OT: Which CPU ? !!

[RJK]

Hello, tiz me

Whilst I could happily spend forever studying cpu / motherboard reviews at
site like Tomshardware etc. ..(...this evening disappeared doing just
that ), if money was almost limitless - which would you buy; AMD or Intel,
and which socket ? ...and now there are dual core cpu's that further
complicate and delay a decision.

I thought I was leaning towards a P4 640 with is attractive 2mb L2 cache
but, then there's several offers on AMD at http://www.aria.co.uk where I buy
my parts.

.....and THIS time around the b****y thing will be silent !!!! ...or as near
as dammit to it as I can get it. I sorted out an abused XP Home ed.
platform the other day and the system box it was in was almost completely
silent, it was a Packard Bell I think.

regards, Richard

 

[Talahasee]

Hello, tiz me

Whilst I could happily spend forever studying cpu / motherboard reviews at
site like Tomshardware etc. ..(...this evening disappeared doing just
that ), if money was almost limitless - which would you buy; AMD or Intel,
and which socket ? ...and now there are dual core cpu's that further
complicate and delay a decision.

My son is a high school student, going to 2 different high
schools because one didn't offer all the classes he wanted
(smart fella), and he's going to be a computer engineer /
md.

He'll likely have his first computer engineering degree
within 3 months of graduating high school.

I typically take his advice on hardware issues; he takes
mine on s/w.

He would go with the Celeron (Intel).

For the $$$, it's "IBM" lite.

And he says that "dual core" is now "the coming hardware",
so if you have the coins, go with IBM and with dual core
(64-bit).


Good luck!


Tallahassee

 

[Zilla]

What application will you be running on it? Games, video,
music recording?

 

[Malke]

Hello, tiz me

Whilst I could happily spend forever studying cpu / motherboard
reviews at site like Tomshardware etc. ..(...this evening disappeared
doing just that ), if money was almost limitless - which would you
buy; AMD or Intel,
and which socket ? ...and now there are dual core cpu's that further
complicate and delay a decision.

You should post this in a hardware group. See if your ISP offers public
newsgroups - look for a hardware group since this has nothing to do
with Microsoft and/or operating systems.

Other good sources for hardware information are forums at Anandtech,
ArsTechnica, amdmb.com, and there are forums at Tomshardware, too.

Malke

 

[Travis King]

You should post this in a hardware group. See if your ISP offers public
newsgroups - look for a hardware group since this has nothing to do
with Microsoft and/or operating systems.

Other good sources for hardware information are forums at Anandtech,
ArsTechnica, amdmb.com, and there are forums at Tomshardware, too.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

To answer your question - AMD or Intel, you should ask yourself what you're
going to use your computer for.
If your are looking to do gaming, go with AMD's Athlon 64. If you want a
cheap gaming system, go with a Sempron.
If you are looking to do more things like video editing and related items,
go with Intel.
If you are doing mainly office related tasks, either would work. I would
slightly lean towards AMD, but it's almost even.

If you are going with AMD and you plan on doing an expensive build, you'll
likely find yourself buying a Socket 939 motherboard, otherwise, you'll
probably be looking at a socket 754 board, and don't get a socket A board
because those are becoming extinct.

I normally use AMD in my builds, but it really depends on what you're going
to use it for.

Regardless what you get, make sure the component you get will probably work
with the next version of Windows - Windows Vista should you upgrade to it.
Almost anything that you can buy now will, unless you choose the very bottom
of the barrel. I would avoid getting much of anything below 2GHz. In the
future, buying a good video card will be more important than a processor,
especially when Windows Vista rolls around. Having PCI-E for your graphics
will probably be a good idea when planning for Windows Vista, although it
will work with AGP. There are no official requirements for Vista as of yet,
but these would be some good guidelines to get you started.

As another thing if you are not aware of this already - you can normally get
by with a lower clock speed AMD chip and get an equivalent speed of a higher
clock speed Intel.

AMD's 3200+ for example, should be roughly on par with a 3.2GHz P4.

 

[Alan]

Hello, tiz me

Whilst I could happily spend forever studying cpu / motherboard reviews at
site like Tomshardware etc. ..(...this evening disappeared doing just
that ), if money was almost limitless - which would you buy; AMD or Intel,
and which socket ? ...and now there are dual core cpu's that further
complicate and delay a decision.

I thought I was leaning towards a P4 640 with is attractive 2mb L2 cache
but, then there's several offers on AMD at http://www.aria.co.uk where I
buy my parts.

....and THIS time around the b****y thing will be silent !!!! ...or as
near as dammit to it as I can get it. I sorted out an abused XP Home ed.
platform the other day and the system box it was in was almost completely
silent, it was a Packard Bell I think.

regards, Richard

You need to start by working out what applications you will be running.
Intel is more efficient on some, AMD is on others. If you aren't doing
anything too strenuous it doesn't matter too much. Then consider price.
You could always get a motherboard that can take faster processors than you
start out with then you have a fairly simple upgrade to faster route.

 

[capitan]

Hello, tiz me

Whilst I could happily spend forever studying cpu / motherboard reviews at
site like Tomshardware etc. ..(...this evening disappeared doing just
that ), if money was almost limitless - which would you buy; AMD or Intel,
and which socket ? ...and now there are dual core cpu's that further
complicate and delay a decision.

I thought I was leaning towards a P4 640 with is attractive 2mb L2 cache
but, then there's several offers on AMD at http://www.aria.co.uk where I buy
my parts.

....and THIS time around the b****y thing will be silent !!!! ...or as near
as dammit to it as I can get it. I sorted out an abused XP Home ed.
platform the other day and the system box it was in was almost completely
silent, it was a Packard Bell I think.

regards, Richard

Hi Richard.

IMO AMD is the best because the 64 bit chips are affordable, they fly,
they use very little power, they generate little heat, and they out
perform intel 64 bit chips (which also happen to run hotter, use more
power, etc.) as far as the new socket styles vs. the old standard, I
would say go for what you can afford. The latest greatest will always
cost more, but probably perform better than the old standard. OTOH, I
have been seeing some great deals on tiger direct's website ($200 and
less for awesome cpu/motherboard sets) for the older standard sockets.
Hope this helps and happy shopping.