How fast is sufficient?

[Dev]

I am building a computer for my girlfriend and thought I'd come here for some advice...So, what would you consider the best price/performance/longevity processor to buy for her? She is not by any means a power user and wants a computer that will last long, but still with a reasonable price tag. She will use it mostly for taking work home (excel, word and access), but may (you know what girlfriends are like buy a digital camera ("maybe a video camera", ...sigh!) and wants the ability to do some video/picture editing, nothing to serious though. She also thinks that my fan is too loud, so it should be fairly quiet (need help for that one).
The setup I was thinking was something like:
CPU: Athlon XP 1600 at 125, but the 1+GHz's cost 40-50 less. Duron 1GHz 70 less.
MOBO: ECS K7S5A or nForce if it comes out soon
RAM: 256mb DDR
Fan&HS: Need help on a quiet one
HD: 40gb 7200rpm (worth the 25 extra)
GFX: Either integrated with nForce or my GF2 Pro (so I can get GF3
DVD and CDR (CompUsa have a QPS 24/10/40 CDRW for $100, is it any good?)
Have a decent antec case.

I am not opposed to Intel, but figured she'd get more for her money with AMD. I know the nForce release is some time off, but is it likely to be postponed again? Lastly, any comments and tips on this setup are appreciated, what I think is barely enough, might be overkill for her.

Thanks for all your help
DEV

Legalize lutefisk (UFF DA).

 

[Matisaro]

1.2ghz thunderbird, is perfect for the girlfriend pc. More than a ghz so you dont come off as a cheap bastard, and not so fast to require loud heatsinks.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[Guest]

Hmmm, "Drools"

PC+VIDEOCAM+GIRLFRIEND=WHOAAA

:O)

 

[zengeos]

Heck! 1ghz or 1.1ghz Duron should be sufficient for her PC. If she was doing a LOT of video editing and image editing, then a higher speed XP (1500-1800) would be a better choice. BUT, for what she is doing, the Duron would be fine. In 3-6 months you can upgrade her to an XP if she wants more power.

For most everyday tasks, an 800mhz system should suffice for an average user, even, so you are giving her 25% or so more than necessary.

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

 

[Guest]

I've heard the alpha heatsink is a pretty good model. You want heatsinks and fans check here.

<A HREF="http://www.3dfxcool.com" target="_new">3dfx cool</A>

I thought now I'm a nimble knuckle I should start posting at least 1 post a month dedicated to helping some one - I just happened to know the answer to your question.

Yo Norman - Kick up a STORM.
<A HREF="mailto:techie2000@supanet.com">techie2000@supanet.com</A>

 

[Dev]

Kinda makes your mind race, doesn't it Thanks, for answering so quickly, and thanks for the link techie.
Dev

Legalize lutefisk (UFF DA).

 

[FUGGER]

You pay more for slower chip when you buy a XP cpu, so you might as well buy her a Intel based machine. less hassels in the long run, highest compatability, and stability.

You can save money going with DDR P4 mobo, P4 is best for video.

Also, you might want to ask her what she wants.

1.5Ghz P4 is $127
1600 XP is $124 (AMD approved PSU extra, beefy HSF optional extra)

DDR motherboard $89 for AMD or Intel.

The rest of the parts are up to you. $3 difference. you pay more for PSU and HSF on AMD based systems, essentially paying more for whole system if parts were all the same.
The sad thing is you paying more for problems associated with AMD.

Ok, now its time for the lemmings to discredit me and call me a liar "there are no problems with AMD".

 

[Kelledin]

A few things to clear up:

1) P4's consume more power than Athlons. A 2.0GHz P4 consumes more power <i>on average</i> <A HREF="http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/datashts/24988701.pdf" target="_new">(76W)</A> than a 1.4GHz T-bird consumes at its worst <A HREF="http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/23792.pdf" target="_new">(72W)</A>. As such, a P4 requires the same class of power supply as an Athlon.

2) P4's run as hot or hotter than Athlons. Just ask all the P4 owners about their temps at the <A HREF="http://www.hardforum.com/" target="_new">[H]ardOCP forums</A>. A lot of them have P4's running in the 50's and 60's. Athlon owners, on the other hand, are generally able to keep their CPU temperatures between 40-50C (sometimes lower). The P4 has the advantage of built-in thermal protection; this would be slightly more impressive if it didn't need that protection so badly.

3) And of course, the AthlonXP 1600 royally rips the P4 1.5GHz in just about everything--probably even Q3A. Face it, the AthlonXP generally beats the P4 even when its PR rating is 200 "PR points" behind the P4's MHz. Relevant benchmarks can be found at <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1543" target="_new">AnandTech</A> and <A HREF="http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000224" target="_new">Ace's Hardware</A>.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[flamethrower205]

Dude, wtf. There are no problems with AMD systems. My friend has a P4 and the thing endlessly pisses him off. Oh yeah, and don't compare the 1.5 Ghz P4 to a XP1600- it makes a mockery out of it.

