Athlon64 vs P4 1

[braddds]

I'm building a system (gaming) for a friend and was looking at the athlon64 cpu as a possible purchase. However I have no experience with this setup and was wondering what, if anything, to watchout for, ie: setup, compatability, OS restrictions, etc.

I've already scoped out a pretty good P4 system if there is no real advantages or there too many issues with the athlon64.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, thx!

Cheers

 

[noellees1]

AMD 64s will be amazingly fast, but from what ive seen about the technology is new so the motherboards, ram etc still arnt optimised for it there are some but their pricey, id stick with the P4 or something like a 3200+ AMD Athlon

 

[braddds]

I can see a real price difference if I go with the "Athlon 64 FX-51" cpu. However, when I compare the Athlon 64 3200+ 1MB cache and motherboard with a P4 3.20 800 FSB /HT with motherboard then the athlon64 is better priced! Only if I drop down to a P4 2.80 or 3.00, does the prices even out somewhat.

So pricewise I see an advantage to go with the athlon64. As for optimization of the ram, etc. the new boards at least use the latest hardware. Tests have proven that the athlon 64 and P4 are on par, scores wise, which is why I was looking at the Athlon64 as a better priced alternative to Intel.

What I'm looking for is info for the athlon64 regarding everyday useage and compatibility issues that might sway me one way or another.

Cheers

 

[teknikal]

Compatibility with existing applications shouldn't be an issue. I think the only thing that might come into play for you is the system's upgradability.

If I've heard right, the Athlon64 Socket 940 motherboards aren't really standardized yet to support later versions of the CPU. In other words, there's speculation that by this time next year, a second and possibly third type of socket will exist for the Athlon64 making the current one obsolete for upgrading.

The next big planned release is the Socket 939 due out in the middle of this year, which will add support for PCI Express. 939 and 940 won't be compatible, meaning that Athlon64's will have to be made for each. Therefore, AMD will have to phase out Socket 940 CPU's sooner than one might expect. However, AMD supposively has given their "guarantee" that at least two or three faster versions of the 940 will be released in tandem with newer Socket 939's. Then just like that, the Socket 940 chipset will be obsolete.

Then again, one has to wonder how close the P4 and P4EE procs are to the end of the line. Prescott is due out here anytime now. So perhaps AMD's Athlon64 still has the upper hand. Nevertheless, it's definitely worth considering.

 

[braddds]

Thanks teknikal

Great info regarding the upgradability for the current athlon 64 motherboards...this has always been a major consideration for me when choosing my own system...and now has me leaning towards the P4 system with winXP and a SATA RAID "0" for the performance...as this is a gaming system!

Definately worth a star!

Any other info or opinions? All are welcome!



Cheers

 

[noellees1]

A bit off topic but what sort of graphics card are you going to get for this pc ? and are you getting a pre-modded case or are you planning on making a cool looking PC. I like the Thermaltake cases

 

[braddds]

Hi noellees

I'm leaning towards the (GeForce) MSI FX5900XT video but haven't ruled out ATI's Radeon 9800 pro card (though this is a little higher + $100). As for the case I'm going with an all black Lian Li PC-61 (all-aluminum and tool-less) with a Zalman ZM-400A APF 400W Noiseless Power Supply.

And in keeping with the "all black" theme all the drives and externals will be black, including a 19" AG Neovo E-19A LCD (15 ms responce time with glass filter) a real gaming LCD screen (no ghosting).

Since the system is for a friend he wanted something tasteful in appearence but screemin' under the hood!

Cheers

 

[noellees1]

Sounds like an awsome machine i could start a whole new topic on the ultimate machine. But that setup, as far as i see will far surpass any game for a few years to come but i would go for the Pentium or something with a motherboard that will be 'future-proofed' okay strickly this isnt possible but after reading teknikal's post i wouldnt go down that particually AMD 64 route because of the possible problems of the MOBO being phased out quickly meaning parts dwindle with it

 

[braddds]

True, future proofing is a bit of a slipery game...but you can hedge your bets with some research and asking the right questions in a forum such as this! There are always people more up-to-date and better read, it's just a matter of seeking them out. However, as for games surpassing this rig, I read in one review for the athlon 64, "Halflife 2" may include code optimized for 64 bit...so the future has a way of sneeking up on you!

Cheers