FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

It's that time again to start looking for a new PC.But where to start since all the specs have changed so much since my last venture into silicon valley.

So advice please on which if any is the better of the pairs below.

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor
Intel® Pentium 4 550 LGA 775 HT Processor

Microstar MS6741 Micro ATX Motherboard
FIC Intel Grantsdale (915P) Motherboard

1024MB DDR RAM (2x 512MB)
1024MB DDR PC3200 RAM

256MB ATi Radeon 9800SE Graphics
256MB ATi X600 Pro PCI Express Graphics

And anyone heard good or bad about

Mark

dlynch

In my experiences i find them unreliable and breakdiowns seem frequent. That is juts my experiences i am sure many have had success with them

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Think alot of it depends on what your going to use your pc for, personally id go Intel, others will go AMD, down to preference really, though AMD probably have a slight edge at this moment in time, Intel are showing us the future with their breakthrough working with light.
As for Intel chipsets, the 915 is ok, if you can get a 925 that would be better, with PCI-E and an onboard facility for the memory to be used in Duel Channel mode (faster access times but you need 2 memory sims in rather than just the one, ie 2x512).

Have you thought about the likes of Dell computers? where you can state your specification, i think they are doing both AMD and Intel now.

Tony

Daz34

It's a pretty big lead both in performance and price. No brainer IMHO.

Neil Smalley

AMD64 all the way, unless you do lots of multimedia encoding, or multitasking.

Nimbus

Neil,

Why would Intel be better at those tasks than an AMD64?

Thanks

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I believe that intel use a longer programming code than AMD, thus the reason that AMD quote a 3400+ which is really only a 2.2ghz or the likes, but on any multi tasking, the Hyper threading has an advantage, plus if your doing graphics, the intel kicks serious butt here but games there isnt actually that much in it, but the AMD has a slight advantage.

Tony

Nimbus

But doesn't AMD have Hyper Transport (their HT equivilant) or something? I agree that their naming convention is a bt confusing if you don't actually know the clock speed..

FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the replies guys.

I will be going the "build to my spec" route, possibly with Dell although Mesh does seem to have a good basic 3 year warranty & some competetive quality component prices.

One last thought.Is there anything on the grape vine regarding any drastic pending new developements etc that would make it prudent to hold fire on my purchase?

I know that the world of PC's is never at a stand still but I mean anything earth shattering such as a new version of XP considering SP2 had so many problems.

Mark

Neil Smalley

There's always something new and drastic further down the line.
If it were me I would go for AMD64 3500 winchester, an Nforce 4 motherboard, 1Gb memory, 200Gb SATA disks, and something like an Nvida 6800GT, or ATI X800. That would play pretty much any game that's due out in the next 2 years.

By then the new and wonderful dual Core, DDR2, SLi and MS Longhorn technologies will have become a lot more stable and cheaper to boot.

Scooby Dooby Blue

I totally agree with Neil.

I've built several 3500 Athlon64 systems recently, using the Asus A8N-SLI deluxe mobo.
These machines are awesome, particularly if you build with dual channel DDR and twin PCI-E graphics.

This will all take your total build price near £1000 but what fantastic kit it is


Paul

class_A

Hyper Transport is the name of a bus interconnect technology designed by a consortium of manufacturers including AMD. "Hyper Threading" is the Intel marketing name given to the ability to run more than one thread concurrently on a single core CPU (generic term is "SMT" - symetric multithreading).

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

My feelings precisely.

Oh, and I'm running a Mesh Athlon 64/3400 and have had NO problems with it at all... the whole buying experience was a breeze. I'm quite capable of building my own (have done so several times in the past for mates) but wanted a complete package with one person to shout at if things went wrong... Mesh really do produce some good kit - and they keep winning awards for them.

Guinness

iTrader: (1)

I'm having a system built tommorrow...



Amd Athlon 64 3500-939 socket
Asus A8n Deluxe sli motherboard
1 gb Corsair 1024 x 4400 ddr400 ram
XFX Geforce 6800 gt graphics card (1 for now)
Western Digital Raptor 74 gb h/d
2 x Seagate Barracuda 200 gb h/d
Tagan 480 psu
2 x Nec 3520a dvd burners
Tsunami Dream aluminium case
And a floppy...


I'm hoping it's going to be a good one........

Nimbus

And the price.. out of curiosity...?

Guinness

iTrader: (1)

Not far short of £1300 inc vat

mystic_magic

AMD all the way...



Just my CPU and GFX card cost £960

Scooby Dooby Blue

If you've ordered in all the bits for your system I hope you realise Tsunami towers come with 20-pin power connectors and it's a 24-pin molex you need for the Asus mobo

P1Fanatic

I wouldnt worry about it - my Asus A8N-Sli has been running fine for the last month on a X-Pro 460w psu with 20 pin power cable. Just leave the 4 left most pins spare.

Simon.

DrEvil

Another vote for AMD64 3500 / (XFX/Aopen/Leadtek/BFG) 6800GT / ASUS A8N-SLI (DLX)..

Or if on a tighter budget get a 6600GT, very good card.

Don't bother with the A8V-E (PCI-E board), very limited memory compatibility and features.

Guinness

iTrader: (1)

All up and running,graphics are top notch.well happy