PCA Forums

i was looking at prices and the top cpu's from AMD and Intel are pretty much equal these days...AMD actually being more expensive. i haven't looked at prices in a while, but am looking into a complete system rebuild and am gathering info.

my question is this: do i stick with AMD or give a P4 a try? i have almost always used AMD because of price/performance...but now that they are closer, i will have to decide on other factors.

any big reasons for either these days? i'm not concerned with price...i just want the best for the $$$$. i see the XP 3000+ barton is neck and neck with the 3GHz P4.

i suppose it'll come down to motherboard features? i want STABILITY. i won't be o/c'ing (things are fast enough these days...hehe).

total budget is around $1200 for the new system. i am almost tempted to get a higher end Dell system and just be done with it!

AMD coupled w/ an Nforce2

$1200 isn't really enough to get you a real sweet P4 system faster then what AMD can do. Right now a P4 3.06Ghz cpu with 1066Mnhz RDRAM is about the fastest thing on the planet.

I'd stick with AMD though, they are fast enough and the boards out there are stable enough for me. I don't have to reboot unless I want to.

I think the best question to ask is: what chipset shall I use? I haven't been involved in a new board for a while, so I don't know what is currently out there for chipsets, but it's usually the chipset that is the important factor especially if you are a gamer. Just something to keep in mind.

yes...good points. i am a gamer, so that matters...and i would prefer to stay away from rambus.

i'll check out the Nforce2 boards and see how they compare to everything else.

i assume if i go AMD i should try for the 333MHz FSB cpu.

I say get the 3.06 P4 and a HT compatable mother board

Intel will be releasing the Springdale motherboard chipset in mid-May along with the 800 MHz FSB P-4s. If you can wait until then, I would and see how the new Intel stuff stacks up against the AMD CPUs and nForce 2 chipset.

MAC

While the processors are near equal in price, the motherboards can be extremely different in price. The Asus A7N8X Deluxe, arguably one of the best AMD boards, costs around $140 online while the Asus P4G8X Deluxe is around $220. While you can find better P4 boards for less probably but also with not as many features as the A7N8X gives you (AGP 8x, USB 2, 2 IEEE1394 onboard, SATA RAID)

Like most have said above the offerings of Intel and AMD are so close that the mobo chipset becomes the deciding factor in my eyes. And the NForce 2 chipset tilts the scales toward AMD. That being said I dont ever remember the difference being so little between the two choices.

Wait for Springdale/Canterwood and an 800 MHz FSB p4. These chipsets and chips will beat anything AMD has/will have until the release of the Athlon 64.

hmmmm...that 800mhz FSB sure sounds nice...

i looked into what i could still get out of my current mobo as far as upgrading...it's a Shuttle AK31 rev3.1 and looks like the highest supported cpu is an athlon xp 2200+. there is supposed to be a beta bios floating around that will do a 2400+, but i'd rather not play that game.

so, here's what i currently have:

ak31 r3.1
512MB PC2100
AMD Athlon 1.4 (non-XP) 266MHz FSB
radeon 9000 pro 64mb vid card

do you think it would be worthwhile to just upgrade to a 2200+ XP and maybe better vid card? i imagine the difference between a plain athlon 1.4 and a 2200+ XP is noticable.

thanks for the input-