AMD vs Pentium

Skenkl

Skenkl

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Hey

I'm currently saving up the pennies to build a new PC base unit and the biggest decision seems to be wether to go for an AMD or Pentium 4.

My PC before this, before it got knicked was a pentium 4, wasn't the best computer in the world coz it was built by my mate and was never really a beast as I think some of the components didn't like each other, but i'm not gonna make that mistake this time.

I'm not that much of a computer geek, just wonder if you lot had an preferences/experiences that you could sling my way.

I'm gonna be using it for general computer work, doing some CAD, which involves some quite large 3D rendering sometimes, Adobe photoshopy stuff, and hopefully when I get some spare time, writing tunes, so running cubase, wavelab and probably reason. M-audio PCI soundcard and a USB keyboard.

Any thoughts recommendations be gratefully received

:)
 
TBH there isn't much in it (*looks over shoulder*). Personally ill go for AMD for the forseeable future because they are cheaper. But dual core is on the horizon and Intel dual core chips are cheaper than AMD dual core (Though AMD dual core is better engineered).

If you are going for a single core system, however ... go for a good Athlon 64. It is better and cheaper than the equivalent intel (plain and simple). Memory is cheaper for AMD systems as well (DDR vs DDR-2) and not really any slower ... despite the DDR-2 being clocked higher.

Thats my opinion anyway :)
 
imo AMD all the way............the only problem with them is they are a bit fearsome to fit to the motherboard, but the new Athlon64s dont have this problem, as they use a dainty little lever, so you dont have to put your whole weight on the tip of a screwdriver and wrestle the chip in anymore. AMD are cheaper, run cooler than the new p4s, and the motherboards are cheaper too. Not much difference in power at the mo, as nothing has been released for 64 bit technology yet, so buying an Athlon64 wont be buying you much more crunching power, but Windows64 is already in beta, so it wont be long.........

However, I havent used AMD stuff for music, but I have for 3d studio Max/MAya etc.....and its fine with them...

Anyone had any problems with AMD stuff with music programs??
 
I have an Athlon 64 in my laptop and it eats everything i throw at it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Including games (half-life 2 at full detail) and Photoshop stuff, i've yet to try cubase out on it but dealing with 1gb plus wav files in soundforge is a doddle!!! AMD all the waaaay :rocker:
 
I've always used AMD and I swear by them.


Drat Mafia said:
...and the motherboards are cheaper too.
Click to expand...

Can you recommend me a good current mobo for an AMD cpu?

Prefer without onboard sound and without onboard video.

I'm running a ASUS A7-V 333 with a Athlon XP2000+ at the moment and its super reliable - but a bit wheezy and long in the tooth for some of the synths I like to use.
 
I recommend not getting an MSI motherboard. I've had problems with mine and know of a few other people who have had problems with theirs'. The tech support sucks and they never update their drivers.
 
hmmm not easy to find without onboard sound of some kind............easy to disable tho.

Well if you want to keep with the AthlonXP chipset, Abit make very good motherboards for them and are dirt cheap now, one to look out for is the NF-7, very good, no problems with accepting other soundcards/graphics cards.

As for Athlon64, I may have to phone a friend on that one, havent had enough experience with them to be completely happy recommending you one, though I'd probably go with Asus (or Gigabyte maybe).......

I'd say if your motherboard is up to scratch still, see if theres any of the old AthlonXP Bartons going cheap, as they are still very fast, and then wait for the 64bit/dual processor technology to take off a bit first......
 
nope had a look, your motherboard FSB runs at 2700, which means although you will be able to fit one of the fast AthlonXPs, your system will be forced to run only as fast as the slowest component....i.e the motherboard, so it wont help too much. Your RAM is also likely to be FSB 2700 as well, and as the standard now is 3200, if you dont have RAM that can run at that speed, you may want to buy some of the faster stuff if you upgrade in the future. £28 for 512megs of DDR3200 from www.tekheads.co.uk last time I looked.
 
Oh - one other thing - I need 5xPCI slots.

:)

Thanx for info. Will investigate.
 
Another plus for AMD over Intel is that they try to keep the same sockets from one cpu to the next. Intel's history on sockets is change with amost every cpu, which means new mobo if you want to upgrade.
 
I personally love Intel, you pay over the top for it, but hey...

I wouldn't but a non Hyper threading P4, But I've got a new P4 3.0Ghz Hyper Threading (Dual) machine at work and it is a flyer for sure!!

As long a you buy Motherboard and Memory matching the highest FSB you can get, it will be fine.
 
yep so do I. It would make sense financially to stick with AthlonXP if he had a decent spec motherboard, but if youre gonna have to upgrade that, you may as well go the whole hog and move to Athlon64.


Oh and btw, another reason to get an AMD is that with p4s Cubase sometimes doesent release the resources its using when a track is stopped....leading to system crashes with only one VST, or an effect thats partial to making it do this. As I have discovered all this morning :)
 
Does anyone know if XP64 is out then?? what are the advantages and is it worth investing in if I have a 64bit processor
 
Spank said:
Does anyone know if XP64 is out then?? what are the advantages and is it worth investing in if I have a 64bit processor
Click to expand...

Yes its out. But you can't buy it. You can upgrade an existing XP32 licence to 64 ... but thats it. People are well miffed with microsoft that you can't just buy XP64 ... great for us home PC builders :(

However be VERY sure you can get all the 64-bit drivers ... many companies haven't supplied them yet. Also XP64 is slower than XP32 at running 32-bit applciations (ie the vast majority). Not a lot slower .. but slower.

At the moment i can't see the point in upgrading ... unless you want to get better draw distances and bump mapping in Far cry ... or, of course, if you are developing 64-bit apps ...
 
Spank said:
Does anyone know if XP64 is out then?? what are the advantages and is it worth investing in if I have a 64bit processor
Click to expand...
I downloaded and installed the beta version form microsoft and ran it on my d drive. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluation/trial.mspx I would say that it was veru beta "this version of windows is not compatible with Direct X " and so on so I took it of again pretty soon. I don't know how long it will be befor the full version comes out but if it's not rady to run
Dirext-X yet it could be a way off.
 
Ott^ said:
Oh - one other thing - I need 5xPCI slots.

:)

Thanx for info. Will investigate.
Click to expand...
desparate to get all your cards in then.
the MSI KT4 mother boards have 6 PCI slots but I don.t know how well the rest of the board meets your needs.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/msikt400/
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=KT4_Ultra-FISR
and there is a couple on here
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,114620,findid,41836,00.asp
 
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