What system would be better for Gaming?

[CrossFire282]

Hi Guys! just wanted to get some opinion's on what to get for my next major Comp Overhaul. Right now i'm running a P4 1.7, 1GB of PC133, a A-Open AX4BS MoBo, and a 64MG geforce2 TI...(i didn't build it.). Anyway i've finaly decided to splurge!

My choices have come down the these to systems
System 1
Athlon64 3000+
Abit KV8 max3 or Soltek K8AN-Rl
Kingston HyperX 1024 Dual Channel Kit
Ati Radeon 9800 XT 256

System 2
P4 3GiG with 800 fsb
Asus P4C800 or Intel D875PBZ
Kingston HyperX 1024 Dual Channel kit
Ati Radeon 9800 XT 256

Now i'm leaning towards the athlon system but i would like to know is how the athlon64 compares to the P4 with HT and Dual channel support? as far as gaming goes...what is the OC range of both Procs with standard cooling And which Mobo would you choose(doesn't have to be out of the ones i listed)?... And i've Read a few articles that a suggesting that the athlon64 dosn't like 1gig of ram or more. any truth to that?

A big Thanks to all who help me out!

 

[HardWareBoss]

Intel release Prescott on 2 Feb. You may wnat to wait before you buy.

 

[ChipDeath]

plus nvidia release Nforce3 250 chipset for A64. I would definitely wait for that if I was considering a A64 rig, just to be sure.

---
<font color=red>Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do.</font color=red>

 

[addiarmadar]

Both will give you the same results but the A64 mobos are haiving some ram issues. However that prescott chip Im not sure how it will work so I may wanna wait for that. One thing that I do know about the prescott is that is will the usual overprices chip.

Barton 2500+ @ 2200mhz (10x220 vcore @ 1.8)
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/720)

 

[TheRod]

I would go for the A64 3000+ and for the overclockability A64 are not very good right now.

For the RAM issue on A64 board there is no clear concensus. it might depends on MB and since the memory controller is in the CPU, maybe some A64 are weaker than others. Don't forget that these CPU are fairly new and the fabrication process is probably not at is top.

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

 

[HBOMB]

Wait for the new prescott to show its face and if its better than buy it. If it sucks then wait for the 250PRO chipset from nvidia and go with the athlon64 setup.

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[HBOMB]

BTW the best RAM to get for the athlon64 right now is mushkin pc-3500 lvl2

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[lisabob2]

If you are buying soon, then buy which ever is cheapest as both are great setups.
Anandtech site says the Athlon64 is the best gaming cpu.(at least last time I checked)
I would love either one.!!
lol I still have athlon xp1700.
waiting for summer time to upgrade.
As for overclocking I thing the p4 has a good record.
Bob

 

[TheRod]

the best RAM to get for the athlon64 right now is mushkin pc-3500 lvl2

Where did you get that information?

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."

Great shot!

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

 

[Guest]

I would definately get the 3000+, it is one HELL of a gaming rig. I wouldnt wait for anything really, prescott is not likely to be a stellar performer (cf all the previews), and may well be slower than Northwood. You could wait for PCI express, and for socket 939, and then for god knows what, but the simple fact remains the A64 3000+ is an incredible gaming rig for a very reasonable price. If I'd be in the market for an upgrade, I'd buy NOW. (in fact, I have a 2500+ that completely satisfies me, and Im still about to buy a 3000+ for no reason really.. go figure

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Crashman]

The fastest chipset for the A64 is the SiS 755. The fastest performance board on the market right now is the Soyo K8USA with the ALi chipset. Everything VIA falls beneath those solutions. And everything nVidia even lower right now.

You might consider the ECS 755-A motherboard. I don't have a lot of info on it, but it is using the SiS 755 chipset, and the board is cheap enough that if you don't like it, you can get something else.

The brand name 755 chipset boards were supposed to be on the market over a week ago but I'm still not seeing them.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[HBOMB]

The reason that muskin is the best is because.....
a: It uses winbond BH-5 chips which are the best memory chips ever made. They have been discontinued becasue winbond was actually losing money on them and have since been replaced with CH-6 and CH-5 chips which are not as good. They do not clock as high, have nearly as good of timeings, and do not like high voltage.
b: From all the people that i have talked to, not a singel person has had a problem with that RAM working in their mobos since the A64 have known compatability problems with some mem, this is anotehr plus.
so in conclusion, mushkin lvl2 = 210-250 reall speed with 2-2-5-2 timings whereas most new memory including corsair 1.1 and 1.2 revision sticks and kingston hyper-x use ch-5 and ch-6 chips will only do 200-220 2-3-6-2. hope this is some useful info.

