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P4 3.2 or amd64 3200+

D

designax

n00b
Joined
Jun 6, 2004
Messages
7
Hey guys. I have a dilemia here. I am planning to build a new system that will have to last me for about 2 years. The only two processors that fit my budget are the P4 3.2C or the athlon 64 3200+. Their costs are around the same price so the only question here is which is the better chip.

My system will be used for games and office/school work. I do play games but i am not a hardcore gamer. There are problems that seem to go along with each chip.

If i were to buy the p4 3.2C, i would have to buy a socket 478 motherboard. The only problem is that socket 478 is pretty much dead and intel is discontinuing it. The last processor i believe is the 3.4ghz which has already come out and there will be no more new processors for this socket. Would it be wise to buy a new socket 478 system since it is already dead and at the end of the product life cycle?

The athlon 64 3200+ looks like great chip. In some benchmarks it beats the p4 by a noticeable margain especially in directx 9 games. The only problem here is that the processor is a socket 754 chip and there are no good quality motherboards out. I have heard numerous problems with the MSI Neo Platinum and epox and chaintech sound like no-name brands. There seems to be no definitive answer as to which motherboard to get.
Choosing a motherboard itself seems like a problem.

I've been a intel user all my life and none of them have given me any major problems. Amd on the other hand does not make their own chipsets which causes many problems between the chipset and the chip. This will be my first experience building a computer from scratch (i have repaired before) and i am afraid building an amd machine will be a little too steep for a beginner like me.

Will all things considered, which do you think will be a wiser purchase for me?
 
I have the MSI Neo mobo and the only problem I have had is that the ram sticks need to be in the correct dimms to work. Other than that it is very fast and very stable. Meanwhile, imo, Epox and Chaintech are far from no-name brands. However, for AMD64 chipsets the MSI or Asus boards are probably the way to go. The main disadvantage with socket 754 is that you can't really upgrade in the future if you want to (CPU upgrade that is). The performance between the new formats (pci-e, socket 939) are the same (or very close to).

CadniuM
 
Hi

Cheap board but very stable. No overclocking at all (I guess future bios updates will add functionality). It's an nForce 250 board.

The socket 754 seems to be on the AMD roadmap for a long time yet (AMD history of support for old tech is fantastic IMO).

The MSI Neo seems popular here on [H] too.

Thanks

L
 
I just want to know why that board has "no overclocking" it seems to shout OCing in the newegg reviews (but who knows where they come from).
Just curious,
thanks -9311
 
I rammed a 400MHz overclock on my clawhammer 3000+ on my MSI K8N before it crashed on me, and that was at stock voltages for RAM and VCore.... so I'd say it can perform as an overclocker ;)
 
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