p4 1.8A or athlon 1.8+ (considering I have 512 pc2100 already) while waiting for opteron

[jkresh]

I am upgrading from athlon 1.4 (using in second system), and have two 256meg pc2100 (crucial) chips, so I would like to use them in the new system (will get 256 to put in the old along with a 128 pc2100 that I have laying around), I have been an AMD user since the days of the k6 2, had a k6 2, athlon 600, now 1.4, and soon to be either XP or p4 1.8A (at 2.4), the question is, with my current memory situation is the p4 worth the extra 60$, and if so which motherboard (looking at sis645DX though if the 648 is out in the next week or so I would go with that)? If it wasn?t for the great overclockability of the 1.8A I wouldn?t even think of going p4 since I am partial to AMD but the extra 900 MHz and 184k of cache is kind of hard to ignore. Also do the new p4 motherboards have special case requirements, I am putting it in an Antec 1080b, but in about a year (or whenever the opteron gets to a good price) I will be upgrading again, and will put this in my brothers machine (athlon 600), I know his power supply is p4 compliant but I don?t have a clue about the case and if I cant use that case it adds another 50 to the price of the p4 (to move his machine next year) and may move it out of contention (though his current case is not great so having to get a new one wont be that bad). Thanks!

 

[CrazySaint]

ANY current motherboard (P4 or Athlon) will require an ATX case. If you plan on overclocking, then you should get the 1.8A, though that RAM will limit your OC a bit (at least, it will prevent you from running the higher mem ratios at higher FSBs), but PC2100 will take your 1.8A to at least 2.4GHz using a 1:1 ratio.

 

[jkresh]

the older computer definitely has an ATX case, thanks for the info