2xAMD or 1xPentium?

[Tech53]

I'm going to be building a system soon that I will be using for everything(Linux, Solaris, Win2k, video/photo editing, gaming, networking) I have a budget that is $750 at the highest (this is based on what I think I'll make before vo-tech starts again) I don't have much software either
I need comments on what would be best for my tech needs and what would be best for my financial needs.
*tires of using a p166 that won't even run at 166mhz when overclocked* I plan on using a dual 2600 or 2800 w/266 fsb the lowest would be a 2400
or a p4 2.8 w/800mhz fsb.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Tech53 on 06/27/03 04:58 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Tech53]

Sorry, I was in a rush (public access) I left my info specs out. I edited the post so refer to the above post for specs.

 

[RivetHead]

Kinda curious, are you looking to assemble a whole system or are you more interested in the platform?

A dual AMD motherboard will run you about 500 bucks, plus the cost of the processors. That would be best if your planning running the system as a server, but the dual Socket A boards are very poor for gamming and video editing. So, for the variety of tasks you plan, your best bet would be to go with a P4 platform.

I am not an "Intel Boy" myself so I couldn't recommend any perticular boards.

With only a $750 budget you may be a bit tight on cash, I could see the all licenses for the software you plan to run costing that much. <g>

 

[Mephistopheles]

indeed. The Intel solution is the wisest choice in this case. You can get a rather inexpensive P4P800 mobo and a 2.8C, and that will actually be excellent for any task.

Also bear in mind that dual AMD-CPUs chipsets are inefficient and poorly designed. Because of that and because of hyperthreading technology, a 3.06Ghz, 533Mhz P4 on i850 will render at least as fast as two MPs 2000+ (I've seen benchmarks!) and that's saying something. Now imagine that you're getting an 800Mhz FSB beast with the 2.8C... and there you go.

 

[Crashman]

It would be cheaper to run a P4 3.0C on an Abit IS7 than to run 2 AMD MP2800+ processor on the more expensive MP board. A lot cheaper.

But your low budget doesn't allow for even that option.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Tech53]

WHERE are you buying parts?!!!?!?
I can get a dual amd board for 180$ USD on newegg.com
I can get a p4 2.8 Ghz w/800mhz fsb in the 200$ range
and can get the 2800+ barton mp w/266 mhz fsb for a little under the p4
That's just on one site.
Forget the price issue just tell which is better for performance.

 

[Mephistopheles]

the 2800+ barton will be trounced by the 2.8Ghz, 800Mhz FSB, if that is what you wanted to know.

What two MPs and dual AMD mobo can you get for the price of a P4P800 and a 2.8C?

Regardless of that, I think that going 2.8C is by far the better alternative for your purposes. Dual AMD chipsets suck at gaming anyway.

 

[Tech53]

Thanks.
Try <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A>
And I didn't mean two 2800's I meant one
any ways you can probably get a board and 2 2400s
or 2000s for the same price as an intel 2.8 c
all prices are from <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A>

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Tech53 on 06/28/03 04:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[kinney]

crashman (the only poster in this thread with any seniority over myself), is right. You need to consider other options realistically.

If you have a $750 budget, we don't know if you need a monitor.. and your going to need a case, PSU, everything then you better stick with the best deal available, price performance wise.
I'd suggest a $80 Athlon 2500+ Barton core, a loaded Nforce 2 motherboard ($120) including Nvidia SoundStorm and built in NIC, and built in GF4MX. Then get your ram, which I'd recommend two 512mb sticks of ddr400 ($200 for both from crucial), setup in dualddr.
You need a HD, one similar to mine is very good in price/performance ($100), a 8MB cache model get either western digital or maxtor.

See we're at $500 and we're not even done yet..

and believe me this system is NOT anything to spit on and its goign to be a very good performer. Intel 2.8 has created many new fanboys but you dont get the advantage of using a Nforce motherboard (hence saving a TON) and you also pay about double the price for a CPU alone. The 2.8 is good but your going to sacrifice in other areas to go that route with your budget. And the 2500+ isnt that far behind in my opinion to cry over, especially for the price. Its the cheapest Barton core with the extra cache.

Ok back to business, you are at $500, you need a case and HS/fan, a good Antec case is about $100 and a good HS is about $30.
We have $120 left and unfortunately we're stuck with the GF4MX, which will get you by until you can get ahold of a 9800 Pro or FX5900. But you gotta have a monitor and mouse/keyboard and a CD drive. You can get a good lite on, 17" monitor for that if you shop around.

