1600XP AGOIA vs 1.6A Northwood

[pay]

I've already bought a stick of Samsung 512MB PC2700, now I am just trying to decide which motherboard and CPU to buy. I am planning on overclocking either one I get.
Im thinking either the 1600XP (AGOIA stepping) with an EPoX 8K3A or a 1.6A Northwood with an EPoX 4G4A. I predict the XP to reach 1800mhz and the Northwood to 2.4Ghz. Now I am just trying to decide which would be faster. If I overclock the XP to 1800, it will be running on a 170mhz FSB compared to the 150FSB of the Northwood. The costs are $200 for the AMD (including an AX-7 w/ Vantec volcano) and $250 for the Intel setup. The price isnt really a factor, I just want the faster setup.
I mostly play games such as GTA3 and SOF2 and the basic stuff such as internet and email, and sometimes I watch a Divx or a VCD here and there. I wanted to know which combo would give me better performance in those situations. And btw, heat, noise, and price are not determining factors.. just looking for performance

Please give me some advice

 

[BD231]

Northwood

 

[SexyK]

If I overclock the XP to 1800, it will be running on a 170mhz FSB compared to the 150FSB of the Northwood.

Except that in reality they will be 340MHz for the XP and 600MHz for the P4...

The price isnt really a factor, I just want the faster setup.

If price isn't a factor, go P4 all the way, you'll love it.

Kramer

 

[Pabster]

1.6A, no questions asked.

 

[NateSLC]

Originally posted by: SexyK

If I overclock the XP to 1800, it will be running on a 170mhz FSB compared to the 150FSB of the Northwood.

Except that in reality they will be 340MHz for the XP and 600MHz for the P4...

The price isnt really a factor, I just want the faster setup.

If price isn't a factor, go P4 all the way, you'll love it.

Kramer

Per Mhz performance is better on an AthlonXP than a P4. It would be interesting to know if 340 Mhz Athlon increase is enough to match a 600 Mhz P4 increase performance wise.

 

[Rainsford]

Those two chips overclocked like you said will perform about the same for games, but the P4 will probably have a more stable overclock and it will probably be more likely to hit that speed. But it's really a personal choice, neither has much of a lead over the other. I'm assuming a 1600XP will hit 1.8ghz of course, but I think with good cooling you should be able to do that.

 

[Adul]

i think it will be close enough to not be able to tell to much. now if you can get the P4 up even higher then you can say the p4.

the p4 does have more potential.

 

[ToBeMe]

Get the Northwood in this case.................

 

[pay]

Whats about the Athlon having the raw power/more IPC than the P4, but less MHZ. Would that make the Athlon feel faster?

Because I have heard that the P4 feels like a slug in anything other than media and SSE2 optimized programs.

 

[Tanked]

The computer will "feel" the same in just about anything. Only in the most intensive tasks will you notice any difference. An Athlon MP 1200 and a K6-III+ 550 would feel identical as long as the hard drive is equal, at least until you fire up a game.

Btw, I made that comparison becuase I have both of the above systems, and they both had 60GXP hard drives until recently.

If price isn't a factor, I'd get the P4, but you really can't go wrong either way.

 

[HendrixFan]

Ive gotten my AGOIA 1600+ up to 1815Mhz so far, and Ive only had to bump the voltage up by .075. If I can get it a little bit higher, to 1860, then that would be XP 2300+ speeds, closing in on a 50% overclock. I dont even have a high speed fan on my AX-7 either. From the benchmarks Ive seen, the faster FSB and DDR RAM in conjunction with those speeds really gives a great performance boost over just 133fsb. I would consider the two (P4 1.6A and XP 1600+) to be about comparable with an overclock.

Looking at the prices at newegg, the Intel setup would run $290 versus $200 for AMD. While you said price isnt a determining factor, all things being equal I would say it is. Gives you a $90 jumpstart on getting a better video card, if you are mostly playing games.

 

[SexyK]

My Northwood is @ 2200MHz right now, and anyone who says a 2GHz+ P4 runs like a "slug" is smoking some serious crack. I've experienced a lot of systems, and none has had the snap of this one. Anyway, another thing you should consider is future upgrade path. Socket A is basically maxed out, but if you get a 845g motherboard it should be able to support all Intels newest chips for a long time ahead, at least to ~4GHz. P4 is a much better choice.

Kramer

 

[NateSLC]

The following is estimated performance levels for each chip (based on default FSB, so take with grain of salt):

SysMark
Athlon XP 1.84 - 168
P4 2.4A - 168

Content Creation
Athlon - 260
P4 - 310

MP3
Athlon - 1.7 Min
P4 - 1.8 Min

3D Max 1
Athlon - 59.7 fps
P4 - 54.5 fps

3D Max 2
Athlon - 45.9 fps
P4 - 41.4 fps

Lightwave 1
Athlon - 158.1 sec
P4 - 123.4 sec

Lightwave 2
Athlon - 105.5 sec
P4 - 60.7 sec

Unreal PT
Athlon - 51.9 fps
P4 - 48.1 fps

Jedi Knight MP3
Athlon - 116.1 fps
P4 - 109.7 fps

Comanche
Athlon - 46.6 fps
P4 - 42.2 fps

Edit: Hey, all my spaces are missing! Sorry. I'll try to fix. (Now fixed).

 

[kami]

Performance in games should be pretty much the same, so you might want to put that $50 elsewhere. If you do media encoding and crap like that, get the P4 but even then the real world difference will be almost unnoticable.

 

[Tanked]

"Anyway, another thing you should consider is future upgrade path. Socket A is basically maxed out, but if you get a 845g motherboard it should be able to support all Intels newest chips for a long time ahead, at least to ~4GHz. P4 is a much better choice."

