need a cpu upgrade recommendation

[nikko]

I'm looking to upgrade my cpu/mobo. Now, I should tell you that I usually upgrade once a year or so, so all I really need to take into consideration is how whatever I buy will perform over the next 12-15 months. That said, the CPUs I've narrowed down my choices to are the P4-3.0EGHz/800 Sock 478 Prescott and the P4-3.0CGHz/800 Sock 478 Northwood. Can anyone tell me what the difference between the two is? Is one better than the other?

Also, I don't mean to open up a can of worms here between the AMD/Intel enthusiasts, but what advantages/disadvantages would I get by considering an AMD chip? I really don't know much about them, but for the same price as either of those P4s, I can get a Athlon 64 3000+. How does it compare? Most of the performance I'm looking for is in gaming (i.e. Doom 3, Half-Life 2 when it comes out). But again, I'm only going to have this chip for a year or so. Are whatever advantages it has over Intel in terms of gaming ability going to be immediately apparent? i.e. am I going to be better off now or not until software makers catch up sometime down the road?

Also, I do quite a bit of video editing, photoshop work, and mp3 compression on my computer. Which chip, if either, has the advantage on that front?

Thanks a ton for your feedback.

 

[Pathogen03]

Id suggest you stick with Intel, as your motherboard is allready for intel, and factoring the price of a new motherboard as well as cpu would leave you still in the Athlon XP range.


In 3.0E vs 3.0C, in my COMPLETELY unprofessional opinion, i believe the C is better than the E before 3.3-3.4Ghz...

Not to mention more overclockability and cooler running.

--edit--
oh, about the difference: the C is a northwood core. the E is the prescott. right now prescott has no real advantage, except it will scale to higher Ghz later in the year. Oh yeah, and people generally think it runs a bit slower than the Northwood.

 

[Docomo]

Nikko, I am definately in the same boat as you are , I am building a second system mostly for video editing and file conversions. Iv:e done a fair amount of research and here are the conclusions I came up with:

- The Intel chips tend to perform a little stronger in video editing, especially when the clock cycles are high. I seriously looked into the AMD offereings and I really wanted to give AMD another try ( I haven:t had an AMD chip since the days when you could swap out a Intel chip for an AMD chip on the same motherboard). Unfortunately, and partly do to my general lack of experiance with recent AMD chips, I Just think that a nice solid Intel chip would be the safest bet.

- The northwoods are Fine CPUs and I really dont think that the extra $ for the Prescott (3.0E) is worth it. I have had my 2.4C running at 3.0Ghz and its a very good performer and handles most of what I throw at itwithout bogging down, though ocasionally a file will convert out of sync if I really tax the system.

One option that I am seriously considering (and mainly due to the fact that this is a second system) is the 2.4A (which is the prescott but without hyper threading and a 533 mhz bus). video editing and mp3 encoding tends to be very clock dependant and there are some good results in Over Clocking the 2.4A in to the 3.2-3.4 range which would really be a nice thing since the 2.4A is only about 150$ and a 865 Mother board is 100$ or lower.

I hope my opinion helps

 

[AristoV300]

The current prescotts(3.2e) do not perform as well as the northwoods at current speeds(3.2c). Mostly due to the longer pipelines and heat issues. You will see them start to shine at the 3.6~3.7 range. SO for now I would stick with the c for the 478 pin.

 

[Sylvanas]

since your looking for something to do you a year or so. definitely the A64 3000+. for those games you can expect and increase over the intels. and once apps become more 64bit orientated youll be sailing. i dont mean to discredit the intel's offerings, though at the moment the A64's are looking much more attractive.

 

[imported_goku]

You know what I dont understand, I dont understand why AMD cant just make processors that fit in Intel sockets. Before it was because Intel wanted the LVL 2 Cache to be as fast as the processor so they put it on the cartridge since they were not able to integrate it into the CPU (PII). For some reason they also did this with some PIIIs which is why they stopped at 1GHZ since they could embed it into the core. Then they have the Socket 370 PIIIs so couldnt AMD have then made chips that would fit that socket agian? Or couldnt they have done this when they introduced the P4 and AMD had thier socketed Processors. I really miss the good old days of being able to choose with out being forced to a particular brand. AMD doesnt have anything special except the fact they take technologies from intel after they're consider "old". Or vise versa where it would be intel on AMD boards (but I know intel wouldnt do that). WHY OH WHY!

 

[nikko]

Thanks for the replies. Anyone else wanna chime in?

 

[Falloutboy]

Originally posted by: goku2100
You know what I dont understand, I dont understand why AMD cant just make processors that fit in Intel sockets. Before it was because Intel wanted the LVL 2 Cache to be as fast as the processor so they put it on the cartridge since they were not able to integrate it into the CPU (PII). For some reason they also did this with some PIIIs which is why they stopped at 1GHZ since they could embed it into the core. Then they have the Socket 370 PIIIs so couldnt AMD have then made chips that would fit that socket agian? Or couldnt they have done this when they introduced the P4 and AMD had thier socketed Processors. I really miss the good old days of being able to choose with out being forced to a particular brand. AMD doesnt have anything special except the fact they take technologies from intel after they're consider "old". Or vise versa where it would be intel on AMD boards (but I know intel wouldnt do that). WHY OH WHY!

because amd wanted to use slot 1 and socket 370 but intel said no and since they held the pattent on the bus they were using amd couldn't do anything about it which forced them to build thier own platform

 

[Zebo]

This is a pretty cool idea since the chip is only $120 and comes with free intel bunny form newegg. http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjAz

I'd probably get an IS7 for $90 though.

 

[clarkey01]

dont bother with the E's, go P4C, if you wanna BBQ yeah get a prescott, als theres this ideal prescott over takes northwood come 3.4-3.6 Ghz, which aint really true since northwood still beats it. Go northwood

 

[Grimbones]

Prescott's are trouble, stay away... Also, in gaming apps A64 is better in performance, but since you're more of a video editor i'd go with the P4.C, those can be overclocked better too...i heard the 2.4C can be overclocked to like 3.2....just another option...