new pc suggestions? P4 or AMD?
 

hey guys,

it's time for a new pc... but i havent been keeping upto date on hardware... so i need some suggestions...

i'm going with a 200G 16mb Hd to start...
and a 800Xl pcie video card...

just need some input on a cpu/mobo combo...
probably wont overclock... but if you know of a good overclocking combo that will work fairly well with stock cooling then certainly let me know...

i've heard AMD has an edge for gaming... and i will be playing battlefield2! it just came out!

but i will also be doing photo editing, web stuff, so multitasking is important as well, in which P4s have the edge...

somebody help me!! :mrgreen:

For you, I would go AMD.

I have heard nothing but good things about this MB:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...anufacture=DFI

AMD forsure.

Walter

AMD my friend, the bang per buck is ten times better, and well i just hate the Intel world lol

AMD you get what you pay for..

AMD. The 64's are currently the best chips on the market. The new P4's are having major heat issues.

A note of interest, both Lucas studios and Pixar studios dumped every one of their P4's about 4 months ago and bought brand new AMD's.

They definately have my vote. lol

you backstabber Gerald! Lets see how much tech suport you get next time you call the warehouse!!!

/me stomps off to the corner to pout a bit.....

OK, so if i go AMD 64 3000+ thats rated 1.8Ghz... but am i right in assuming that the chip is supposed to be comparable to a 3.0Ghz rated P4 chip?

For AMD i've heard i should look for a 'Venice' chipset...

$206.39 for a 3000+ 1.8G
$268.58 for a 3200+ 2.0G
$377.42 for a 3500+ 2.2G

i can see that the rated speeds of the chips arent that different, but is there a particular chip i should get... i know some chips outperform others and can be overclocked better etc.

thanks again.

Don't worry about the actual clock speed anymore. Its pretty much irrelevent now a days. As all the new chips (both P4's and AMD's) are 64 bit, their internal architecture makes slower chips run faster. Always go by their rating. So you are correct in your assumption that an AMD 64 3000+ = a P4 64 3.0.

I don't think there is a huge difference in which chip you get. They all perform very similar. Some lends themselves to overclocking nicer than others. The FX is an AWESOME (currently teh fastest chip on the market) chip but at about $900.00 way over priced.

Just base what you need to buy on user rating.

A 64bit for a processor is really quite powerfull since most program only needed 16bit and even the latest program out in the market uses only 32 bit.

And so far the only program known that uses the capacity of a 64bit processor is the new OS Microsoft is developing and even them hasn't been able to use the full capacity of a 64bit processor all they manage to do is speed up the reaction time when you click the start menu.

And if you need a Computer that will be best for photo editing, web stuff, and other multimedia stuff nothing beats the Mac.

Even the old G4 processor in mac will beat P4 and AMD if your talking about multimedia.

ok, this is what i've pretty much decided on...
let me know if you have any suggestions or think ishould change anything...

-THERMALTAKE TSUNAMI VA3400 ALUMINUM CASE 4X5.25 2X3.5 5X3.5INT 400W SILVER MIRRORED

-AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ PROCESSOR S939 VENICE 1.8GHZ 512K L2 CACHE 90NM RETAIL BOX

-DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 ULTRA-D MOTHERBOARD ATX S939 NFORCE4 ULTRA DDR 2PCI-E16 PCI-E4 PCI-E1 2PCI

-CORSAIR VALUE SELECT DUAL CHANNEL 1024MB KIT PC3200 DDR CAS2.5 2X512MB

-MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX 10 200GB 7200RPM 16MB 9MS SATA OEM HARD DRIVE

-ATI RADEON X800 XL PCI-E 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 DVI TV-OUT OEM VIDEO CARD

-1.44MB BLACK 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE

-BENQ DW1620 PRO DVD+-RW 16X4X16 DUAL-LAYER+R 4X BLACK IDE OEM W/ SW

-LOGITECH LX 700 CORDLESS DESKTOP KEYBOARD & OPTICAL RECHARGABLE MOUSE USB PS/2

Recommend an LG DVDRW over the benq. We have seen lots of issues with the benq DVDRW's and 64 bit CPU's.

Also Recommend ANY harddrive over a Maxtor. Lots of them dying lately. Grab a pair of Samsung 120GB SATA's instead. That way youv'e got 2 drives as well.

I havea AMD 64 3000 with 512megs, Radeon 9550 . my brother got me a smoking deal where he has a computer company that he builds in Victoria, really good prices. give me a PM and i will forward you his number to call for a quote.

mike.

I will beg to differ with this, I have a friend that owns a graphic design studio and last year he dumped the Mac and went AMD across the board (23 computers). there reason is because the Mac software development has slowed and the amd/ibm computer hardware has caught up so there is no more difference, except for the fact Mac is trying to push small and cute now instead of power.

Steve

i also agree that mac's don’t cut the mustard for graphics work anymore. i use a p4 simply for cheap raw processing power. my boss even has a sweet dual g5 with a few gigs of ram that he basically turned into a mp3 server because its slow and OSX is cumbersome to use. if i was buying a new workstation today it would definably be AMD 64 bit.

ended up getting
3200+ 'venice' 2.0G
asus a8n-e
1G kingston hyperX dual channel ram (2 x512)
1G Corsair valueselect dual channel ram (2 x 512)

anyone have tips for overclocking? i have no clue, i've just bumped it up to 2.4G for now [240 *10]

oh yeah battlefield2 is wicked!