Socket A will still be around for a while, and with Intel's track record, I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of P4's requires a new socket. (Remember Socket 4? How about Slot 1 and 2? FCPGA2? Then there's Socket 423, 478, and 603...)

 

[kami]

Originally posted by: Tanked
"Anyway, another thing you should consider is future upgrade path. Socket A is basically maxed out, but if you get a 845g motherboard it should be able to support all Intels newest chips for a long time ahead, at least to ~4GHz. P4 is a much better choice."

Socket A will still be around for a while, and with Intel's track record, I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of P4's requires a new socket. (Remember Socket 4? How about Slot 1 and 2? FCPGA2? Then there's Socket 423, 478, and 603...)

Yeah we can hope that AMD has luck with the barton...if they do it right, the Barton could be a very nice upgrade for SocketA owners.

 

[Tanked]

I had no idea the Athlon could give a beatdown like that (Thanks for the chart, Nate!)

But still, either choice is a good one. Just don't get a C3 and you'll be happy.

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: NateSLC
The following is estimated performance levels for each chip (based on default FSB, so take with grain of salt):

SysMark
Athlon XP 1.84 - 168
P4 2.4A - 168

Content Creation
Athlon - 260
P4 - 310

MP3
Athlon - 1.7 Min
P4 - 1.8 Min

3D Max 1
Athlon - 59.7 fps
P4 - 54.5 fps

3D Max 2
Athlon - 45.9 fps
P4 - 41.4 fps

Lightwave 1
Athlon - 158.1 sec
P4 - 123.4 sec

Lightwave 2
Athlon - 105.5 sec
P4 - 60.7 sec

Unreal PT
Athlon - 51.9 fps
P4 - 48.1 fps

Jedi Knight MP3
Athlon - 116.1 fps
P4 - 109.7 fps

Comanche
Athlon - 46.6 fps
P4 - 42.2 fps

Edit: Hey, all my spaces are missing! Sorry. I'll try to fix. (Now fixed).

A fairly large "grain of salt".................. Where did you pull those numbers from?????

They're nowhere near the numbers I get and I have an AMD and Intel sitting next to one another...............

 

[NateSLC]

I just tweaked the figures from Anand's review of the 2200+

 

[ToBeMe]

Originally posted by: NateSLC
I just tweaked the figures from Anand's review of the 2200+

LOL! OK, that expalins a lot......

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: Tanked
"Anyway, another thing you should consider is future upgrade path. Socket A is basically maxed out, but if you get a 845g motherboard it should be able to support all Intels newest chips for a long time ahead, at least to ~4GHz. P4 is a much better choice."

Socket A will still be around for a while, and with Intel's track record, I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of P4's requires a new socket. (Remember Socket 4? How about Slot 1 and 2? FCPGA2? Then there's Socket 423, 478, and 603...)

You can pretty much say the same thing about AMD. S7, SS7, Slot A, Socket A, S473. And then add in S754 and S940. (Normally I wouldn't include those two, but if you think S603 is fair game, then so is Hammer.) Pretty much the only short term socket that Intel used is the S423 P4. Which lasted almost a year and a half, by the way. And S478 will most likely be the standard untill BBUL packaging rears it's awesome head.

AMD will probably use Barton on Socket A, but that'll be it.

But (as I've always said) I really think that this is a moot point. As an enthusiast, I can't remember making a significant upgrade that didn't include replacing the motherboard. And I think that I'm part of the vast majority in this (enthusiast) demographic.

 

[Wingznut]

Oh, and to answer the original question...

Get a P4. (Hey, what did you expect I'd say!)

 

[Insane3D]

Well, guess I'm going to have to go against the grain here....sort of. I've got both running here. I have a 1.6A @ 2.56ghz (160mhz FSB, DDR400) on a Epox 4G4A+ and I just set up a 1600+ AGOIA on a Epox 8KHA+ @ 1.8ghz and a 172mhz FSB. They are both extremely fast, but to tell you the truth, there is really almost no tangible difference between the two systems performance wise. The P4 is a bit faster at some things, and the XP is a bit faster at others. It's really not fair to compare the scores for a 2200+ to a 1600+ o/ced to 2200+ speeds since the FSB is running so much faster. Now, here is where I will differentiate the two. The P4 is generally an easier o/c than the XP. The reason being you just slap on the retail HSF, crank the FSB up and make sure it's stable. The XP is not quite as easy simply because it's running so far out of the specified norms, and it will be hotter than the P4.


That being said, both are still fairly easy o/c's, and both will be very fast. Generally the P4 will need less cooling, and will be quieter, but it's entirely possible to make the XP very near the P4 in noise levels. For instance, on my o/ced XP, I run a Swiftech MC462 with a 80mm 21dBa Panaflo, one Panaflo intake, and my Enermax 431W PSU handles all exhaust duties. It's a shade noiser than my P4 system, but the difference is almost not noticeable. Both systems are equally stable, and run everything I throw at them without a hitch. The 1600+ XP is really the better deal right now if money is an issue. The 1.6A's have been jacked up in price a bit since they are being discontinued, and you can get a fast Athlon board like the 8K3A a bit cheaper than comparable Intel boards..


It basically boils down to how much you want to spend...IMO.

 

P4!
go go go go!!

 

[Pabster]

HendrixFan wrote:

"I would consider the two (P4 1.6A and XP 1600+) to be about comparable with an overclock."

As would I -- looking strictly at synthetic benchmark results, although the Northwood rig will score better in the RAM department. Where the Northwood holds the real advantage is thermal management and protection, SSE2, and, of course, noise

Get the 1.6A and forget about it.