athlon64 or pentium? / not been around for a while

[ISUBARUI]

I have not been keeping up with new chips and motherboards and what not but i want to buy a computer soon and dont have the time really to read about the choices so i came back here. So is going with a athlon64 2800 or other athlon64 or is a comprable pentium?? a better choice. I probably wont be buying another computer for a while so is the 64-bit athlon going to do me any good down the road or will the pentium be fine for atleast 2 years. Im looking to spend around or in the 300 dollar area for cpu+mobo. If 400+ dollars give you drastically better gains over 300 let me know too.

 

[gmkmay]

Is the computer gonna be used primarily for gaming?
What are your priorities? Also, how much are you willing or wanting to overclock?

If your primary use is gaming, get an Athlon64. If your primary use is something other than gaming, either will suit you just fine, and I would probably go with a northwood p4 and an 865 board. If you want to OC a lot, the 2.4c is still a good choice in my opinion. It also matters what kind of ram you have...

It has yet to be seen how important the 64 bit will be...but I would say your pretty safe getting a 32 bit proc and it lasting you the next few years.

Anyway, if I were buying a computer right now, I would get an athlon64 (3000+) and an nforce3 chipset, that combo will land you right around your $300 price range.

 

[Redux]

If you aren't running Linux, no reason to get an Athlon64.

For the extra cash an Athlon64 would cost you, you can put together a killer P4 or AthlonXP gaming rig and get comparable performance.

Linux is the only 64-bit OS available for a PC platform. Windows Longhorn will supposedly be delivered in 2006, but the server will be 2007.

 

[Bugalaman]

Linux is the only 64-bit OS available for a PC platform

um.... what the hell is this?
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluation/upgrade.mspx

 

[Redux]

What the hell that is an alpha version of Longhorn. It is very unstable and missing many features. They may be doing progressive upgrades to it or they may not. No guarantees. The license is only good for one year unless they choose to extend it.

If you are willing to put up with buggy alpha version software from MS, then feel free, but be warned there are LOTS of things missing from this version and crashes are common.

 

[TheGameguru]

If you aren't running Linux, no reason to get an Athlon64.

For the extra cash an Athlon64 would cost you, you can put together a killer P4 or AthlonXP gaming rig and get comparable performance.

Linux is the only 64-bit OS available for a PC platform. Windows Longhorn will supposedly be delivered in 2006, but the server will be 2007.

This is so wrong on so many levels..

Better gaming Athlon 64 CPU's cost the exact same as P4's

look at newegg and check the prices for Athlon 64 3000, and 3200+ compared to the P4 3.0 and 3.2

If your doing app specific work that tailors to the P4 strengths then you should go with a P4 system

If Budget is your only concern then go with a Sempron 3100 or AthlonXP 2500 and try to O/C

 

[GlobalFear]

Intel - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-176&depa=1
AMD - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-487&depa=1

Intel costs less, right?

 

[Redux]

My bad on the prices of the socket 754 Athlon64's. I didn't realize that the prices had dropped so significantly on them. It appears the ECC RAM has also gotten somewhat cheaper which was the other killer of the Athlon64 systems. Now it looks like it is a bit more of a toss up between the socket 754 Athlon64 and the P4 as far as price.

 

[Carnival Forces]

athlon64
http://folding.stanford.edu fold, team 33.

 

[BigTaf]

Athlon 64 for gaming only

if you do alot of multitasking trust me a p4 feels a HELL of alot faster

i built and AMD 64 system for a buddy of mine that ran any game faster than mine hands down, but when I had 3 browsers, ATI tool and a few other windows open it slowed down to shit, my p4 will do that without breaking a sweat

 

[Soralis]

My bad on the prices of the socket 754 Athlon64's. I didn't realize that the prices had dropped so significantly on them. It appears the ECC RAM has also gotten somewhat cheaper which was the other killer of the Athlon64 systems. Now it looks like it is a bit more of a toss up between the socket 754 Athlon64 and the P4 as far as price.

Athlon64 systems don't use ECC RAM, they use normal non-ECC unregistered ram, it's only the old socket 940 AthlonFX and Opteron that used that, the socket 754 and 939 boards for Athlon64 and the 939 AthlonFX don't use ECC or registered ram.