Intel P4 506 or comparable AMD?

tenaciousleydead

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Dec 6, 2004
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i need to decide between a P4 506(2.66Ghz) or an AMD, the pentium is cheaper on one hand as i only have about 170.0 dollers and the 2.66 is know to overclock easily past 3.4Ghz. i couldnt find an athlon 64(939) for less than 169.0(3200+). Any ideas? or should i just stick with my first idea of the Pentium? Thank You.
 
why would i get a 3500 lol? i have a 3200 oced to over 4000+ speeds. i just wanted to try something different, and i heard pentiums are better at folding. plus the only other solution for price being under 170(thats including ram) is going socket 754. i do not plan to upgrade this is an as is system for its entire life. heres my list

pentium 4 506(2.6Ghz)+Mobo 100.0
Corsair Value Select 512Mb 35.00
Spire SP-507B7 22.99
Artic cooling 18.00(for hot 9800Pro)
176.00
all from newegg.com
and i am selling my duron rig for 170.0

the only future upgrade woul probably be another 512Mb of ram.
but if you can find a comparable(or better) system for under 180.0 i check it out. Thank You.
 
As far as Folding goes, Intel users no longer are getting the insane amount of points they used to get.

After a long flamewar that spanned across multiple (deleted or locked) threads, the Pande Group decided to remove WUs based on the QMD core (even though they officialy say that they were done collecting data).

QMD WUs were only handed to Intel CPU due to Intel cheating with their compilers and libraries and taking advantage of an abusive EULA.

If you really want to go with Intel to experience something different, here is a nice Intel Pentium 4 simulator :

1- Get and AMD system
2- Unscrew the fan from the heatsink
3- Put the fan on the bottom of your case, the vibrations generated by the loose fan will complete the illusion.

Here you go ! Your AMD system will now be just as loud and prone to overheating as a Genuine Intel system would be !
 
ok well any suggestions on what kind of AMD to get? i only have 170 dollers i spent 210 on my 3200+mobo and my other money source is going twords a 7800GT. i saw a AMD 3000+(venice) 754 with mobo on tigerdirect for 169.99 will the 754 cripple it? and does the 754 have dual channel ram? ill look up some benches and see what happens. any suggestions are welcome.
 
S754 doesn't have dual channel memory so it's performance would be more limited. The cheapest AMD S939 is the A64 3000+ which sells for $131.26 right now.

http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?affid=305&item=G08139

The problem with the 506 is that it doesn't include HT which is critical to Prescott's performance. As well, even if you overclock it the base FSB is still very limited when you start at 533MHz so you're still going to be bandwidth limited.

The Intel equivalent of the A64 3000+ would be the 531. It sells for only $142.14 right now and is actually cheaper than the 520.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=P4_531

Oh, I just noticed something. My best recommendation for you would be to get a 805D which has just been released. It's a dual core processor running at 2.66GHz with 1MB of L2 cache per core. What's even better is that it's only $145 putting it in the same price range as the A64 3000+ and the 531D. If you want good folding performance, dual core is the way to go and this one is cheap. These are actually 8xx parts that can't run stably at 800MHz FSB and so use a 533MHz FSB. However, this does not mean their maximum net clock speed is limited and they retain all the features such as 64-bit support and EIST. In fact, they have been tested to up to 3.7GHz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116001
 
I have a s754 3200 @ 2.45ghz, and a s939 3200 @ 2.5 ghz. Bothe are folding 24/7 The s939 is marginally faster, but mostly because the s754 is an older chip, and cant OC as well. The 754 chip available now are venice chips, with dual channel disabled. I guess that answers your second question.
The s754 chips lack the # of pins required for dual channel support.
Since the s754 chips start 200mhz faster, you may be able to get a serious OC with the higher mutiplier. As far as comparing that chip to the Intel offering, there is no way the Intel chip could keep up.
 
yeah that dual core does look pretty awesome, i think ill wait for the benchmarks. i guess i can spend a little more, anyone know the performance of these compared to the a64s? Thank You.
 
but i guess you also have to consider that im running a 9800pro and the proc would be highly bottlenecked, i didnt plan on building a new system that could compete but an older one that would run all of last years games. in dual core games like COD2 would the Pentium D be way better?
 
