2.4B vs XP 2400+

[Matt2]

Which is better for the money?

They are both the same price so I was wondering if getting the P4 over the Athlon was the right decision.

Your thoughts?

 

[nick1985]

haha, 2400 will smoke a 2.4. do some research next time

 

[Matt2]

This is my research as I have not yet purchased my friend.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Contrary to what the above poster said, they're pretty much neck and neck in most apps. One may bench a bit higher than the other in certain apps but on the whole you probably won't be able to tell the difference. Take a look to see if you regularly use any of the programs that give one proc a huge advantage over the other (such as Lightwave).

Otherwise it's a toss up and it's really personal preference

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Matt2
Which is better for the money?

They are both the same price so I was wondering if getting the P4 over the Athlon was the right decision.

Your thoughts?

getting the P4 over the Athlon was the right decision

 

[nick1985]

you gave the impression that you purchased it

 

[mrman3k]

I have two questions which can help me better guage which proc to get.

1.) What will be the primary use for the computer, i.e. gaming, content creation, etc.
2.) Will you be overclocking?

If you answer those 2 questions for me I can at least get you going.

 

[Matt2]

I'm really only interested in a high performance machine for demanding games and everyday windows apps.

I've seent he benchmarks, does anyone have any personal experiences with either?

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
I have two questions which can help me better guage which proc to get.

1.) What will be the primary use for the computer, i.e. gaming, content creation, etc.
2.) Will you be overclocking?

If you answer those 2 questions for me I can at least get you going.

Gaming and everyday windows apps.

I would like to overclock, but it would be a fairly modest one until I start to run into games that pushed my syste,=m

 

[nowayout99]

People have a very weird definition of "smoke." Seriously. Check the fanboyism at the door.

Head to head, they both won about half of AT's benchmark tests.

AT's quote: "There's no clear performance advantage in either case for the vast majority of applications, but where AMD does hold the advantage is in price."

Go for the one with the best price you can find. Pricewatch.com isn't decisive either; $173 vs $178.

 

[human2k]

Look at some CPU articles, a good one is THG review of the P4 3.06. If you look at all the benchmarks in that article the Athlon XP 2400 is pretty much neck to neck with the P4 2.4 400MHZ but is a few FPS behind the 2.4B. Overall you wont able to notice that difference. If you decide to go Intel get a C1 Stepping or Pentium 4 1.7GHZ MObile if you plan to overclock. If go AMD consider the cheaper Athlon XP 2100 T-bred B which is known to overclock 2.2GHZ-2.5GHZ on air (Athlon XP 2800+ speeds) for under $100.


Heck I wouldn't even consider going intel just by looking at the overclock speeds on the 2100XP tbred-B. Go with this:

Athlon XP 2100 T-bred B $100 @ newegg
Thermalright SK6 HSF w/80MM fan $20 @ svcompucycle.com
Epox 8RDA NForce 2 w/Soundstorm-$108 @tcwo.com
Samsung DDR333 256MB x 2 = $128 @ newegg

 

[Steven the Leech]

I think a good way to answer your question would be what kind of chipset/motherboard do you have or want? I personally would flip a coin to pick between the two, but would base my decision on what motherboard I would use [Epox 4pea+ for me].

 

[Matt2]

Well for the P4 I was looking at the Albatron 845PE mobo. I heard a lot of good things about it and it weighs in at a scant $85.

For the Athlon I would probably go with the MSI KT4 Ultra. I currently have a KT3 Ultra in my current system and like it.

What would u guys reccomend?

 

[nick1985]

kt400 chips are finicky. get an nforce 2(epox and asus are nice)

 

[Matt2]

Can u elaborate on "finicky"??

Thanks

 

[TonyB]

for the Intel i'd get the P4PE

for the AMD i'd get the A7N8X

one thing that might influence your purchasing decision could be the cpu fan noise level. Ive put the retail intel hsf and the retail amd fan that comes with both retail packages, 2400+ and 2.4B next to each other, and the fan that comes with the Intel is subjectively quieter than the amd.. Not that it matters but if the price and performance are almost the same, maybe noise will be the deciding factor for you?

 

[Tripitz]

If you are planning on overclocking, unless I'm mistaken, the p4 2.4B c1 stepping cpus are supposedly very easily overclocked to the 3ghz mark. I think they have more headroom than the XP2400+'s do.

 

[Matt2]

how do I find out what stepping I would be buying from newegg.com??

 

[Tripitz]

Originally posted by: Matt2
how do I find out what stepping I would be buying from newegg.com??

There is a discussion on this in the cpu/overclockers forum with more details than I can provide so do a search for it if you want more info. Newegg is advertising their 533fsb p4 2.4b as a certain 'box' which matches the info listed here:

http://processorfinder.intel.com/sc...cFam=483&PkgType=ALL&SysBusSpd=ALL&CorSpd=ALL

As you can see, if you get what they are actually advertising, you should get a c1 stepping cpu. Googlegear is also listing that box unit.

 

[JavaMomma]

One of the deciding factors for me was the NForce2. Excellent sound, for sure better then my old SBLive, if your planning on using onboard sound or if you need to buy a sound card it might be nice to get one of these boards.

If you decide to go AMD, I really like my Asus A7N8X Deluxe.

 

[Matt2]

Thanks Tripitz, that really helped a lot dude.

Does the nForce 2 sound processor support 5.1 and EAX?

 

[nick1985]

i believe it does

 

[JavaMomma]

And not only was nForce capable of playing back Dolby Digital streams, it was also the only audio solution on the market capable of Dolby Digital encoding, a distinction it holds to this day.

FiringSquad Review

Anandtech Review

I included Firingsquads review because Anand doesnt really cover the sound at all. I'm not sure what the EAX support is like I cant seem to find any reviews of the NForce APU.