Building gaming rig/need CPU advice

[Basco]

Im in the process of building a new gaming rig. I currently have a P2/400 that i plan to give to my wife, and will be building a new one from scratch.

Primary uses will be: GAMES (FPS like Quake, Halflife, RPGS-Baldurs Gate, etc). I dont play racing or flight games. I will also use it for web, office2000, photo editing, etc. I also plan to have a dual boot Win98SE/Win2K config.

After reading the posts, I am heavily considering the AMD Tbird over the Intel P3 because of price/performance.

Does the AMD have any compatability issues when it comes to games? Im willing to spend more if it means the Pentium will be faster and more compatible with games.

Would the P3 be a better choice when it comes to the type of games I listed above?

I know the video card is important, so Im considering on splurging for an ELSA Gladiac Ultra or a GeForce2 GTS.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Mem]

I`ve the following MSI K7T PRO,Geforce2 MX (6.31 drivers)900 T-bird,anyway I have no problems gaming or other wise infact I`m playing Baldur`s Gate2 at the moment,also played Icewind Dale,Wizards & Warriors,Tachyon the Fringe,Star trek Elite forces etc so you can see no problems at all,CPU wise a 900 or 1GHz would be a good choice of course you could go with the MSI K7T PRO2-A & buy something like Duron 700/ 800 or T-bird & overclock it.

 

[paulip88]

No, there are no compatability issues with AMD chips. However, there may be some with Win2k. Since you plan on dual booting, don't expect that to be much of a problem.

In terms of performance, PIIIs do marginally better. However, they also cost a lot more, so the best value would still be the TBird.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

A p3 850 is probably faster than a Tbird 850. But the p3 costs the same as a 1ghz.

 

[UsandThem]

It is not the games that have compatibility problems the Athlon CPU and motherboards for the most part.

You main concern is the other hardware you select for your PC.

If you do searches here in some of the other sections, you will find a lot of user experiences to give you a idea of what parts have problems with the Athlon and Athlon motherboards.

I have a PIII 700 on a Asus CUBX, but it I were to upgrade (which I won't do because I am poor) I would get a 1 Gig Thunderbird and a Asus or MSI motherboard. The new CPU prices for the Athlon are great. I wish the motherboard prices would drop though.

 

[BlueScreenVW]

1. You should definitely go for a T-bird. True, the P3 performs very well in one game (Quake 3 Arena), but the Athlon's superior floating-point/integer capacity really makes a difference in, say, mp3 encoding. Taking the price into account, the choice is really easy.

2. If you have a lot of cash, I'd say Geforce 2 GTS Pro. This is an "almost Ultra" at a pretty good price. Personally, I'd go for a Geforce 2 GTS "ordinary" if I was shopping right now...


Here are some links:
Different CPU:s in Quake 3 Arena
...but the Athlon is better in other games!

 

[Packet]

If you are just focusing on gaming, personly I think you should focus more on the Video Card than the Processor.

As of right now all processors are basicly bottlenecked by the videocards. Your not going to see a huge difference in a 800mhz with a Geforce MX to a 1ghz with a Geforce MX.

I would save a little money on the processor (don't dodge it completely and get a 450 or something) and get a Geforce2 or better.

 

[cmaMath13]

I agree that your focus should be on the video card for game, however, you can get a VERY fast Thunderbird for LESS than $300! So, I would get a 1GHz+ Thunderbird CPU and a GeForce2 GTS OR higher video card.

The compatibility problems were when the ORIGINAL Athlons came out. There are no real issues that I am aware of at this time.

Good luck!