Hi everyone, so I'm doing some research on upgrading my system and thought I'd ask for some opinions after reading the buyer's guide posted by Spitfire.
I'm a college student studying computer science/engineering and an avid gamer. I'm currently running an AMD Duron 1GHz, so you can tell it's definitely time to upgrade before school starts again.
I'm looking at getting at least a 3GHz although I want to keep the price relatively low and don't care about overclocking or spending $$ for a slight benchmark increase. The applications I'll mostly run are development apps, C++/Java compilers, VS .NET, VMWare Workstation to run Linux apps, and some graphics intensive MP games, FPS, etc. all under Windows XP.
So according to the guide, I'm looking at either a P4 3.0GHz, or an AMD Athlon64 3000+, Athlon64 3200+. So the decision is Intel vs. AMD which I know is the subject of much debate.
A very important characteristic I want of the system is reliability. I don't want this thing crashing or being unstable during the semester since it would take time away from my studies. My Duron has worked OKAY, temperature has been fine but I have noticed some random instability at times which I don't want. Of course at the time I was on a very tight budget so I understand if it's the cheap CPU and not AMD being less reiable than Intel necessarily. I do want a cool running CPU since my computer tends to warm up the room and I leave it on all the time.
Lastly, should I care about Intel's new architecture, PCI Express, DDR2, etc.? I don't plan on upgrading for at least another year or so and don't want to be left out in the cold with components later on. I'd appreciate any suggestions/experiences you might offer.
Thanks!,
AvatarX
I'm a college student studying computer science/engineering and an avid gamer. I'm currently running an AMD Duron 1GHz, so you can tell it's definitely time to upgrade before school starts again.
I'm looking at getting at least a 3GHz although I want to keep the price relatively low and don't care about overclocking or spending $$ for a slight benchmark increase. The applications I'll mostly run are development apps, C++/Java compilers, VS .NET, VMWare Workstation to run Linux apps, and some graphics intensive MP games, FPS, etc. all under Windows XP.
So according to the guide, I'm looking at either a P4 3.0GHz, or an AMD Athlon64 3000+, Athlon64 3200+. So the decision is Intel vs. AMD which I know is the subject of much debate.
A very important characteristic I want of the system is reliability. I don't want this thing crashing or being unstable during the semester since it would take time away from my studies. My Duron has worked OKAY, temperature has been fine but I have noticed some random instability at times which I don't want. Of course at the time I was on a very tight budget so I understand if it's the cheap CPU and not AMD being less reiable than Intel necessarily. I do want a cool running CPU since my computer tends to warm up the room and I leave it on all the time.
Lastly, should I care about Intel's new architecture, PCI Express, DDR2, etc.? I don't plan on upgrading for at least another year or so and don't want to be left out in the cold with components later on. I'd appreciate any suggestions/experiences you might offer.
Thanks!,
AvatarX