Charles said:
Hello,
I can choose between 3 different computers and I'd like to know which
one is better than the others:
Intel Pentium IV 3.02Ghz HT + P4C800 Deluxe
http://asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=174&l1=3&l2=12&l3=30&l4=0
AMD Athlon 64 2.0Ghz + A8V Deluxe
http://asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=238&l1=3&l2=15&l3=68&l4=0
AMD Athlon 64 2.0Ghz + K8V-X
http://asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=237&l1=3&l2=14&l3=67&l4=0
Could you sort them for me please from the strongest to the weakest?
Thanks!
The Athlon64 has a performance multiplier of about 1.5. So a 2GHz
processor, might be equivalent to a P4 at 3GHz.
I take it the Pentium IV is actually 3.06GHz/FSB533/512KB L2 ? That
processor supports Hyperthreading, and is detected as two cores
by a modern version of Windows. That helps make the P4 marginally smoother
than the Athlon64.
In terms of the motherboards, the first one can take four
sticks of RAM. I'm typing this on the P4C800-E, which uses
the same chipset, and I get the same bandwidth reported, whether
using two or four matched sticks of RAM.
The second motherboard is S939. That is dual channel, holding
either two or four sticks. Two sticks runs faster than four
sticks, due to the loading effect on the processor's built-in
memory controller. So two sticks is the recommended config
(low CAS 2x1GB would have been recommended, but you cannot get
low CAS 1GB DDR any more - it all seems to be CAS3).
The third motherboard has three slots and is a single channel
board. The data bus is common to all three slots. The address bus
is split in two pieces. One address bus drives two slots, the other bus
drives the third slot. Using two of the three available slots
(i.e. one load per address bus), is as far as I'd go with that
motherboard.
The S939 can probably manage better memory bandwidth than
the S754 board. But at least for some games, either platform
has been able to do the job. So there is actually no reason
to be totally against an S754 board. It can still get the job
done.
Where S939 shines, is in allowing dual core processors to be
used. You can still buy processors like the Opteron 185, which
will fit in the S939 board. And that, to me, is a vote in its
favor, compare to the S754. While you can buy a 3700+ for
the S754, the seller will ask a fortune for it. You could
probably get the Opteron 185 for the same or less money.
So in terms of upgrades, I'd rather have the S939, if I had to
choose between the S939 and S754.
Since I'm currently using my P4C800-E, and haven't used my
AthlonXP 3200+ for a while, that kind of tells you what choice
I made. The P4 with Hypethreading is just a tiny bit smoother in the
desktop, compared to the AMD. With the S939 board, you could
easily fix that with a dual core upgrade.
Paul