U got a problem?! Then dial 1800-328-7448!

 

[plbass]

My signature says it all =)

Hey Baby, I'll install YOUR RAM, only if you boot my Hard drive!

 

[AMD_Man]

It's your call and it would be extremely hard to find a benchmark where a 1.5GHz P4 outperforms the Athlon XP 1600+. If you look at the benchmarks, the Athlon XP beats the P4 2GHz in some cases. It's not fair to compare the prices of the 1.5GHz P4 and the 1600+ Athlon XP because the Athlon XP will significantly outperform the P4 in most tasks. If his girlfriend isn't into computers much then she wouldn't be doing video editing and even then the Pentium 4 and the Athlon XP are now closer than ever and the XP will most likely beat the 1.5GHz P4. I can personally guarantee you that you will get 100% compatibility with an AMD processor and 100% stability (if that's even possible with Windows, which it isn't, but at least the hardware will be perfectly stable). If you're not overclocking you don't need a high-speed HSF. The retail one will work perfectly. Also, if you aren't installing a lot of internal hardware, you don't need a really good PSU. The same goes for a P4. If you want to overclock you need a certified PSU and a good HSF. Fugger, AMD users don't buy loud fans because they need to, they buy them because they want to. The people who buy AMD processors with Enermax PSUs and huge HSFs want the hassle because it's fun!!! You can get a DDR motherboard for $60 for the AMD platform. The ECS K75SA (is that the right model name?) costs $60 and outperforms some motherboards nearly twice it's price and all with 100% stability.

Please Fugger, it really upsets me when you confuse new buyers with all this nonesense. Fugger, I don't want to insult you by calling you a liar because it is in my nature to be a problem solver not a problem maker. I don't believe looking at only the pros of one product and the cons of another is a good way to compare products and claim superiority. Here are my completely unbiased Pros and Cons of Athlon XPs vs Pentium 4s:

Athlon XP:
Pros
- Extremely fast for the price
- Has a wide variety of supporting chipsets to choose from
- Very good price/performance
- Produces up to 20% less heat at the same clock speed as a Thunderbird

Cons
- Uses a considerable amount of wattage (less than 2GHz P4 however)
- heat can be a problem if overclocking
- possible stability problems with older KT133A motherboards with the 686B southbridge (if you're getting a DDR motherboard, this won't affect you)
- if motherboard doesn't support the XP's thermal diode, a heatsink and fan must always be attached
- Core might damaged if heatsink is not placed on CPU properly (this is very uncommon but known to happen)

Pentium 4

Pros
- Lots of bandwidth with dual-channel RDRAM
- has high clock speeds (not necessarily translating to performance however)
- SSE2 instructions
- effective 400MHz FSB
- thermal protection

Cons
- slower than an equivalent Athlon XP
- only 3 or 4 major chipsets currently available
- extremely expensive (especially 2GHz P4 which is 3 times higher priced than the equavalient Athlon XP, while it is ~5% slower based on most benchmarks)
- Most motherboards use SDRAM or RDRAM (very difficult to find and purchase DDR-based motherboards)
- can also heat up, but thermal protection guarantees it won't burn the CPU but it may reduce CPU life without better than retail fan cooling (this isn't confirmed however so please do not comment on this note as I am not completely sure)

Now that you have your facts straight, you make the call. I don't care what you get as long as you're an educated buyer and know this is right for you. I'm not advertising AMD or Intel; in fact, my signature is promoting the unity of both AMD and Intel technology. Although this will probably never happen unless Intel buys out AMD or the opposite, I will always dream of a united future. Speaking of united, if we had a united world government, we wouldn't be having this war against terrorism. Unity and harmony leads to peace and contentment. Let's pray that this stupid mess with Bin Laden gets solved and we get semi-"world peace" again.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Matisaro]

AMD, remember what I said about Meltdown, FUGGER is meltdowns mentor...just give it up man.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[AMD_Man]

Well, I can always try. Perhaps I need to study psychology. Anyway, does it look like I'm trolling? NO, at least in my opinion, my post was 99.9% unbiased. If I'm wrong then I'm deeply sorry.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Guest]

In this special case I would actually consider buying a Duron 1GHz (Palomino core, for the video editing!), underclock it (Yeah!!) by 100 to 200 MHz, lower core voltage 0.1V, and put a good copper heatsink on top (barely needs any fan at all...). Choose a KT266A MB!

There is nothing stopping you to OC'ing the FSB to, say, 136MHz (no prob for Palomino core, Duron or not). For example 136*6.5=884MHz. Would probably beat a P4 1.5 on a i845 motherboard...

***A-Man***

...is it?...NO, it's AnotherMan...

 

[bront]

Very well put AMD Man.

I personaly will admit to being slightly biased towards Athlons, but that has come from experience with them. That said, any computer purchase I would make I would reserach each and every part till I knew exactly what I wanted.

Different people have different views, different needs, and different biases. It takes a strong man to be willing to admit that the other side has some valid points.