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[Crashman]

Odd that you respond to me! Mushkin uses BH-6, which is 6ns, which means 166MHz DDR, aka DDR333 (ie specified for PC2700), in their PC3500.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[HBOMB]

actually they used BH-5 in the pc-3500lvl(maybe the 3200 lvl2 as well) until the BH-5 chips ran out but they are still avail on the net. mushkin has also just released some "hand picked" bh-6 models for their pc-3200 and it is garenteed to run 2-2-5-2 @ ddr400 speeds but they cannot garentee anything above that.

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[HBOMB]

i have been informed by a certain banned member*cough*spuddy*cough* who used MY digi cam to take pics of his ass to post on here that u guys like links for proof a lot. well here ya go sry to prove ya wrong crashman......
http://www.mushkin.com/epages/mushkin.storefront/EN/product/991154
Mushkin's newest PC3200 product. Lowest latency PC3200 found on the planet today. CAS2-2-2 hand selected 6ns chips screened for 400MHz CAS222 results! Tested 222 compatibility on chipsets including nForce2, Intel 865/875, VIA KT400.

Q: What is the difference between this new 222 build and the PC3200 222 - Black Hi Perf Level II?
A: The Black High Performance level II used the Winbond BH5 chips, which are no longer in production. This new 222 special build uses Winbond BH6. They perform just as well as the BH5 at 3200 speed, but may not be as overclockable in your system.

Q: Can I mix the Level II I have installed now with these new modules?
A: Yes. Compatibility is not an issue, they have been tested running together at 3200, CAS222.
mem specs:
# CAS 2-2-2 @ 400mhz
# Hand-selected Winbond BH-6 chips screened and tested for 400mhz operation.
# 3.2GB/s
# Single Bank ?
# 64Mx64 Module
# 32Mx8 chip density
# Jet Black 6-Layer PCB
# Gold Contacts
# 184pin
# 2.5V - 2.8V ?
# Unbuffered ?
# Heatspreader colors vary

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[HBOMB]

i have also heard that windbond will continue the legacy of the bh series chip with the new .13 BH-4 memory which is supposed to do something like 2-3-5-2 @ 250+ mhz. this memory is still being tested but should be out this year sometime.

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[Crashman]

LOL, you're a looser. I say that in response to

well here ya go sry to prove ya wrong crashman......

when you proved me right. I said they were using BH6, you agreed. BH6 is 6ns, you agreed. Do that math, 6ns is rated for PC2700 speed. So everything I said is correct, this is overclocked RAM.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

I would LOVE to see them using 4ns RAM.

You know all this BH5 availability stuff is a bunch of crap, they could use faster RAM. Adata is rumored to be using 4ns already. And Samsung has a 3.75ns DDR SDRAM chip that's Cas3 at that cycle time (which works out to 266MHz, aka DDR533 Cas3, ie PC4200 Cas3!). I'm not talking about this so called "PC4200" that's made using insanely overclocked/overvolted PC3200 chips, I'm talking about PC4200 using correct speed memory that shouldn't require added voltage.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Makaveli]

Just to Add in my 2 cents, but memory timings aren't as important than they use to be. I believe I read somewhere that when u get over 200mhz 2-3-2-6 to 2-2-2-5 doesn't show that much of a performance boost.

And higher memory speed will always give u a bigger boost over lower speed and really tight timings.

 

[Johanthegnarler]

I don't notice a difference from 2-2-2-5/6 to 2-2-2-11 like i was supposed to. Nothing different.
Mushkin Lvl2 pc3500 512. I love my ram though.

<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081" target="_new">http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081</A>
Figured i'd do it too..reality my ass.

 

[HBOMB]

um.....right there on mushkin's website they used BH-5 until they ran out recently.
A: The Black High Performance level II used the Winbond BH5 chips, which are no longer in production. This new 222 special build uses Winbond BH6. They perform just as well as the BH5 at 3200 speed, but may not be as overclockable in your system.
sry if u took it that i was being sarcastic ass but i wasnt. i was talking to spud and he said not to challenge u with computer knoledge and he set u up to be this great guru but as stated on the mushkin website they used until recently BH-5 in their lvl 2 and i was just saying sry, but according to this your wrong, and not hahahah i'm right and your wrong and i'm a little kid that has to flaunt. If your intelligence proves as great as spud says, you'll understand the diff.

Kanavit's main Defence-"When I boot up my computer, i like to see 3.2 ghz, not 3200+."
long live BOBSHACK

 

[Crashman]

d00d, I said they use BH-6, and you're saying I'm wrong. And yet you're saying they recently switched to BH-6. So what are you smoking that allows you to think I'm wrong, when you admit they're using BH-6?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>