Re: AMD's Athlon64 or Intel's P4?

From: Nico Kadel-Garcia (nkadel_at_comcast.net)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 22:09:07 -0400

<ANTant@zimage.com> wrote in message
news:DJmdnVpdlZX63dvcRVn-qw@mminternet.net...
> Hello. I am planning to upgrade my computer system in a few weeks. I am
> going to replace its motherboard, CPU, and memory. You can view my
> current primary/gaming system on
> http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt ...
>
> I am planning to keep all my old parts except sound card, RAM, CPU, and
> motherboard. Now, the question is which CPU and which motherboard (was
> an ASUS person in the past) do I want to get. From brief researches from
> reading benchmarks, AMD Athlon64 seems like a good choice for a gaming
> system. I read that Intel P4 CPUs does a better job with video stuff
> which I rarely do (mostly cropping and encoding with DivX).
>
> Also, I plan to replace my old SB Live! Platinum (without its LiveDrive)
> to an Audigy2 (good EAX) or maybe a M-Audio Revolutions (probably not
> due to weak EAX emulation).
>
> Also, I will be installing Debian with Windows XP Pro to replace Red Hat
> Linux 7.2. Yes, I do game in Linux with old games like Q3A, RTCW, ET,
> etc.
>
> Mainly, this upgrade is for gaming. The newest games are starting to show
> my system's age like DOOM 3, Far Cry, etc. I do not overclock and my
> setup must be able to survive in a 85+ degrees(F) room (AC is weak,
> upstair room, and Southern CA's heat waves). Heat is a big issue for me.
>
> Any suggestions on what I should get for my upgrade is welcomed.

While AMD-64 is really nifty, especially for server class applications, it's
not really accessible yet to most game software. So the clock speed winds up
dominating a lot of that performance. For this year at least, consider using
Xeon's on a dual-CPU capable board and add the second CPU later if you need
it.

Hyperthreading on CPU's is useful for some applications, but also still
over-vaunted.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: License Transfer
    ... If I replace just the motherboard, is it still the same machine? ... upgrade just the CPU is it the same machine? ... At one point, if any, did I sacrifice the license to use Microsoft software ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: MB recommendations -- budget upgrade?
    ... without on-board graphics costs about EUR 11,- more. ... motherboard I could afford, and the cheapest CPU. ... wants to upgrade the CPU, both the cheap and the expensive board are ...
    (comp.os.linux.hardware)
  • Re: Upgrade from WinMe
    ... >and on reflection my plan would probably be to upgrade the motherboard ... >and CPU to a spec that would accomodate XP and use the WinMe or Win95 ... However if it is a Windows 95 era machine then in order to upgrade to ... Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers)
  • Re: upgrade or start over?
    ... Some people need to squeeze the last drop out of their systems without upgrading their motherboard, so it is a seller's market for older CPUs at the top end of compatibility with any particular range of motherboards. ... They could upgrade both the motherboard and CPU if they wanted, but a new motherboard can cause major problems. ... I know that Crucial supply a lot of proprietary RAM for Dell which struggles to work on most standard retail motherboards. ... They will offer their own expensive upgrade service if you put the original system back together and send it off to them. ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)