P4 2.53/2.66 or Xp 2600/2700 for gaming and maybe some Bryce work

[montyface]

I'm selling an Xp 2400+ to a relative. I've been giving serious thought to trying a P4 on a Aopen, Asus, or MSI 845PE board. Is anyone running a P4 along with an Xp? I'm using a KT4 Ultra with my Xp. I'm curious what if any performance difference the faster fsb of the Intel will be. I don't really plan to overclock whichever way I go. I've seen different benchmarks show either chip on top, depending on the reviewer. Whichever board I use, I would like to be able to fit my adjustable YS Tech fan on top to keep things quiet.

 

[mechBgon]

There are some aftermarket heatsinks for either type of CPU which will take your YS Tech 80mm fan, such as some of the Swiftechs, Alphas or Thermalrights. Alpha PAL8045 for AMD, Alpha PAL8942 for Pentium4.

If you won't overclock, then consider using RDRAM on i850E, instead of the i845PE, if you end up using a Pentium4 system. It seems to unleash the P4's potential better than even the dual-channel-DDR setup does, barring overclocking, which you said you didn't plan on.

For AMD, it looks like nForce2 is the platform of choice for virtually any scenario, with some spectacular performance gains in SPEC benchmarks and noticable gains in many others, compared to other AMD chipsets such as KT333 and KT400. It supports every SocketA CPU made to date and probably will support every future SocketA CPU as well. Great onboard 5.1 sound too (provided the manufacturer is using the MCP-T southbridge, such as with the EPoX 8RDA+ and A7N8X-Deluxe).

As you have apparently seen, different CPUs have different strengths. The price gap between AMD and Intel has closed in a lot of performance points, with the exception of the $700 area, where Intel is going it alone with the 3.06GHz P4.

Afterthought: is your 2400+ not fast enough for you? Maybe you should pick up an nForce2 board, set it up with two or more identical sticks of RAM to enable the dual-DDR capability, and see if you like it. EPoX 8RDA+ is around $110-120 shipped, and I haven't heard any complaints about it not accepting big heatsinks.

Afterthought 2: got a good video card? That's where the gaming performance is going to be made or broken.

 

[montyface]

The 2400+ is plenty quick, but my relative wants a computer. What better way to scratch the upgrade itch than with the sale of my current rig. I have a Radeon 8500 128 meg card that works fine. I've never installed a P4 heatsink before so I don't know what to expect, especially with an aftermarket cooler. I would like to use a Thermalright AX-478 if I knew that it would fit. I want to stay away from Rambus if possible. I've had very good luck with Crucial memory and would like to continue using it. Would I see a difference in gaming with the Intel 845PE over a KT400 or N-Force2? I haven't used Intel since Slot 1 so I'm out of date with their products.

 

[mechBgon]

I did a quick Google search and one of the reviews I found had a P4 2.53GHz with DDR333 on i845PE, as well as an EPoX KT400 board and an ABIT NF2 board. Close enough for government work...? Review at Hexus (edit: by the way, do note that there are two results for each of the AMD boards: one with the multiplier and fsb at default 133/133 settings, and one with the same overall 2.0GHz clockspeed but with the multiplier lowered and the memory/CPU speeds raised to 166MHz/166MHz. Plus they test the nF2 in the worst-case scenario also: one stick of RAM and asynchronous operation.)

I still think it's the video card which will make the big difference. Not only in gaming, but in an OpenGL- or Direct3D-accelerated Bryce environment.

 

[montyface]

Thanks for the link. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I was hoping the P4 would perform better. After switching video cards to ATI, I thought I was done with NVidia. More reading to do I guess. When you're at 150 fps, does a 2 or 3 fps difference really matter?

 

[mechBgon]

I guess the other question you want to ask yourself is whether you would take the alternate route to the 2.4GHz area by getting a lower chip and overclocking it, such as a 1.8A Northwood. Not guaranteed to get there, of course, but it sounds like you intend to get a cooler that takes an 80mm fan, and they're all pretty compotent. Anyway, that could save you about $90 on the CPU...

 

[montyface]

I always run at stock speeds. If I overclock it's just to see if the chip will do it, then it's back to stock speeds.