which cpu should i buy?

[amdark]

im going away to college next fall and i want to build a comp over the summer. im trying to decide which processor i should purchase. i have narrowed the playing field down to 3. im looking for opinions on what is the right buy, the amd64 3200+, northwood p4 3.0, or the prescott p4 3.0. apparently amd's are better for gamers which i am, but the intel's are cheaper in respect to the 64's and run cooler. then i have also debating if i should go prescott for the extra 512k in cache. my first choice overall would have been the amd64 3400+ but its just too much money.

at newegg-
amd64 3200+ 270$
p4 northwood 3.0 209$
p4 prescott 3.0 211$

please only give me your opinion if u have used these cpu's, im realy not looking for another amd intel debate.
and if u know of a place i can get these babies cheap let me know, thanks

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by amdark on 06/03/04 02:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Cybercraig]

Axion Technologies has some OEM P4 2.8C Northwoods for $144.00. You won't find a better deal than that anywhere. I would personally build an A64 right now if I was you, but an overclocked 2.8C is quite fast, stable, and cheaper.

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[P4Man]

that is an odd selection you have. Why did you leave out the $205 A64 3000+ (or the $265 P4 3.2) ? Its like asking should I buy a Mercedes C for $25.000 or a BMW 7 for $100.000..

Anyway, I would definately go for the A64. If the 3200+ is stretching your budget, i'm sure you'll be quite happy with a 3000+, its barely slower.

>please only give me your opinion if u have used these
>cpu's, im realy not looking for another amd intel debate.

Ha, lol. Maybe you should have asked another question then ? And precious few people would buy both a A64 and a ~3 GHz P4.

>and if u know of a place i can get these babies cheap let
>me know, thanks

Pricewatch, dealtime,..

BTW, you're slightly misinformed, or misstated your question, as A64s definately do not run hotter than P4's. Quite on the contrary. Fully loaded, an A64 PC consumes roughly 60W less than a comparable P4 based one <A HREF="http://hardware.fr/articles/496/page3.html" target="_new"> link </A>.

And if you decide for the P4, get Northwood. The extra cache of prescott doesn't fully offset the performance penalty the longer pipeline introduces. Check some reviews and you'll see what I mean. Add in the fact that prescott is terribly hot (literally), and its probably about the last cpu I'd consider nowadays. A64 should be on top of your list though, unless you happen to run some apps like Cinema4D all day long that are heavily optimized for P4.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[baldurga]

Well, if cost really worries you, why you don't just switch to A64 3000+? The only difference are half L2 cache, but A64 are far less sensitive than P4 cores. That will drop CPU cost to $223.



Still looking for a <b>good online retailer</b> in Spain :frown:

 

[Zeekfu]

dang it p4man that site is in French. How the heck am I supposed to read that?
We all know that the whole world should speak English, lol. And by the way what is up with that danged metric system anyway?

*The views hereby expressed most certainly do not reflect the opinion of my ex-wife.

 

[P4Man]

You don't need to know a whole of french to read this table, do you ?

- Athlon XP 3200+ : 192 Watts
- Athlon 64 3400+ Socket 754 2.4 GHz / 512 Ko : 163 Watts
- Athlon 64 3400+ Socket 754 2.2 GHz / 1024 Ko : 165 Watts
- Athlon 64 3800+ Socket 939 : 169 Watts
- Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 939 : 165 Watts
- Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 940 : 166 Watts
- Pentium 4 3.4C GHz : 191 Watts
- Pentium 4 3.4E GHz : 227 Watts
- Pentium 4 3.4 EE GHz : 217 Watts

power measured at outlet, running prime95

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Zoron]

At least you can say the metric system is based on constants... also base 10. Superior to the Imperial system in every way. The US is the only slow adopter.

:tongue:

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[Zeekfu]

The standard system is more accurate and in a way more logical.
The metric is nice because it is base 10 I'll admit, but since I don't know it very well, blah.

peace
*Things would be much simpler if the whole world spoke english and used the correct measurement system. *

But hey, if I worked for nasa and was planning to put an explorer module on the moon I would probably kick anyone that perfered the metric system out of the program so I wouldn 't get confused.

(Please know that I am goofin' off here. The opinions expressed herin are not necessarily representative of nasa, the U.S. population, or the united nations.



****If the side effects of a medication are shortness of breath, anxiety and thirst perhaps people should ask their doctors if he would switch them over to deep breathing, walks and glass of water instead.***<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Zeekfu on 06/04/04 03:25 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Zeekfu]

I was more or less just goofin', bro.
But is that power input or thermal output? Also the prescott is using/putting out more watts. The 60 watt diff is only in the case of prescot, right?
Help a noobster out here and clue me in on those two different athlon 64 3400+ are they made with different cache speeds just to make everything *more* confussing?
Is one of em oced? if so why is it running cooler than the other one by two degrees? So yea actually I guess if I knew French and could read the article for myself it probably would help. Don't get me wrong bro, I like the French. I just wish they spoke english.

 

[P4Man]

>But is that power input or thermal output?

Ahem.. any electical power you put in, comes out thermally But its measured at the outlet, so includes power consumed by the PSU itselve, as well as all the other components. But hey, since those consume power just as well, it also gets converted to heat and billed on your electricity bill

>The 60 watt diff is only in the case of prescot, right?

Yes, P4E is prescott, P4C is Northwood, P4EE is the "extreme edition " with 2Mb L3 cache.

>are they made with different cache speeds just to make
>everything *more* confussing?

Not really, if you're a self proclaimed noobster, all you need to know is the rating. Wether that is achieved with 512 Kb or 1 Mb, or at what clockspeed is pretty much irrelevant. the rating (within the A64 family) is consistent, if its the same number, they perform (nearly) identical.

>Is one of em oced?

No

> if so why is it running cooler than the other one by two
>degrees

Its not degrees, its watt. apparantly the extra cache burns more power than the higher clockspeed (somewhat suprising IMHO) while achieving roughly the same performance, but then these numbers are close enough to be within margin of error, so i wouldnt pay attention realy.

> So yea actually I guess if I knew French and could read
>the article for myself it probably would help

Point was just that the A64 consumes considerably less power than a P4, even Northwood.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by P4Man on 06/04/04 04:55 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Zeekfu]

Cool thanks for breaking it down, bro.