mhz RAM???
 

redstar

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as to the ram question..

the couple reviews i have seen..so far say that there is no difference yet (and in one case the lower ram setup performed better!). Meaning that we have to wait for better motherboards/chipsets i guess.
 

shrek

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Thanks for your help. So I guess, best is to buy a Intel with DDR300, such as prices are very low now here in switzerland....

Thanks to y'a
 

Traqr

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Get DDR400 RAM and run it DDR333 (synchronous mode) until you upgrade to a DDR400 FSB CPU (just make sure your motherboard will handle a FSB400 CPU! right now, that means Asus A7N8X v2.0)

As for the AMD/Intel inevitable flamewar, my understanding is that AMD on Soundstorm-certified nForce2 is currently the gamers' value leader, but Intel has shown no intention of replacing the S478 design yet. We can see the end of Socket A in the Socket 754 for Athlon64, but that's not going to happen for a while yet (maybe 18 months to the last Socket A upgrade?).

Boy, I miss the days of Socket 7. You picked the CPU you wanted, and the board you wanted. None (ok, little) of this 'do I want all Intel or all AMD?' garbage; the interface was industry-standard. Maybe we can get the open-source community to work on an 'open-platform' concept... nah.

By the way, what <i>are</i> you using the computer for? HT technology may or may not be a valuable feature to consider...

<font color=blue>Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.</font color=blue><font color=green>
<i>Canadian Flight Safety periodical, ~1987</i></font color=green>
 

Bahumut

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If you are going intel, and you get the newest chipset, you should be better off running DDR400. If you are going AMD, DDR400 running at 333MHz would be my suggestion. More importantly, makes sure you get the lowest possible latency. CAS Latency 2-2-2-5-T1 (2-2-2-6-T1 for DDR400) if at all possible.

Now for the AMD vs Intel question. If you plan on upgrading in 12-18 months, go Intel. Socket A is on the way out. You won't be able to reuse any heatsinks for an Athlon-XP. If you plan on having your computer for less than 12 months, I'd go AMD. If you plan on having it more than 18 months, it doesn't matter.

Overheating isn't really an issue unless you intend to overclock or you just don't put the heatsink on correctly.

It is possible to up the FSB of an Athlon to 400MHz (in which case DDR400 is the only way to go). Just make sure you know what you're doing before you try.

Pain is the realization of your own weakness.
 

lumper

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i have been shopping too and i think the two systems i found the best for gaming and my needs/budget are 1 of each

CPU: 2.08 GHz
Type: XP 2800 Barton Core
Cache: 512K L2, 128K L1, Total 640KB
BUS: 333MHz
asus A7N8X (New Version, now support AMD Barton 400Mhz
some DDR 333 (PC 2700)
CAS Latency 2 (2-2-2-5-1T)
with a 9800 pro or an fx5800 ultra

or
a p4 3.ghz 800 mhz fsb
asus p4c800 delux
pc3200 cas 2
9800 pr0 or fx5800 ultra

price is a major issue though as the pentium system is at a premium right now.

i added up the nforce upgrade,
with a liteon burner, Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA WD360GD 10,000 RPM 8MB Hard Drive
coolmaster hs, cables, 24" tall case, antec 550watt psu,

albatron ti4600, 2, 512 kingston hyper z pc2700,

6.1 speakers,and a few other things for $1100.00 usa.

the p4 would run around $500 more for everything the same but the memory, mobo, and cpu.
i priced them out at newegg and shentech

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lumper on 05/03/03 01:04 AM.</EM></FONT></P>