If you dont need a monitor, I'd suggest putting all that money into saving for a good video card, if it was me, I would use the MX until I could afford something worthwhile, a 5900 preferably or a 9800 pro. Skip the middle of the road cards. I was considering a 9600pro/5600 for myself but your better off just saving the extra $100.. its not that much money and the performance difference is quite noticable.

Athlon 1700+, Epox 8RDA (NForce2), Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 80GB 8MB cache, 2x256mb Crucial PC2100 in Dual DDR, Geforce 3, Audigy, Z560s, MX500

 

[pIII_Man]

you must remember that 2 processers are 5-10 percent slower in a single application than a single processor of the same specs because of the added overhead...you may want to consider that.

 

[Crashman]

He was asking about dual MP2800's versus a single P4 2.8C, and the dually board alone puts the price much higher. In fact, dually boards are so expensive that he could get a 3.0C and IS7 for less than a dually board and two MP2800's.

His system budget only allows for a complete XP2500+ system (or similar), assuming he wants a good video card, hard drive, etc.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Mephistopheles]

(the only poster in this thread with any seniority over myself),

While I appreciate you stating your point, I do not appreciate this kind of behaviour.

According to this, I'll just have to keep my arguments to myself, because in this (irrelevant) virtual world/forum, I've posted less or equal than you or Crashman, so nothing I say can be wiser than any of you.

Isn't that notion just pathetic? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

BTW, I don't disagree with the rest of your post, I'm just a little intrigued by your rather childish remark up there.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Oh, and just one more note, your post concerned his budget, but he said we shouldn't worry about that. So that's what I did; and I asked him for how much could he actually get the dual AMD system in comparison to the Intel one. That is all.

And here's the quote:

Forget the price issue just tell which is better for performance.

 

[kinney]

It was simply because I noticed much fanboyism over intel in this thread with little regards to the reality of his situation.

And that if we find agreement there might be some wisdom there, because we were definitly in the minority in the thread on our ideas. But just happened to be the majority when it comes to longtime THQ forum users. It certainly wasnt intended to hurt anyones feelings or belittle anyone. Just possibly add weight to my view.
If you find that irrelevant, thats fine, but I just hoped to bring my view to the original poster's attention.

Not that you guys arent wise but he was the only one who noticed the 2.8 idea is a little far fetched for him. But I do understand, I also would (and do) want the 2.8 P4 (but I have no personal use for a new rig).

Athlon 1700+, Epox 8RDA (NForce2), Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 80GB 8MB cache, 2x256mb Crucial PC2100 in Dual DDR, Geforce 3, Audigy, Z560s, MX500

 

[soulprovider]

Basicly if you want the fastest then go Intel but it will cost you. AMD offers the best price/performance ratio.

If you want to play games in all their glory a good graphics card is needed regardless of Intel/AMD

You're going to want a minimum of 2 hard drives for all the things you want to do, large fast ones at that.

With that budget and not forgetting a case, PSU, Ram, software etc then I'd go for a single AMD Athlon XP based rig.

<b>Vorsprung durch Dontwerk</b>.....<i>as they say at VIA</i>

 

[Tech53]

Thanks for the input,
I have a 640x480 monitor
but that isn't too good for todays games and graphics.
Any way thanks. I just have some old stuff(I've never had anything new in the pc department or any other tech really)
Though I know my stuff from an educational point of view I don't know jack from experience with new stuff. I still really want to try the mp environment but you may be right about the budget deal. Maybe I'll save up for a Xeon system during school. Heck maybe I'll get lucky and get an opteron system(maybe I'm just dreamin')<A HREF="http://www.amd.com" target="_new">http://www.amd.com</A>

 

[sjonnie]

Dude, you need to go over to 2cpu.com if you want serious advice on a dual setup. You can get a nice MSI K7D Master-L board for $182, what most guys on a budget do now is buy XP processors and mod them to work as MPs. You can save a few bucks this way and your 2 XPs will still be cheaper than a 2.4GHz P4. Those extra bucks you can spend on 1GB of registered PC2700 DDR which gives you plenty of headroom for overclocking the XP FSB up to 150MHz with CL2.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A> 😎