What to get: Intel P4 3.2 or AMD Athlon64 3500+? Marty, Greg, Martin? (4 Viewers)

[Zlatan]

SLI? In english, or atl east non-geekish?

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[The Goalkeeper]

whatever happened to the abacus being the coolest thing in town. Dang I miss the good old days

 

[Seven]

Whatever happened to you only speaking French?

 

[Marty]

SLI? In english, or atl east non-geekish?

SLI = two PCI-e slots, meaning you can run two identical PCI-e graphics cards side by side, should you buy a second one. Increases your speed in games optimized for it (usually FPS games), not by 100% though, but ~50% in most cases I think.

 

[ßöмßäяðîëя]

Can I get something that plugs into my PCI slots that makes my memory or overall computer run faster?

 

[Respaul]

jus buy a new computer, yer tight git

 

[ßöмßäяðîëя]

"yer tight git?"

 

[Zlatan]

You cheap fool.

 

[Zlatan]

SLI = two PCI-e slots, meaning you can run two identical PCI-e graphics cards side by side, should you buy a second one. Increases your speed in games optimized for it (usually FPS games), not by 100% though, but ~50% in most cases I think.

Oh. Are those expensive?


(Man, I lack the basic hardware knowledge, dont I )

 

[ßöмßäяðîëя]

I just got this one last year, it isnt that old, yayo.

 

[Marty]

Oh. Are those expensive?


(Man, I lack the basic hardware knowledge, dont I )

A little more expensive than regular MB, but not much. I'd definitely get that if I was you. Future-safe.

 

[swag]

I'm no PC expert, Z... these days I buy more systems for servers in data centers, and at that it's all Linux all the time (Martin might wet his shorts knowing that detail ) ... basically two-way HP Proliant DL385s for rack mounting.

But 64-bit is the way to go. The software will catch up. 64-bit Windows is around the corner, as all are the optimized drivers.

As for AMD, they have been solid in that category. The DL385s I buy (AMD Opteron 200 Series) being a perfect example.

 

[Marty]

I think we have him sold on AMD by now.

 

[Martin]

Z, I don't think there's that much of a difference between them tbh. Dual core is two physical cpu's on one chip, HyperThreading is two virtual cpu's in one. Either way you get very similar performance and other things will probably affect your speed more than the choice of cpu between these two.

On hardware issues though, you wanna talk to Ali, he's really into that stuff.

(Martin might wet his shorts knowing that detail )

uncool

But 64-bit is the way to go. The software will catch up. 64-bit Windows is around the corner, as all are the optimized drivers.

I don't think it's that much of a difference really, if he gets the P4 now, how long is it gonna be before mainstream apps start switching to 64bit en masse, a few years? By which time he'll be replacing it anyway.

As for AMD, they have been solid in that category. The DL385s I buy (AMD Opteron 200 Series) being a perfect example.

Hey I'll take an Opteron :superhapp

 

[swag]

uncool

I knew the comment would definitely not appeal to your above-the-belt virtues for humor, so I had to... sorry.

 

[Martin]

I knew the comment would definitely not appeal to your above-the-belt virtues for humor, so I had to... sorry.

If you weren't a moderator, I would make things uncomfortable for you :tongue:

 

[Zlatan]

Cool, thanks for the replies mates


And yes Marty, I am heading towards AMD at the moment. I looked at a few graphs and tests on a few hardware review sites, and AMD products perhormed much better than Intel ones in gaming. For example, in a HL2 test AMDs were all faster, only a P4 3.8 Ghz was faster than an AMD 3000+, all other P4s performed worse.


But, I think I've read that the AMDs (either the CPUs or the S939 MBs) dont support DDR2. Am I right, and if yes is it really that important?

 

[Marty]

I wouldn't put too much thought into DDR vs DDR2, the speed difference is minimal.

 

[Zlatan]

Cool, thanks

 

[Enron]

never knew DDR was part of the decision making process when it comes to buying a computer.