a64 3000 or 2.6C?

[high]

Hi all, looking to upgrade and I have to decide between either:

Athlon64 3000+ & Gigabyte K8N nforce3

or

P4 2.6C + IC7

Planning on overclocking either to the max...which one should I go for?

 

[myocardia]

High, assuming you aren't going to need the 64-bit capabilities of the Athlon64, I would go with a P4, since they overclock WAY better than Athlon64's do. If you weren't an overclocker, you'd want the A64.

 

[high]

hmm ok i was thinking of 3.5ish with the p4...and I would love HT

 

[govtcheez75]

I just ordered a Athlon 64 3200+ with an MSI K8T800 K8T Neo-FIS2R. I was thinking of going P4 3.0, but I think that this will be comparable.

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: high
hmm ok i was thinking of 3.5ish with the p4...and I would love HT

Like your name you have high expectations... I was just lucky enough to reach that with my 2.6, I haven't yet discovered another 2.6C on anandtech that could beat it without extreme cooling or high voltages

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: high
hmm ok i was thinking of 3.5ish with the p4...and I would love HT

those are indeed high expectations. realistically, i see something in the 3.2 range

 

[sandorski]

Athlon 64 3000

 

[tallman45]

It depends on what you are using this rig for, gaming the go with AMD. Photo/video editing then go with the P4, the higher fsb and HT will benefit those apps.

 

[dguy6789]

Get the 3000+. It would totally own a 2.6C in games and 2D apps and whatnot. It also is much better multi tasking then any P4 even with HT on. The latency is so freakin low with amd64 that the system will run alot smoother. You would have to get to 3.5Ghz just to be as fast as a 3000+ in games.

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Athlon 64 3000

 

[FPSguy]

According to this AnandTech review, the A64 3000+ runs roughly equal (with some significant variance in certain applications) with a P4 3.2C.

According to Overclockers.com, the average overclock for a 2.6C is 3388.

According to this page from the AnandTech A64 3000+ review, the A64 3000+ will overclock by about 10%.

So, an A64 3000+ overclocked by 10% probably will be a bit faster, on average, than a P4 2.6C at 3388.

I am not sure about the price difference between the systems. If they are comparably priced, though, the A64 seems like a better deal unless your computer use focuses on MPEG-4 encoding.

 

[BDSM]

Hey.. get the 3200+ instead!.. it has dropped ALOT today.. it's only $59 more than the 3000+.. it's not much faster.. but Personally I would love to have 1 meg of cache.. And I'm sure that as time goes by they will find apps that run alot better on this cpu.

 

[Jeff7181]

AnandTech thinks the A64 3000+ has a better price/performance ratio... but that doesn't factor in overclocking... but still, most are perfectly capable of 2.2 Ghz if you have a motherboard that can handle that.

I'd also go with the 3200+ rather than 3000+ after this latest price drop... if you ever intend to run anything 64-bit on it, you'll want that extra cache because 64-bit code is more bulky and will need more cache to reduce the amount of RAM hits.

 

[ntrights]

I would wait for the Prescott reviews before making a desicion and see what it brings to the table...

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: FPSguy
According to <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1937&p=5" target=blank>this AnandTech review</A>, the A64 3000+ runs roughly equal (with some significant variance in certain applications) with a P4 3.2C.

According to Overclockers.com, the average overclock for a 2.6C is 3388.

According to <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1937&p=8" target=blank>this page from the AnandTech A64 3000+ review</A>, the A64 3000+ will overclock by about 10%.

So, an A64 3000+ overclocked by 10% probably will be a bit faster, on average, than a P4 2.6C at 3388.

I am not sure about the price difference between the systems. If they are comparably priced, though, the A64 seems like a better deal unless your computer use focuses on MPEG-4 encoding.

On Zipzoom the retail prices of both are: 2.6c - $174, A64 3000+ - $240. That is a very big difference, plus another benefit that the P4 offers is that you can swap in a Prescott next year if you need more juice.