Now, on the issue of a good, long lasting system...

I would recomend an XP 1600+ with either the standard heat sink, or the Volcano 6 Cu (Good for standard, non-overclocking systems and quite affordable).

If she is truely serious about video editing, the ATI all-in-wonder cards might be a good option, Or one of the Asus Delux cards (v7700 should be fine). If she's not, get a Geforce2, probably MX400. A MB with built in sound should be perfect for her too.

60 FPS, 70 FPS, 80 FPS Crash!
Daylight comes and I have to go to work :frown:

 

[Matisaro]

You werent trolling, but fugger, meltdown, intel inside are not gonna be reasoned with, they are trolls, plain and simple.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[lakedude]

Sounds to me like any of the systems mentioned would be fine. I have a 400MHZ laptop and it is fine. If you really want a very quiet and very cool system look at what Apple is selling. Apple sells a cube with no fan (quiet) and it looks really cool. Their cinema display rocks too.

Don't wanna go that way? Better talk to her first. Get what ever she wants even if she only likes it cause it is orange. I personally like the XP but if she prefers the Intel label then get an Intel. All the speed differences ain't gonna matter near as much as her perception of quality. If you go shopping with her I can only offer the following advice. Drink heavy before you go.

I went shopping with a girl once and we got an orange Compaq because --- you guessed it! It was orange.

Remember if you ain't Muslim you ain't Shiite.

 

[dhlucke]

Antec SX840 (400W powersupply) or SX1040 (bigger)
ECS K7S5A (onboard sound and lan are fine)
Crucial PC2100 DDR (256MB-512MB)
IBM 60GXP 7200 RPM (40GB should be fine)
Thermaltake 6cu (30 dba according to box)
Give her your Pro and get a GF3
DVD and CDR - I hate compusa; have you ever shopped there?
I like the HP-CDRW's though. I've had a toshiba dvd-rom for years and it works great

As for the CPU this is up to you. I can get a 1 Ghz on the K7S5A up to 1125 Mhz using their modified bios so I went that route. The prices are pretty cheap so I wouldn't bother getting a Duron when you can get a Tbird for dirt cheap anyways. The P4 is a good processor as well, but it isn't up to par with the athlon in my opinion. It's overpriced if you buy based on performance rather than mhz anyways.

I basically gave you the description of my system so I'd definitely recommend it. I just upgraded and it cost me less than $650 with 512 MB of memory and the SX1040. I had the DVD and CDRW though and had to buy a videocard.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhlucke on 10/31/01 00:04 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Dev]

My girlfriend read your post and now she keeps bugging me for an orange computer..lol. Anyways, I have the Antec SX1040 already, and she has decided to wait until next month and will give me $800 to build her the thing including the monitor. A month is a long time nowadays, but for now the setup looks to be.
Antec Case $0
GF2 Pro $0
ECS K7S5a $70
Tbird 1.2Ghz $90
Crucial 256 $30
A Socket-AHO HSF from 1coolpc (formerly 3dfxcool). Has anyone had any experience with this one? It's supposed to be really quiet. It's only 19 bucks.
40 GB hard drive (are there any you recommend?) $~100
Toshiba 16 x DVD $70
Ricoh 7200a 20/10/40 CDRW $110

All prices include shipping.

This adds up to about 500. Leaves about 300 for monitor (not decided yet) and devices. Looking good?

Dev

Only users loose drugs!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dev on 10/31/01 04:05 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Matisaro]

For that 40 gig harddrive get the IBM deskstar 60gxp, very quiet and very fast, 100 bucks for 40 gig.

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[Guest]

AMD_MAN
Speaking of united, if we had a united world government, we wouldn't be having this war against terrorism. Unity and harmony leads to peace and contentment. Let's pray that this stupid mess with Bin Laden gets solved and we get semi-"world peace" again.

Good thing we don't have a "united world government".
-Mike

 

[AMD_Man]

lol, I meant that if all the governments in the world agreed on a single set of laws and rules, there wouldn't be problems like we're having now. It's the conflicting laws of different countries that leads to war. Of course, cultural freedom would be given to individuals, but not supported on a national level. I guess I'm thinking about the Federation in Star Trek. The way there's a united government in Star Trke is amazing. Rather than saying I'm American or I'm Canadian, I'd say I'm human or I'm a terrene. Now that what I call unity!!! A bit far feteched, I know, but I can always dream.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[FatBurger]

Different laws are creating all this? What country has laws that terrorism is ok and you should kill thousands of innocent people?

It's brainwashed zealots and corrupt governments that cause war.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>

 

[AMD_Man]

It's brainwashed zealots and corrupt governments that cause war.

Exactly what I'm saying. If all laws were universal, corrupt governments couldn't exist.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Guest]

Well, I am proud to be an American, and agree with what FatBurger said. One more thing, the USA already has some of the best laws in the world, and I like the idea of nations being sovereign states.
-Mike