I picked up my 3700+ for around ~$200 US a few months ago off of ebay. If you never plan on upgrading the machine then 754 is the only way to go. Cheap and 90% of the speed you'd get from any 939 chip.
 
If the games you play support dual core processors the difference can be drastic. In fact with the latest dual core patch in Quake 4, the 820D is actually faster than the FX-57.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2668&p=8
The chart at the bottom.

In terms of COD2, although the dual core patch is out people have actually noticed decreased performance with it. They obviously have some kinks to work out.

Even in single threaded games, the performance should be acceptable especially if you plan on overclocking. You won't beat the latest high-end dual cores, but it should be fine.

My concern for you is that 9800Pro. That's an AGP card while almost all the Intel motherboards nowadays are PCIe based. You probably will have problems finding a AGP motherboard, especially one that supports dual core processors. AMD's platform has also switched to PCIe although they may have more AGP options available.

The 805D actually wasn't supposed to be released until March, but Intel decided to quietly launch it early. There aren't many benchmarks out yet and the only one I know of is the one from HKEPC. You'll need a translator though.

http://www.hkepc.com/hwdb/pd-805-1.htm
 
more like 99%... compare 2 of the same chip on each socket, the dual channel doesnt slow the chip down at all.. barely slowler in real life apps... its faster in benchmarks i think... i have a 3700+ on socket 754 and am not regretting it at all, although i do regret getting an agp board since i really want an x1900xt 🙁
 
that looks good itd be pretty good for future games with that support. i wish amd would come out with a cheaper dual core, i would definentally buy that.
im still waiting on stalker and thats basically what this second system is for, the 9800Pro will run everything max im sure. but with the 506 there are a ton of them going with those asus av whatever with agp support thats why i was looking at those first i think its a via chipset for 100. i dont have enough money for an opty or 3200 :cry: i guess ill see whatever comes in cheaper but with the pentium d 805(145) i would have to get a mobo(50) aftermarket cooling(30) ram(35). i think im pretty much at a dead end route, ill see if i cant scrounge up some money. i was just thinking somthing better than my duron, which i now hate with a passion, i would keep it if it installed windows properly.
 
yes i know thank you 😀 i think there was some kind of blowout sale at frys lol, ill have to go check it out and see how much they ACCTUALLY are retail. o i think i saw an amd 3200+mobo at frys for like 120.0 if i could find something like that again i would jump on it.
 
If the games you play support dual core processors the difference can be drastic. In fact with the latest dual core patch in Quake 4, the 820D is actually faster than the FX-57.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2668&p=8
The chart at the bottom.

That test is not telling the truth. You don't play at those FPS, you increase your graphical detail until you have about 50-70FPS on average, and by then the difference between the cpus is gone since the graphic card will be the bottleneck. I've seen other sites (think it was firingsquad) that tested the dual core patch at higher settings and there was no difference at all.
 
o trust me it hasent even hit its limit yet :twisted: 2.5(250Mhz FSB) stock voltage completely stable. yes for a 120 dollers id jump on it i spent nrealy 200 for my current mobo and a320064. i just need to find something better than my curent duron.
 
well then if thats' what your doing i'd stick with what you know and get another 3200, or maybe a 3700 cause i like it lol, instead of taking the leap into the pile of shit that i intel.

ps, i'm not a fanboy, but AMD's been owning intel for so long now its hard to like them.
 
yeah i know what ya mean. the only pentium ive had was my p2 400 😀 then got my amd athlon 1.0 rest is history. i still love that pentium though it runs very well for being 8 years old. i just know how to take care of my comps. my next upgrade was to get a nforce 4 board with pci-express and a 7800GT i think ill wait for a price drop after the 7900 comes out though(hopefully 200 or less 😛 ). id oc higher if my mobo supported it :evil: cap is 2Ghz (250Mhz)
anyone know about any bios mods? that would be awesome, Thank You.