Athlon XP or Pentium4

[e2Genesis 0]

Hey everybody, from past experiences and all I would go for the Athlon chips, that's what I currently own, but a lot of my comp nerd friends at CMU are saying that the P4 is the way to go for now with DDR, but I'm like the comp guy too, but seems like don't know what to do now, its a hard choice, cause they seem very similar, but I'd go for the AthlonXP, what are your deals on these two? Thanx a bunch

[Palos 0]

I have a VIA/AMD combo right now, but for my next PC I think I'll go for P4 and DDR. Intel chipset, too...

 

I'm tired of patching and re-patching my VIA system every other weekend

[JP- 0]

Exactly, when amd make there own chipsets again (probably not for a while ) ill go back to them. Providing they are faster that is.

[rgodart 0]

Isn't the price nuff a reason to go AMD??

[clutch 1]

If stability and compatibility aren't concerns, then yes price is a great reason to go with AMD. AMD Processors are fast, but I hate the chipsets that I have personnally been exposed to that run them. Sometimes I wish that Intel would run their processors to the same temps that AMD is willing to, so we might see some interesting performance ratings. But having a CPU that runs quite cool even in a manufacturing environment (where I have some PCs at work) is nice as well...

[JP- 0]

When i was younger and didnt have a job, amd was the only option for me, thats why i had a k6, k6-2 and athlons/durons but now that i have a decent job and money i can just buy what i want. Im not saying that i wasnt happy with amd, far from it, there cpus were very fast but now i have the same kinda speed without having to patch everything up to get it working. I know that some people do have 100% stable amd machines, infact i have one in the other room (duron 850/via kt133) but im not sorry 1 bit that i went intel.

 

And besides, its not that much of a price difference any more, im sure that an XP/DDR combo is quite comparable to a p4/DDR combo but without all the potential hassle. Come on AMD make your own chipsets again

[Brian Frank 0]

You can still get an Asus A7M266 and Abit KG7 with the AMD 761/Via 686B combo. Personally, I haven't run into Via problems, and I wouldn't rule them out. That is me though, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

The P4 DDR combos seem pretty good, although there are somethings that the P4 won't do as well in as the XP and vise versa.

If you want to be safe and not worry at all, I'd say go Intel.

The P4 does have some advantages of keeping the heat under control and the CPU from being fried, but on a clock for clock basis, the Athlon is faster. I'm talking about the clock speed, no the performance rating either. I tend to lean toward AMD for most stuff, but that's because I'd like to do some overclocking and I've gotten better results from AMD than Intel. I haven't experienced any problems between Intel or AMD, so I won't say avoid ______ at all costs. I would personally lean toward the AMD side of things though.

Do your research on reviews and benchmarks and prices, IMO, and go from there.

[JP- 0]

Quote:

You can still get an Asus A7M266 and Abit KG7 with the AMD 761/Via 686B combo.

See there is just no escaping via

[lsmeg 0]

Has anyone had any experience with the nForce chipset? As far as I know, it doesn't have any via parts in it, and it's supposed to be a good performer. I'm looking at buying an amd system in the near future myself, and assuming there aren't problems with the chipset, I will probably buy that over the via chipsets.

[e2Genesis 0]

Hey, I have a AMD Chipset, absolutely no problems, seems liek my Athlon is nice, I have a usual uptime about 2 weeks and stuff and it runs fine, then again I have an original athlon, so I think that intel is better sutff is BS, cause from allt he intel comps I've seen they are not stable and do not perform very well, they have like a small latency to them, like lag while doing some things, I've noticed

[pimpin_228 0]

I have nothing against intel i just prefer amd, sorta what i have always ran.i want to make asever out of intel because i haave heard htey are reall good on file processing and doing server stuff but i would prefer amd for gaming

[pcdabbler 0]

I ran an Athlon in an Abit KT7-Raid for six months. Fast yes, No way was it ever stable. Countless lock ups in games,AGP problems, USB problems, I could go on. A new Via 4 in 1 every two weeks. 7 Bios upgrades .... Sblive problems, trying different slots... etc etc. I bet this sounds familiar to many people. I sold up and I bought an Intel P3 and motherboard, reinstalled windows, and within an hour had a rock steady system. You pays your money, you makes yer choice. I have to say, all the problems appeared to revolve around the VIA Chipset. Just look at icronticforums, people there have made a career out of trying to make their systems stable !

