I'm oldschool and I need some help

[kethnaab]

I have been out of the loop in the technological world for some time. To give you an example, my "turbocharged" system that I have (still) was absolute cutting edge at the time.

I built it with a T-Bird 700 that overclocked BEAUTIFULLY to 1.33, an IWill KK266 with the ATA-RAID onboard, and a brand-spankin' new GeForce 3.

That was DEFINITELY cutting edge at the time. The P4 had just been introduced, and underperformed in a nasty manner, compounded by the (at the time, at least) dismal performance (and sickenly high price) of RAMBUS.

As far as CPU's go, anyone mind giving me a very brief catchup? I just want to have a basic idea of what I'm looking at while I'm pouring through Anandtech's guides. Thanks.

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: kethnaab
I have been out of the loop in the technological world for some time. To give you an example, my "turbocharged" system that I have (still) was absolute cutting edge at the time.

I built it with a T-Bird 700 that overclocked BEAUTIFULLY to 1.33, an IWill KK266 with the ATA-RAID onboard, and a brand-spankin' new GeForce 3.

That was DEFINITELY cutting edge at the time. The P4 had just been introduced, and underperformed in a nasty manner, compounded by the (at the time, at least) dismal performance (and sickenly high price) of RAMBUS.

As far as CPU's go, anyone mind giving me a very brief catchup? I just want to have a basic idea of what I'm looking at while I'm pouring through Anandtech's guides. Thanks.

what's the major use of this computer?

if it's for heavy CPU and GPU tasks, how muc hare you willing to spend?

 

[screw3d]

Basically - AMD Athlon XPs if you are on budget, P4s if you have a little more to spend, Athlon64s or FX51s for absolute cutting-edge. I think the best overclockers you can get now are still XP1700/1800/2500. I'm not using any P4s so I'm not sure but prolly one of those P42.6C chips.

 

[kethnaab]

i'm not looking to build one yet, I gotta figure out chipsets and such. 🙂

what are the durons and celerons looking like? durons used to be pretty decent, inexpensive buys.

I notice there seems to be an influx of celerons in laptops as well. After the "original" Celerons (i.e. the OLDSCHOOL 333/300s that were awesome FSB adjustment overclockers) got adjusted, they kinda sucked. Is that still holding true? Thanks!

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: kethnaab
i'm not looking to build one yet, I gotta figure out chipsets and such. 🙂

what are the durons and celerons looking like? durons used to be pretty decent, inexpensive buys.

I notice there seems to be an influx of celerons in laptops as well. After the "original" Celerons (i.e. the OLDSCHOOL 333/300s that were awesome FSB adjustment overclockers) got adjusted, they kinda sucked. Is that still holding true? Thanks!

The current crop of Celerons are not worth the time of day. You will get more for your money with a similar priced XP.

Most of the P4 C's with Hyper Threading and the 800Mhz bus are very good.

The current A64 3200+ is fast but people are waiting for a price drop AFAIK.

The A64 FX51 is a hardcore Dual channel A64. It's fast, but has a price tag to match.

The P4 Extreme Edition is the fastest stock uniprocessor available, but if you can find one and you can afford it, good luck.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: kethnaab
i'm not looking to build one yet, I gotta figure out chipsets and such. 🙂

what are the durons and celerons looking like? durons used to be pretty decent, inexpensive buys.

I notice there seems to be an influx of celerons in laptops as well. After the "original" Celerons (i.e. the OLDSCHOOL 333/300s that were awesome FSB adjustment overclockers) got adjusted, they kinda sucked. Is that still holding true? Thanks!

The current crop of Celerons are not worth the time of day. You will get more for your money with a similar priced XP.

Most of the P4 C's with Hyper Threading and the 800Mhz bus are very good.

The current A64 3200+ is fast but people are waiting for a price drop AFAIK.

The A64 FX51 is a hardcore Dual channel A64. It's fast, but has a price tag to match.

The P4 Extreme Edition is the fastest stock uniprocessor available, but if you can find one and you can afford it, good luck.

There are many many many many many people who would disagree with that statement =)

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: kethnaab
i'm not looking to build one yet, I gotta figure out chipsets and such. 🙂

what are the durons and celerons looking like? durons used to be pretty decent, inexpensive buys.

I notice there seems to be an influx of celerons in laptops as well. After the "original" Celerons (i.e. the OLDSCHOOL 333/300s that were awesome FSB adjustment overclockers) got adjusted, they kinda sucked. Is that still holding true? Thanks!

The current crop of Celerons are not worth the time of day. You will get more for your money with a similar priced XP.

Most of the P4 C's with Hyper Threading and the 800Mhz bus are very good.

The current A64 3200+ is fast but people are waiting for a price drop AFAIK.

The A64 FX51 is a hardcore Dual channel A64. It's fast, but has a price tag to match.

The P4 Extreme Edition is the fastest stock uniprocessor available, but if you can find one and you can afford it, good luck.

There are many many many many many people who would disagree with that statement =)

Ahh, c'mon Jeff. You know I like a little controversy.

And you have to give me some credit. I have lost count of the times I have been accused of being an AMD fanboi....... 😉

 

[zShowtimez]

Chipset of choice
P4 = i865/i875 (ASUS P4C800-E is my choice right now)
AMD = Nforce2 Ultra 400 for XPs at least. As far as 64 and the FX go im not sure