Your A64 mb may be obsolete in a few months, check out the final words of this sites 3400+ review

"The one worry that is worth taking into account is the fact that AMD will significantly revamp their Athlon 64 line over the course of 2004 with the introduction of Socket-939 CPUs. Although AMD has committed to supplying Socket-754 and 940 CPUs throughout 2004, those looking to hold onto their motherboards and upgrade their CPUs beyond the next 12 months will want to wait until the Socket-939 platforms hit in the next few months. "

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: ntrights
I would wait for the Prescott reviews before making a desicion and see what it brings to the table...

Intel stuff has pretty high resale value, so worst case, he could get P4 stuff now, see how he likes it... if the Prescott turns out to be A LOT better, he could sell his CPU and keep the motherboard for a Prescott... or if the Prescott turns out to be not so great... and an A64 solution looks better with the nForce3 250 motherboard, he could sell his Intel CPU and mobo and lose maybe $50 on it, and pick up A64 pieces. I think I might do that... instead of going A64 right away... I might get a 2.6C and see how I like P4's for a change, since I've never owned one myself, only used other people's.

*EDIT* It would be kinda nice to be able to run S@H 24/7 and not have to turn it off to play a game or something.

 

[tallman45]

For about $30 more than the A64 3000+ you could get the A64 3200+ with a full 1mb of l2 cache vs the 3000+'s crippled 512mb. Looks like prices are falling

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=164539

 

[zShowtimez]

Like your name you have high expectations... I was just lucky enough to reach that with my 2.6, I haven't yet discovered another 2.6C on anandtech that could beat it without extreme cooling or high voltages

My 2.6 is at ~3.5. My fisrt 2.6 that ive since sold only hit 3.25 though.

 

[ntrights]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: ntrights
I would wait for the Prescott reviews before making a desicion and see what it brings to the table...

Intel stuff has pretty high resale value, so worst case, he could get P4 stuff now, see how he likes it... if the Prescott turns out to be A LOT better, he could sell his CPU and keep the motherboard for a Prescott... or if the Prescott turns out to be not so great... and an A64 solution looks better with the nForce3 250 motherboard, he could sell his Intel CPU and mobo and lose maybe $50 on it, and pick up A64 pieces. I think I might do that... instead of going A64 right away... I might get a 2.6C and see how I like P4's for a change, since I've never owned one myself, only used other people's.

*EDIT* It would be kinda nice to be able to run S@H 24/7 and not have to turn it off to play a game or something.

I've sold 2 Intel cpus that i owned almost for the same price that i bought them for well both of them overclocked really good so that helped ofcourse. Right now im running a 2.4c@3.6 300fsb(1.6vcore cpu-z)aircooled rock stable!
You are right. Hyper Threading does make a difference when multitasking, there are no halts when you run multiple applications. I can run Adobe Premier with realtime mpeg2 8mbit/s capturing going on in the background and at the same time work with a large Access database file without a singel frame drop.

Edit: typo

 

[nick1985]

3000

 

[Markfw]

Read my sig......

 

[JBT]

I'd go for a 3200+ They should OC a bit better than the 3000's and once 64 bit OS's are out there the 1Meg cache should help even more.

 

[high]

grabbing 2x512 OCZ 4200, Gigabyte board, A64 3200+, 9800XT....will post benches afterwards..... now do you think I will notice any real world performance gain compared to my sig?

 

[WobbleWobble]

Looking at your current rig and your proposed rig, I don't think the gains will be great and definately not worth the money.

Those are my 2 cents.

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: high
grabbing 2x512 OCZ 4200, Gigabyte board, A64 3200+, 9800XT....will post benches afterwards..... now do you think I will notice any real world performance gain compared to my sig?

Yes, of course you'll notice a big difference. I think that's a great upgrade. It'll be about 20-30% faster in games. The people who have gotten the A64 love it.