Intel or AMD?

[PlatinumGold]

here's what i have:

1. good case ATX, LianLi
2. good Power Supply, Antec TrueBlue 550
3. Dual Layer DVD Writer
4. 17" Dell LCD w/ DVI

everything else is in the air.

I'm not looking to build a gaming machine, more a HTPC, will probably use a New AIW ATI card.

I do want a 64 bit CPU. I've been offered an Intel 660, 3.6 ghz w/ 2 mb cache for $670.00
I'm looking at the MSI 925X Neo Plat.

obviously the CPU is probably overkill. but it seems like a pretty good deal (pricewise).

anyway, i'm open to suggestions. i'm looking to build this in about 3 weeks.

 

[PlatinumGold]

no thoughts?

 

[amol]

if you are going for an HTPC, i would avoid prescotts as they require a TON OF COOLING

which means more noise

 

[thegimp03]

$670 for a cpu is overkill...Get an a64 3000+ for about 150-170, get a decent 939 motherboard for about 100-130, and 1 gb of ram for 140, and you're still sitting at 1/2 the price of the p4 cpu alone.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Amol
if you are going for an HTPC, i would avoid prescotts as they require a TON OF COOLING

which means more noise

good thought.

i'm just a little burned with A64 tho. i've had so many problems with my various a64 cpus and msi K8N and K8T motherboards. are the Nforce 4 boards a bit less finicky?

 

[ribbon13]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-049&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-501&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-440&depa=0

 

[ribbon13]

What kind of tv are you outputting to?

 

[UsandThem]

AMD is known for not being as good as Intel. Their chips are slower, use less new technology, run hot, and have been know to catch on fire.

Intel chips run cool and they beat AMD processor performance by at least 70% across the board.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
What kind of tv are you outputting to?

nothing fancy.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: UsandThem
AMD is known for not being as good as Intel. Their chips are slower, use less new technology, run hot, and have been know to catch on fire.

Intel chips run cool and they beat AMD processor performance by at least 70% across the board.

hahahahaha, this is a parody right?

 

[UsandThem]

The above post was just a parady of what people post here sometimes.

Both are good choices, but I just from Intel to an Athlon64 3000+ Winchester. This thing runs fast and cool.

 

[MisterChief]

AMD 64. End o' story.

(Wish those were out before I spent $ on a Prescott.)

 

[ribbon13]

VIVO! If you reall want a tuner it's better to get a seperate.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-412&depa=0

 

[DaveSimmons]

With a Hauppage PVR-150 for hardware MPEG2 encoding, CPU speed can be under 1 GHz for recording, and you only need a 1 GHz CPU for playback of even MPEG4/divx formats.

What are all the things you want to do with the HTPC, and why do you care about 64 bitness?

 

[suse920]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: UsandThem
AMD is known for not being as good as Intel. Their chips are slower, use less new technology, run hot, and have been know to catch on fire.

Intel chips run cool and they beat AMD processor performance by at least 70% across the board.

hahahahaha, this is a parody right?

ITS all TRUEoneoneoneone1111111SHIFT!!!!!!!!1111
my dellzzzzz has a PENTIUM !!!!!111111
PENTIUM>AMDZZZZZ
I <3 THE FREE SMILIES!!!!111

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
With a Hauppage PVR-150 for hardware MPEG2 encoding, CPU speed can be under 1 GHz for recording, and you only need a 1 GHz CPU for playback of even MPEG4/divx formats.

What are all the things you want to do with the HTPC, and why do you care about 64 bitness?

not really. it's kind of my Toy PC. i have a Dual Xeon 2.4 w/ 2 gb of Ram as my primary work PC (work at home PC i mean). this is my Toy, Extravagant PC. i'm looking to spend a lot of money on it. i want a HIGH END processor, mb A64 4000 or the Intel 660 with appropriate memory, HD, Video Card (well i'm limiting myself a bit here as i don't do any gaming so i'll go with an AIW).

not really concerned about Hi Def.

 

[ribbon13]

http://www.pchdtv.com/hd_3000.html

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: UsandThem
AMD is known for not being as good as Intel. Their chips are slower, use less new technology, run hot, and have been know to catch on fire.

Intel chips run cool and they beat AMD processor performance by at least 70% across the board.

**EDIT**

it was a joke.

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: UsandThem
AMD is known for not being as good as Intel. Their chips are slower, use less new technology, run hot, and have been know to catch on fire.

Intel chips run cool and they beat AMD processor performance by at least 70% across the board.

BAN!:thumbsdown::evil:

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
With a Hauppage PVR-150 for hardware MPEG2 encoding, CPU speed can be under 1 GHz for recording, and you only need a 1 GHz CPU for playback of even MPEG4/divx formats.

What are all the things you want to do with the HTPC, and why do you care about 64 bitness?

not really. it's kind of my Toy PC. i have a Dual Xeon 2.4 w/ 2 gb of Ram as my primary work PC (work at home PC i mean). this is my Toy, Extravagant PC. i'm looking to spend a lot of money on it. i want a HIGH END processor, mb A64 4000 or the Intel 660 with appropriate memory, HD, Video Card (well i'm limiting myself a bit here as i don't do any gaming so i'll go with an AIW).

not really concerned about Hi Def.

If you are going to do that, why not try an FX-55 so you can OC and play with it !

