between a rock & a hard drive

[DrJeckyl]

Hey....I'm building a system for a friend, and he's trying to decide between a P4 2.8 (northwood of course), and an Athlon 64 2800+. I told him that the performance of the 2 was nearly identical and so is the price, but he doesn't seem to want to take my word for it. It would be great if you all could leave your opinions here, and I will just send him here to read the damn thread so I can build the box already!
....feel free to leave comments for the dumbazz(him) also.

-- the Doc

8PENXP(Rev.2)
P4 2.8C@3.4
512mb Mushkin 3500 Level II@472 (2-2-2)
R9800Pro@463/380
(grrrr.....I fried this one)
WD 80gb(SE)x2(RAID 0)

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Athlon64 2800+ is a better and more future-proof choice. Unless the most imortant task of his PC is encoding video, Athlon64 is the CPU to buy

------------
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[TheRod]

Definetly the Athlon 64!

You get 64bit support for future OS and apps. and gaming performance is better with the Athlon 64. And he will have the opportunity to upgrade to Athlon 64 3700+ in the future.

But, I must admit that the P4C is not a bad choice, but in the actual context/market the Athlon 64 have an edge!

--
It's tricky to use words like <b><font color=green>AMD</font color=green></b> or <b><font color=blue>Intel</font color=blue></b> in a signature some users could think your are biased.

 

[Snorkius]

The A64 is much cooler...

Tempurature cooler, not the other cooler.

<font color=blue>The day <font color=green>Microsoft</font color=green> will make something that doesn't suck is the day they'll start making vacuum cleaners.</font color=blue>

 

[DonnieDarko]

I like my 2800+. Works great for games. And a p4 barely has any encoding video edge over the a64 in most programs.

AMD64 2800+
MSI Neo-Fis2r
512mb Kingmax ddr400
Sapphire 9800pro 128mb
10K WD Raptor

 

[DrJeckyl]

Yeah, thanx for the posts. The performance of the 2 is actully very very close. Especially since he's not going to be overclocking. He'll be using this system mainly for gaming and general home office use. (snorkius)Also, the temp. of the A64 is actually not cooler than a P4C(this stat also being close). You are probably thinking about Scotty....
As for having an advantage because of the 64bit architecture, there really isn't one right now. Your 64bit options are either linux (which isn't an option for the purpose of this computer), and a version of windows that isn't even out yet(only beta). Now, having an advantage in games I agree with, and I told him this. I also told him we can get a free copy of Farcry with the A64. Hopefully these facts, and your posts will push him to a decision.
The Athlon socket is changing, so he will only have 1 upgrade tier possible, and by the time this guy upgrades he won't be looking for something to fit this system anyways. Of course the P4 is also changing sockets (with the new option(scotty) not really being an option at the time). All of this brings us back to, he just needs to choose one, damn it! :tongue:

-- the Doc

8PENXP(Rev.2)
P4 2.8C@3.4
512mb Mushkin 3500 Level II@472 (2-2-2)
R9800Pro@463/380
(grrrr.....I fried this one)
WD 80gb(SE)x2(RAID 0)

 

[Snorkius]

The Cool'n'Quiet technology makes it much cooler most of the time, and I would buy it for that reason alone...

<font color=blue>The day <font color=green>Microsoft</font color=green> will make something that doesn't suck is the day they'll start making vacuum cleaners.</font color=blue>

 

[TheRod]

Even if you think 64bit is not important right, it will be soon! FarCry dev. team will support AMD64 in a future patch (this means taht id and Valve will surely work on AMD64 patch too) and Windows XP 64bit will not be released in 3 years. It will be released in 2005. This mean that your buddy will have the opportunity to install it without having to change anything to his computer.

The choice is obvious, if you want a gaming machine, AMD is the way to go. AMD clearly outperforms Intel in most games.

AMD will not change socket soon. Socket754 will stay for quite some time, but for low/mid-end market and Socket939 will stay for a long time. The main problem right now for all the platform except the new Intel LGA775 is that they don't support PCI-EXPRESS. I really want to upgrade my gaming PC too by the end of the summer, but I'm a bit concerned about the fact that PCI-EXPRESS MB will probably not be available for AMD64. This thing alone starts to bug me, a few months ago, it was not a concern. But, now, we know that ATI and nVidia will have complete PCI-EXPRESS line-up by the end of the year. Of course, AGP is still alive, but what if I want to upgrade my GPU in late 2005 and there is no viable AGP solution available? I will end up buying a new MB!

The PC market is faster than us!!!

--
It's tricky to use words like <b><font color=green>AMD</font color=green></b> or <b><font color=blue>Intel</font color=blue></b> in a signature some users could think your are biased.

 

[DrJeckyl]

Yes, I'm not even concerned about the changes in DDR & graphics card tech. for this guys build. This box will be MUCH better than what he has now and be sufficient for his needs for quite some time.
Now, for my personal box, I would not be upgrading right now or even this year most likely. The problem is not only do we have new tech, but when new tech comes out, you don't want to use it until all the bugs have been worked out.
I'll wait until next year at least before upgrading my personal box.
Anyways, thanx for the posts guys.....

-- the Doc

8PENXP(Rev.2)
P4 2.8C@3.4
512mb Mushkin 3500 Level II@472 (2-2-2)
R9800Pro@463/380
(grrrr.....I fried this one)
WD 80gb(SE)x2(RAID 0)

 

[Cybercraig]

I'm sure your buddy will make the INTELligent choice. Given the option of a 3000+ I would go AMD. I'm not sure the 2800+ could stay with me. It might just get hammered! :lol:

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4 - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, MSI!