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Is this a good deal on a P4 system?

H

housecat

Banned
Dimension XPS Generation 4 Desktop: Pentium 4 Processor 570 with HT Technology (3.80GHz, 800 FSB) D8336
Microsoft Windows XP Home N7965
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs) D5837
1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive 68KYG
160 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) N4809
160 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) N4810
256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card T7165
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, IEEE 1394 capability J8748
16X DVD ROM Drive N2082
16x DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability C8076

$1564 shipped/tax

What do you guys think? I'm torn.

I need a new system, but dont know if I should get this, or build. I'm entirely capable of building, but I'm older than I was when I started that.. and dont have as much time.
So I dont mind buying prebuilt by any means.. I dont have that "geek honor" that some care so much about. 🙂

Thanks for helping out.
 
here is the system I would build otherwise:

Athlon 64 3000+ winchester $156
Corsair VS1GBKIT400 $142
Chaintech VNF4/Ultra $135
6800GT $470 (or x850xt pe $485)
= 902 (with $470 GT in the price)

antec superlanboy $78
Neopower $100
DVD burner $75
=1156


edit- I already have a 80gig HD (diamondmax plus 9), and 2x diamondmax plus 9 160gigs for raid.
 
I dont like that 3.8 Prescott. It's going to throttle when it gets too warm.


Go AMD and overclock to 2.4 Ghz or higher ( people are hitting 2.7/2.8Ghz now). The athlon does better at math and hence is far better for gaming. Unlesss your primary application is not gaming, say multitasking then go P4. Otherwise, Join the dark side......
 
yeah, just like clarkey01 said, prescotts get UBER-HOT!!

only p4 i would buy is a northwood, and those are pretty much gone . . .

plus 3000+ winchester is about the same, if not better than the 3.8
 
Click the CPU tab at top of the page, and read the Half-Life 2 CPU scaling article. Then on page 2 of the CPU listing read the Doom CPU scaling article.

From those, you'll gather that the 3000+ compares very well to P4s, beating the 3.6E in these modern games. In older games where you don't need the speed (so it doesn't matter) the P4s don't fail as badly, though the 3000+ still at least matches a P4 3.2 - 3.4.

It's up to you whether the large price difference is worth the very small jump in speed plus the convenience of being built for you.
 
also, winnies are very good at overclocking . . .

i've heard of people getting them to 2GHz without changing the voltage
 
Originally posted by: Amol
yeah, just like clarkey01 said, prescotts get UBER-HOT!!

only p4 i would buy is a northwood, and those are pretty much gone . . .

plus 3000+ winchester is about the same, if not better than the 3.8
Click to expand...

Assuming you get a good overclock, at default speeds the P4 will of course beat the A64 quite handily at most anything.
 
Originally posted by: Sunner
Originally posted by: Amol
yeah, just like clarkey01 said, prescotts get UBER-HOT!!

only p4 i would buy is a northwood, and those are pretty much gone . . .

plus 3000+ winchester is about the same, if not better than the 3.8
Click to expand...

Assuming you get a good overclock, at default speeds the P4 will of course beat the A64 quite handily at most anything.
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=2

BARELY

also, you have to take into consideration heat issues
 
Originally posted by: Sunner
Assuming you get a good overclock, at default speeds the P4 will of course beat the A64 quite handily at most anything.
Click to expand...
Not by much in Doom3 or Half-Life 2. Prescott does pretty badly in games.

 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Originally posted by: Sunner
Assuming you get a good overclock, at default speeds the P4 will of course beat the A64 quite handily at most anything.
Click to expand...
Not by much in Doom3 or Half-Life 2. Prescott does pretty badly in games.
Click to expand...

Nah, not by a whole lot, but it will depend, overall the P4 will have a decent edge, though there will of course extreme cases for both CPU's.

Heck, the old 400 MHz G4's beat the pants of P-iii's and Athlons in RC5 back in the day 😉
 
OK OK!! I cant take it anymore!

I'll let go of these stupid prescotts.. unless i see one with a x850 or x800xt 😀

thing is tho, i've had a very hard time finding the parts i want for my new build, its been extremely ridiculous esp in the PCIE field.
 
I'm happy with my P4 3.2C, but that was from the time before intel started bundling a free space heater with every CPU.

For the Dell, consider just getting a 3.6E instead of 3.8E if it will save at least $100. The extra 200 MHz doesn't make much difference, but it will run a little cooler.
 
i dunno man. I'm having extreme doubts on what to do, i need a new system badly (1700+/GF4 4200 here) as I love HL2/CSS.

but i also love to have complete control of my system.

as, if i got a dell i'd need to put a nforce5 (when out) in there anyway to be happy. then theres all this throttling issue crap. that pisses me off.

then the heat/power consumption.. seems ridiculous considering the performance. but i do like HT.

i'll prob build, get the parts i want and be happy. save a buck too.. or just spend what i was going to waste on a prebuilt on more goods. 🙂



one thing i cant get ouf of my mind is that for $1500 i can build a helluva box, like sli 6800gts, or fx55.. all completely possible with my crafty building skillz and reusing certain parts.
 
what would you guys put in that rig in my 2nd post? 6800gt or x850xt pe? i want a 6800ultra. but cant find those in pcie.
 
Originally posted by: housecat
i could purchase that SLI package for $850 from chumbo and sell one of them to a good friend. what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

haha, i wouldn't mind paying you for one of the cards . . . you can keep the psu or sell it on ebay maybe, lol
 
what do you think is a better choice, $460 for GT PCIE or $600 for Ultra?

i never paid much attention to the ultra, but i would like the fastest one 🙂
 
you can always OC a GT to Ultra speeds . . .

IMHO, $120 isn't worth the differences

also, theres a PSU in that $850 deal. . . its probably worth about $60-80, so that brings it down to maybe $380 a card
 
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