Athlon or Pentium

[Williama1018]

Ok guys, I really need honest input here. I have a friend that owns a 'puter shop an I can pick up a P-3.0 with either an Asus or Gigabyte mobo. My current rig is an AMD 2500 Barton with an A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo. Will this P-3 blow my current rig away or are they close? I'm not real familiar with the Pentiums as my last one was an old P-166 lol. My two big concerns are, 1. Games and 2. DVD backups and CD backups with various applications. I've heard that the Pentium will rock on the apps but lack on the games? The 2500 I have right now is locked at 11 so there is not a lot of room for overclocking, I have tried . I could really use anyone's oppinion ASAP, as I need to decided on this tomorrow (Saturday). Please ANY input is appreciated guys (an ladies) if there are any here lol. Later all and thanks.

 

[Sylvanas]

well a 2500+ is supposed to compete with a 2.5 intel equiv so of course a 3.0 is going to be better. amd= better gaming, intel= better encoding,
just my $0.02 good luck

 

[Williama1018]

thanks Sylvanas. What I am lookin for is input from someone that has used both, or atleast tried both lol. As far as AMD for games and Intel for encoding, wouldnt the 3.0 with that much power blow the amd outta the water? I'm sorry if it sounds like i'm ignorant in this, but I guess in a way I am as I havent worked with an Intel chip in such a long time. Oh yeah, this is a Northwood chip, not the Prescott

 

[Williama1018]

bump

 

[Williama1018]

bump

 

[Soulkeeper]

the comparison between a 3ghz P4 and a 2500+ barton is close enough to where it isn't worth upgrading
P3 ? well one of those would get stompted by the barton and P4's

 

[Soulkeeper]

what kinda deal is he offering exactely ?

because if you can get away with it costing you 200 bucks or less then that would be the only case i see where upgrading from a 2500+ to a 3ghz P4 would be worth it

btw overclocking your 2500+ could make it kill a 3ghz P4

 

[SickBeast]

Why would you buy a 3.0P4 when you can get your 2500+ to 3200+ with the flip of a switch in your bios?

Not worth the upgrade in the slightest IMO unless you're an encoding freak.

<EDIT: I should have been more clear; if you have PC3200 memory, set your FSB to 200mhz and your vcore to 1.75 or so and you should have a 3200+. >

 

[Williama1018]

I have tried to overclock this chip and the highest i can do is 11x184=2024, anything higher and it would LOCK up, the frequency is locked. My memory is Kingston HyperX 2x512 in dual channel mode. As far as what kinda deal it is, I can get the 3.0 with either an Asus P4P800 Deluxe or a Gigabyte 8IP1000 Pro G for 160 bucks!!! I have thought about switchin to the A-64's, but no one really knows where thats going in the next few months, COULD be discontinued for the new systems? Ya never know with this type of technology. If I made a mistake in the description of what I'm lookin at, its a P4 3.0, not a P3, that would just be a joke lol. Thanks guys.

 

[SickBeast]

What is the Kingston HyperX rated at? If it's only PC2700, it might be more logical to upgrade to PC3500 or something and just overclock. Trust me, there is a 99% chance or so that your chip will do 3200+ no problem.

If you MUST upgrade, why don't you just drop in a 2500+ mobile chip? They're totally unlocked, and you can get them for like $83. Mine runs at 2500mhz which corresponds to something like a 3600+ rating which will dust just about any P4, even sometimes in encoding.

Seriously, DON'T BUY THAT P4 3.0!! The price is good, but you won't notice a substantial performance increase, and the other things I suggested above will give you more performance for much less money.

 

[Williama1018]

As far as the memory goes, I should have said, its the Kingston HyperX 4000 (500 fsb capable) at 1 gig. Got a hella deal on them at Best buy for a hundred bucks each, sticker was 199.99 for each stick!!!!

 

[Williama1018]

Just noticed that ur from Ontario David, i'm in Michigan. No point, just an observation lol.

 

[SickBeast]

OK something doesn't make sense then; your system SHOULD run at 200mhz FSB if not higher without issue.

How much voltage are you feeding your CPU and memory when you try to overclock? Like I said before, give the CPU 1.75-1.80v and the memory should be fine at 2.85v. Set the timings to "optimal" in the BIOS, and make sure your CPU interface is set to "optimal" as well (not "aggressive").

What kind of cooling are you using and what are your temps like? Have you tried another CPU in there to try lower multipliers to confirm that your board will run at 200FSB?

And yes, I'm in Toronto...it seems that both of our beloved hockey franchises were eliminated this past week. I share your pain. Oh, and YOU STOLE OUR GOALIE!!! (Not that it matters, Eddie is better anyway).

 

[myocardia]

Nevermind

 

[SickBeast]

No, he said he has PC4000 memory. Something is definately amiss here.

 

[Duvie]

I agree with sickbeast get the 2500+ mobile and go from there (ocing)....


