Not impressed by my A64 3500+: so what's next?

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KoenraadB

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Apr 21, 2005
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Hi. I'm new to the community here, and I have to say some of the posts are really interesting! I hope to get some good advice on the following issue.

I had been working quite a while with my previous system (ASUS P4P800 Deluxe, P4 2.8GHz, s478, Corsair mem) when I decided to go for an Athlon64 3500+ based system.

I chose the following config: ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo, A64 3500+ Winchester core, Corsair mem. On neither system I did any overclocking.

I was never impressed however by the new system. In several cases I found my "old" system to be much more reactive then the new A64 system. I can't think of anything else other than Intel's HT to be the reason for that. Or was it the wrong choice of chipset?

Anyway I'm troubled now. I sold my A64 system already, but I'm not sure what to buy next. I read the CPU buyer's guide, but I'm looking for some real life experiences in this community!

Any suggestions? My system is used for basically everything. Gaming, video editing, surfing, burning, ... I typically work in a dual screen setup, so I tend to often have multiple things running in parallel.

Thanks for those that went throught the trouble of reading this so far ;-)
 
My friend had a system exactly as your intel one and is impressed by his new nforce4/3200+ system as it feel it more responsive and has almost cut 1:45 minute in a crunching apps on a 13:50 minutes job...

I guess it depend of the use you have from your sytem and if you were not impressed by your other system, keep what you have now. Or spend a big amount of money and get the hottest 3.6 Intel or FX AMD... but dont expect much more either...

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>
 
I have almost the exact setup you described and mine screams compared to the 3 Ghz P4 system I had. I suppose it's possible your issue was something other than the nature of the hardware. Maybe something was defective? Really slow HD? I can't make much more of a conclusion without actually seeing it run or knowing all the other variables. :smile:

<font color=green> AMD- Intel's choice for Best CPU manufacturer </font color=green>
 
Kind of off subject here Wusy, but ur link is pix to the 9800? And, you needed the HSF to keep it from exploding or what?


<font color=green> AMD- Intel's choice for Best CPU manufacturer </font color=green><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jmwpom3 on 04/20/05 05:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
Keep it cool after all the OC and modding he did to the card.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>
 
I think you picked the wrong MB but you should have seen about a 10% increase in FPS with a like video card anyway. 10% is no big deal? What did you expect?


Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
Thanks for all the feedback so far. When it comes to disk speed and memory: both machines had 2x80Gb Striped Maxtor 7200RPM RAID disks. The old one using Ultra133, the new one using SATA disks. The old machine had 512MB RAM, the new one 1GB RAM equal speed and both dual channel. The responsiveness mainly went down when one of the processes/programs was claiming 100% CPU time.
 
My brother has the same p4 setup as you and he also switched to an amd64-3500. He says his rig is much faster in all aspects. Dunno about your situation though. He is using it mostly for gaming. His benchmark scores are also much higher with his 64.

<font color=red><i>The problem lies between the back of the chair and the front of the keyboard.</i></font color=red> :wink:
 
Okay thanks all guys. I sold the Athlon system already, mainly because I wanted to get rid of some other components at the same time. I think I may go for the following setup: A64 3500+, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, Corsair 1 GB TWINX XLL PC3200, RAID 0 Maxtor Diamond Max 10 disks. I guess I can always upgrade to a dualcore at a later stage. From what I read the AMD dualcore would stay compatible with the s939 provided you do a BIOS upgrade.
 
thats whats happened to me, but from p4e to a64 3200 and wanted an NF4 but just happened to be in possesion of an x800pro
so i got the same mobo as you and i have also noticed some slower responses when running multiple programs, especially when alt-tabbing out of a game, aside from a HT and it being personaly a horrible motherboard bios to work with its likely a fragmentation problem, but i doubt you would have let that happen?

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great minds think alike, fools seldom differ...
 
BIOS update should make the board accept a dual core. From what I've read there are some workstation/server configs that the BIOS update won't work on, but for home PCs it should work.

What PSU? Case? Vid Card?

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>
 
I've got a CM Big Stacker Case. Current PSU is a FSP 350W. I guess this one might not be powerful enough depending on the video board. For my video board I'm not sure what to take. X800XT, X850XT PE, 6600GT SLI, 6800GT ... ?
 
What's wrong with ASUS boards?
I have a K8V SE Deluxe and it works fine.
Why do you say the DFI is better?

I'm not saying you're wrong I just want to know what to look for when I change my system.

Thanks in advance!
 
Best price/perf vid card on the streets right now is the X800XL. It doesn't OC very well, but is a great value at that price point (~$270USD). You can get a X800Pro (VIVO)at Newegg right now for $259 and if you get the right card it will OC to X800XT performance. The Egg also has an AGP 6800GT for $309, but if you're getting a new rig with PCIe, then the best option is the Pro or XL depending on how adventurous you are... :wink:

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>
 
Well I have always found that Intel Based Systems to be Faster and honestly i wouldnt beleive the THG benchmarks on the Prescott Processor.
 
Then find some benchmarks on another site. Whether you believe it or not, AMD rules the gaming arena right now.

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<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>
 
i wouldnt beleive the THG benchmarks on the Prescott Processor.
Click to expand...
Neither would I. THG is known to have an Intel leaning. Why else would they load only encoding benches that Intel does well in, and always include 3 benches from quak (also where intel does well).
Truth is, Intel has dropped the ball again. Not a big deal, they will be back.
 
The earlier K8V-SE boards had no way of locking the PCI or AGP buss down due to the VIA chipset. A real no-no for overclocking. The version 2 boards have a working lock. I hate buying MB's with broken stuff built in.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
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