Which cpu has the most life left? P4 or Tbird!!!!!

[Guest]

I've been wanting to build my own system for a while, but the problem is that I'm an unemployed HS student. I was working at Best Buy as a cashier, but I felt guilty selling pheasants inferior products and had to quit. Also, standing in one spot for 7 hours straight and trying to sell 7 warranties/credit cards/garbage crap per customer can get on your nerves. Ah, the repetitiveness continues to boggle my noggin!! Sorry about the rambling. I'm a student on a limited budget, and I was wondering which cpu would be the best to go with. My first idea was a high end tbird, but then I realized the tbird line doesn't have that much life left. What speed do you think the tbird will max out at? I want to be able to upgrade the cpu at least once so I can get my mon0ey's worth out of new system parts!! Should I wait until P4+DDR becomes a reality? What should I buy and when should I buy it. I'm running WIN2K, so I guess the new Athlon MP would also be a viable option if it ever goes down in price. Last but not least, does the kind of case you buy really matter? If I had a great heatsink/fan, would that keep me safe with a mediocre case. Any case suggestions or resources to find cases? I guess the moral of this story is that I need a job. Its just so hard trying to remain civil around so many stupid people for 8hrs straight. Could I get any kind of IT job at the age of 17? I almost have my A+ Certification!!!
Thanks in Advance!!!

 

[Boondock_Saint]

Athlon for sure. The PIV right now is switching to new core, which would make upgrading in the future using current PIV mainboards not possible. Athlon based systems can be upgraded all the way to the Barton core, using Socket A the whole time. http://www.amd.com/news/virtualpress/roadmap.html
You could buy an Athlon based system now, or wait for the NForce Chipset mainboards to come out for the Athlon. Buying an AMD system now would be no detriment at all, however.

Concerning cases, can affect heating, mostly depending on what you have in the box. Bigger = Better Circulation = Generally cooler temperatures. But so long as you are not going 4 HD's in RAID with 1.4 GHz and GeForce 3 with DVD Burner, CD Burner, and DVD drive you have nothing to worry about.

 

[kanute]

The current P4 chip is all but dead really. Intel has a bad habit of making new sockets or slots everytime they change the core even a little bit. It's pretty well known that the next gen P4 won't be using the same socket as the current one. So your upgrade path is pretty limited. I would go for an athlon/DDR based system as you would be able to upgrade CPUs down the road rather easily. Of course then there is gonna be something that comes along that screws up this whole theory like a new graphics port or a replacement for PCI slots and you'll want a new motherboard anyways. Oh nevermind. I give up. It's too late. My suggestion is to never buy a computer because you'll just wish you had waited a little bit longer to have had the next greatest thing. If you never buy, you can never feel like you missed out =)

That oughta void your warrenty!

 

[Crashman]

It's getting close to the autumn release of new products, with your limmited budget, I suggest you wait. The new P4 and A4, SiS 735, nForce, and DDR 845 chipsets are on the horison, Radeon 2 vs. GeForce 3 at a reduced price, etc.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[pvsurfer]

As Crashman advised, at this point in time you should wait just a little while longer before buying a motherboard. The first SiS735 DDR motherboards are starting to show up now, with more to follow shortly. Early indications are that SiS735 is not only a top-perfoming chipset, but also very inexpensive (so it's reasonable to assume that SiS735 mobos will also be relatively inexpensive)!

When you order your board, get any of the 266MHz FSB TBirds plus some PC2100 memory and you'll have the foundation for a good system.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the great advice!!! I've decided I'll probably wait it out a few more months until I have more money and new hardware options. The Sis735 is quite promising, but Sis doesn't exactly have a great track record. We will wait and see what happens. Thanks Again!!!