Buying Decision: Pentium 4 or Athlon 64

[Teclis2323]

Hey guys,
Most of my searches turn up the group consensus that AMD is a better chip in the long-run, especially regarding gaming. Here's a question that I have about AMD vs. Intel regarding Photoshop.

First, the setup: My brother and I are both using AthlonXP rigs, and they have, for the most part, been very stable and satisfactory. I have built quite a few rigs, but I still consider myself a newbie Well, a recent power surge, coupled with the failure of my brother's surge protector, means that we'll be buying a new motherboard and processor for my brother.

He mainly uses Adobe Photoshop, as well as a plethora of multimedia apps and high-memory apps. We're trying to decide what type of processor to purchase: either a Pentium 4 or an Athlon64. We don't have a lot of money to work off of, so we're considering either the Pentium 4 Prescott or the Athlon 64 NewCastle...

Opinions?

 

[Unkno]

since you don't have much money, you should look for the cheapest Athlon64 VENICE and just use the stock heatsink. That way, you can overclock the cpu decently and not have to worry about the cost of a better heatsink. If you go for the intel, it would be pretty hard to overclock with the stock heatsink since it runs at a high temperature.

 

[Teclis2323]

Is the Venice a particularly better core than the clawhammer or prescott? I'll go research it now!

Thank you for your advice - does everyone agree?

 

[aLeoN]

Venice is made on the "newer" 90nm manufacturing process, clawhammer was 130nm I believe. Smaller means more stuff can fit in the same place and/or less heat created due to less power usage.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I would go with an A64 as others have said it runs cooler and overclocks better. And if you go with the Prescott you will have to buy DDR2 ram, where with the A64 you can reuse the ram you have.

The ultimate setup for Photoshop and multi-media would be the X2 3800+ dual core paired with 2gbs of ram.

 

[Unkno]

oh yea, i forgot to mention during my above post....i noticed that your comp died of a power surge, have you ever considered buying an UPS with AVR? This should save your computer next time when there's a power surge or brownout.

 

[Teclis2323]

Oh man, thank you guys! My bro is very excited with his selection:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 1GHZ FSB Socket 939 E-series Venice Core
ASUS A8V Socket 939 VIA K8T800 Pro ATX AMD Motherboard
and the tour-de-force, Antec Performance I P180 case!

Edit - He already has 1.5GB of DDR400, so we hope his rig will run fast! Now I can't wait (although I will have to) to upgrade mine. I can't even imagine what it will be like when I begin buying parts, but I'm thinking Athlon 64X2 with dual Geforce 7000-series SLI cards... of course, by that time, a computer like that will cost about $400, because I won't be upgrading for a while.

Thank you all so much for your help

 

[Teclis2323]

PS - what do you all think?

And Unkno - my brother actually has a battery backup thing, but he left it at school, and thought he was safe ARGH.

 

[themusgrat]

A64 rules. I use an APC, and nothing has ever happened.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Teclis2323
PS - what do you all think?

And Unkno - my brother actually has a battery backup thing, but he left it at school, and thought he was safe ARGH.

Looks good, the only thing I would change would be add another 512 stick of memory, one of the main advantages of s939 is dual channel memory. With 1.5gb 3x512 you won't be able to run dual channel with 4x512 you will. It won't make a big difference so not something you have to do rightaway, but still would be worth it.

 

[Hacp]

I would go with the Pentium 4, especially if your going to be doing alot of video transcoding (I do alot of converting to rip onto DVDs).

 

[DrMrLordX]

X2s are powerful when it comes to Photoshop(and a lot of other things). It may be out of your price range, but it would be worth your while to get one. a 3800+ maybe?