[JP- 0]

pcdabbler its like you stole my kt7a system or something. I had the exact same problems and nothing i tried made it work properly. I to went intel and within an hour had a stable system I now feel like im missing something, i mean shouldnt i have problems to fix or something ?

[sapiens74 0]

You'll find no one here hates INtel more then I do. But you know what, I was like inches away from buying a P4 last night. If it wan't for the fact that I spent 700 bones on an IPAQ with accessories and my wife would have killed me, I woulda bought a DDR board and a P4. I too am tired of crashes and like nothing more then to have my computer work when I come home. I dont get paid to work on my own PC so I want it stable.

 

But on the other hand, it has been stable, I was just angry it crashed on RTCW and I had to redo a level. I had been playing like 7 hours straight and hadnt rebooted in like 4 days, and was like only the 3rd crash since I installed XP.

 

If you want great stability go with INTEL. THo I do think you can find stability on any AMD platform providing your willling to work with it at first.

 

And having money to buy stuff helps, if your on a budget AMD is the way to go, but if you like a lot of us who now have good jobs and can afford more things then buy what you want, that is gonna make you happy.

[Deviant 0]

Hello there!

 

I have got Abit KG7 with AMD 761 chipset , Samsung DDR.

Running XP Pro - No patches,no updates and absolutely no problems at all.

FSB is overclocked to 155 MHz without stability issues.

I am heavy gamer too.

Machine is connected to the network via two 100MBps adapters.

Average uptime is 4-5 days.

 

AMD or INTEL - it doesn't matter.Try to buy quality components.

 

I think that VIA266A chipsets may be a little bit faster but I personally don't believe them.

 

My choice is still AMD761

 

 

Regards D.

[sapiens74 0]

I did order an ABIT Kr7A w/raid today, so I'll let you know how good a board that is.

[e2Genesis 0]

Thanx man, I'm thinking about getting the abit board, I'm debating between that and the soyo, with probably an athlon xp 1800, well let me know how to goes man, thanx a lot, anyone know FOR sure if DDR is more stable than RDRAM on a P4? and is the performance difference enough to be noticed by us, I know its noticble on paper and pencil and benchmarks, but it is enough to be seen in action?

[sapiens74 0]

Yeah especially in Office and like mp3 programs. Anything that requires that ram be accessed frequently you see DDR perform well. Anything that requires larger files like DIVX or something sometimes the RDRAM does better

[JP- 0]

RDRAM and DDR are both perfectly stable, and the performance difference is negligable. (Just shame the price isnt )

[BladeRunner 0]

With the recent raise in DDR Ram prices and the fact that RDRAM has stayed pretty constant there isn't now a significant difference in price between the two memory systems.

With a P4 system now you are not limited by cost/price, you can instead choose the memory system that matches your needs.

If this happens to be RDRAM then you wont be paying a lot more for that extra performance.

[Palos 0]

To round up things, I would say that the Athlon is a very good and fast CPU, but it's a pity that there are no stable chipsets out there.

The Intel CPUs are maybe a bit slower than the Athlons, but the platforms are solid. Of course there is a price tag difference, but isn't it always that you get what you pay for?

 

If I would buy something now, I'd go for the EpoX i845 DDR chipset, coupled with a P1.5 or such (they got it to 1.98 GHz without stability problems). I think the new P4s are more overclock-friendly due to the .13 micron process, therefore less heat and stress on the components. I saw a P4 2.2 GHz lifted to 3.1 GHz already...ain't that a kick

[sapiens74 0]

I agree. With Memory prices aobut the same, tho Intel CPU's are a bit more, I go with the ddr chipset for either platform.

 

Screw Rambus they suck. I might go to the darkside with INtel but never with Rambus, even Intel realized thier mistakes.

[JP- 0]

I agree, i hate rambus the company but when i bought this p4 the choice was rdram or sdram and its pretty obvious which one to choose

 

And bladerunner, if you can show me a place in the UK with samsung rdram which is around the same price as good ddr then i would be very happy

[EM 0]

If there is a place in the US where Sdram and Rdram are the same price I would like to know as well.

Ed

[clutch 1]

SDRAM or DDR-SDRAM? I have seen the price of DDR-SDRAM go up more significantly than regular SDRAM, and I think that's what BladeRunner was alluding to.