If you went with the P4 go with the asus mobo and there is a very good chance you can get it to 3.5ghz on air and then it defintely would be a nice upgrade....


I had a 2500+ Barton and was lucky it could actually do 3200+ witha simple bios change....However not knowing what you do I can tell you what I use mine for the 2500@3200 speeds had tough time beating my 2.4@3.0ghz let alone even beating it at stock 2.4ghz.....

Cinebench 2003 (Raytrace rendering)

P4 3.5 = 420
P4 3.0 = 361 (16.3%)
P4 2.4 = 289 (45.3%)
3200+ = 269 (56.1%)

SuperPi 2mb (general computing)

P4 3.5 = 1:34
P4 3.0 = 1:48 (14.9%)
3200+ = 1:50 (17.0%)
P4 2.4 = 2:11 (39.3%)

TMPGenc v2.52 HT on (Mpeg2 encoding)

P4 3.5 = 2:08
P4 3.0 = 2:29 (16.4%)
P4 2.4 = 3:05 (44.5%)
3200+ = 3:16 (53.2%)

Besweet Wav to AC3 encoding

P4 3.5 = 3:43
3200+ = 4:19 (16.1%)
P4 3.0 = 4:21 (17.0%)
P4 2.4 = 5:06 (37.2%)

WMV codec 9.0

P4 3.5 = 62.563fps
P4 3.0 = 54.510fps (14.8%)
3200+ = 46.543fps (34.4%)
P4 2.4 = 44.312fps (41.1%)

Divx 5.10pro Xmpeg 4.5

P4 3.5 = 70.483fps
P4 3.0 = 61.457fps (14.7%)
3200+ = 53.623fps (31.4%)
P4 2.4 = 50.742fps (38.9%)



Again I don't know what are your uses...If you game which I don't I would think they would be too close or you would be better off getting a better vid card and leave it alone...

If you multitask then the HT of the p4 3.0 can help you there as well....

 

[Williama1018]

As far as cooling, i'm using a Dr Thermal extreme with a Delta pushin 68 cfm, with AS 3. The temps have stayed under 50 C. This is my third CPU this week, i bought another 2500 on Monday, not impressed, went with a 3200, VERY not impressed, went back with the 2500. The 3200 would hit 215 FSB but again, the damn multiplier was locked so all I could get was 11Xwhatever. I want a puter that will do encoding for backing up my own personal DVD's AND play games good, nice frame rates an all that. My next move is to get an ATI X800, but thats down the road a lil when they drop the prices under 300, as I just bought an AIW 9800 Pro in October (399). I figured the wings would do better than they did, but EVERYONE knows we dont have CHIT for sports teams here lol, we only make cars lol.

 

[myocardia]

I agree, but he may very well have one of the newest XP2500's, alot of which are topping out at ~185mhz.

 

[Williama1018]

correctomondo, this chip is an 04 model, I tried to find a pre week 39, but coudlnt find one. The other 2500 I had was a 0341, missed it by a few weeks there lol.

 

[Williama1018]

no ideas?

 

[SickBeast]

yes: get a mobile 2500+ and you won't be disappointed!!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Williama1018
no ideas?

My idea is to get yourself a mobile Barton. Here's a link to how it compares to a 3.2ghz P4 (Prescott, though, not Northwood), when overclocked to 2.5ghz: link.

edit: Oh, I just thought of something. That HyperX PC4000 is known for not being able to run tight timings at any speed (133 mhz doesn't count). Were you trying to run it at 200mhz with fairly tight timings?

 

[Williama1018]

Ok, one last input. I dont want to get something that I have to monster overclock just to "match" something that DONT have to overclock. I do upgrades once, MAYBE twice every couple of years. So I need something that will not only do what I need it to do, but also last a two year cycle before it blows up lol. When it comes to overclocking, I am NOT a massive overclocker and dont want to push something so that it will only last me a few months. I really appreciate all u guys helpin me here, thanks. The memory was at 8-3-3-2.5, i think. I have gotten it down to 7-2-2-2.5, but that was the lowest it would go.

 

[SickBeast]

As long as you don't go over 1.80v, the chip will last you many years beyond its obsolescence. Chips only die in a few months if you go insane and push the voltage to really high levels, which is not even possible on your motherboard.

These chips overclock VERY easily. You just need to get over your unfounded fears of the situation.

Overclocked, the mobile barton chip should last you a couple of years no problem.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
As long as you don't go over 1.80v, the chip will last you many years beyond its obsolescence. Chips only die in a few months if you go insane and push the voltage to really high levels, which is not even possible on your motherboard.

These chips overclock VERY easily. You just need to get over your unfounded fears of the situation.

Overclocked, the mobile barton chip should last you a couple of years no problem.

Exactly, I've yet to see a mobile 2500 that wouldn't do 2.4ghz at 1.75v (actual) or less.