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
With a Hauppage PVR-150 for hardware MPEG2 encoding, CPU speed can be under 1 GHz for recording, and you only need a 1 GHz CPU for playback of even MPEG4/divx formats.

What are all the things you want to do with the HTPC, and why do you care about 64 bitness?

not really. it's kind of my Toy PC. i have a Dual Xeon 2.4 w/ 2 gb of Ram as my primary work PC (work at home PC i mean). this is my Toy, Extravagant PC. i'm looking to spend a lot of money on it. i want a HIGH END processor, mb A64 4000 or the Intel 660 with appropriate memory, HD, Video Card (well i'm limiting myself a bit here as i don't do any gaming so i'll go with an AIW).

not really concerned about Hi Def.

I would go with a Athlon 64 3500+ with a Nforce4 motherboard like the DFI motherboard. That would make you go to PCI Express for your video card. I don't know what the availabilty of AIW cards are right now for PCI Express.

You really want to go from $315.00 for the 3500+ (2.2 Ghz) to $720 for the 4000+ (2.4 Ghz)?

The nice thing is you don't have to go to DDR2 with the Nforce4 board as you would have to with the current Intel offerings. DDR2 is really not even worth it right now. Maybe it will be in a few years, or maybe it will go the way of Rambus, who knows for sure

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: UsandThem

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
With a Hauppage PVR-150 for hardware MPEG2 encoding, CPU speed can be under 1 GHz for recording, and you only need a 1 GHz CPU for playback of even MPEG4/divx formats.

What are all the things you want to do with the HTPC, and why do you care about 64 bitness?

not really. it's kind of my Toy PC. i have a Dual Xeon 2.4 w/ 2 gb of Ram as my primary work PC (work at home PC i mean). this is my Toy, Extravagant PC. i'm looking to spend a lot of money on it. i want a HIGH END processor, mb A64 4000 or the Intel 660 with appropriate memory, HD, Video Card (well i'm limiting myself a bit here as i don't do any gaming so i'll go with an AIW).

not really concerned about Hi Def.

I would go with a Athlon 64 3500+ with a Nforce4 motherboard like the DFI">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2337</a> motherboard. That would make you go to PCI Express. I don't know how the availabilty of AIW cards are right now for PIC Express.

You really want to go from $315.00 for the 3500+ (2.2 Ghz) to $720 for the 4000+ (2.4 Ghz)?

The nice thing is you don't have to go to DDR2 with the Nforce4 board as you would have to with the current Intel offerings.

thing is, i really want to get a CUTTING edge system.

i have 2 sticks of PC400 DDR 512 mb each sitting doing nothing right now. i also have an ATI 9600 AIW doing nothing also. so if i think like that. i could say, ok, i'll spend $500.00 on MB, CPU and HD and be done with it.

but i want to get a very high end system.

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

thing is, i really want to get a CUTTING edge system.

i have 2 sticks of PC400 DDR 512 mb each sitting doing nothing right now. i also have an ATI 9600 AIW doing nothing also. so if i think like that. i could say, ok, i'll spend $500.00 on MB, CPU and HD and be done with it.

but i want to get a very high end system.

A 3500+, with the DFI motherboard, a nice X600 or X800 AIW, a fast hard drive (maybe one of new ones with 16mb of cache (or Raptor) would qualify as a very high end system to me

The actual difference of going from 2.2 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz on the CPU is not going to be noticeable I wouldn't think. I would load it up with two gigs of Cas 2 ram and other stuff first. That is what is going to make your system feel fast.

But hey, its your money, and if you want the 4000+ over the 3500+ go for it

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: UsandThem

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

thing is, i really want to get a CUTTING edge system.

i have 2 sticks of PC400 DDR 512 mb each sitting doing nothing right now. i also have an ATI 9600 AIW doing nothing also. so if i think like that. i could say, ok, i'll spend $500.00 on MB, CPU and HD and be done with it.

but i want to get a very high end system.

A 3500+, with the DFI motherboard, a nice X600 or X800 AIW, a fast hard drive (maybe one of new ones with 16mb of cache (or Raptor) would qualify as a very high end system to me

The actual difference of going from 2.2 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz on the CPU is not going to be noticeable I wouldn't think. I would load it up with two gigs of Cas 2 ram and other stuff first. That is what is going to make your system feel fast.

But hey, its your money, and if you want the 4000+ over the 3500+ go for it

I haven't made any decisions yet. it's just my personality.

i could see myself saying, hmm, i compromised on the price of the CPU, why not cut here, cut there and then say, shoot, why am i spending all this money.

i guess it's the smart way to buy.

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

I haven't made any decisions yet. it's just my personality.

i could see myself saying, hmm, i compromised on the price of the CPU, why not cut here, cut there and then say, shoot, why am i spending all this money.

i guess it's the smart way to buy.

Ever since I have been into computers, I've only had two rules for my purchases:

1. Never buy the newest top of the line CPU as the price is so inflated. Go one or two spots down.

2. Never buy a video card that cost more than my entire computer

I remember back in the PII days, a PII350 would cost $450.00 and a PII400 that was just released would cost $1000.00. Then the PII450 came a month later for $1000.00, the PII400 went to $500.00, and the PII350 went to $300.00.

It is a never ending price gouging for the top CPU out.