P4 or XP???

[MacDude]

I know this is a very common question, but with the reduction in price of the P4 and the inferior clock speed, FSB and cache of the XP, I really don't know what to get anymore. Moneys is not that much of an issue but I like to get the most for the least.

This is what I'm thinking of getting : Gigabyte GA-8IEX Intel i845E with Intel P4 2.4B and DDR 333Mhz RAM.
Is DDR 333Mhz even supported with the P4 yet? Do I simply need to change a few things in the BIOS? Sorry, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to tweaking the mobo, I'm a Mac guy Should I get a mobo with the Intel i845G chipset instead? (Gigabyte GA-8IGX Intel i845G). Only problem is that this mobo comes with Realtek ALC650 PCI sound instead of Creative CT5880.

On the AMD side : Gigabyte GA-7VRXP VIA KT333 with Athlon XP 2100+ and DDR 333Mhz RAM. Should I invest in a KT400 board? Will I be able to upgrade to a Barton or a ClawHammer with this same mobo (by changing the FSB?)?

In the end should I go with Intel or AMD? Please help a very confused newbie

 

[piasabird]

Personally I like the Asus Motherboards. They ooze stability and reliability. Even their AMD motherboards are more stable. They cost more and are worth it. Both the Intel Chipsets and the SIS Chipsets are great quality for P4. Their motherboards are also very easy to set up. You can usually set one jumper to jumper-free and configure everything from the BIOS without setting any more jumpers. When it comes to memory it is probably best to go with DDR. DDR400 tends to be pushing the stability factor, so only use approved memory listed by the motherboard manufacturer. Gigabyte motheroards are in the group of motherboards that are not the best but are good enough to consider. I have one at home in an OEM PII 350 computer that a local shop built for me. It still runs well. The website,

www.adamant.com,

is an OEM shop that likes to use Gigabyte motherboards located in Cincinati, Ohio I do beleive. It is a nice website to visit because they have a drop down configuration menu that will let you see what parts they used for business/gaming systems. For bottom price it is still hard to beat a DELL.

Sound is kind of a personal thing. If you really want the best sound you should use the audigy sound card line from creative. Most motherboards do offer onboard sound and sometimes an onboard Network card that is integrated on the motherboard. All motherboards have USB and some have 1394 firewire as well. Asus offers a motherboard with a 1,000 mbps Ethernet as an optional component and 8x AGP(Fast or Accelerated Grapics Port), but unless you are interested in high-speed cable access or top end graphics, it is probably a little too pricey.

Beware because Audigy sound cards do not like ATI chipsets. I would not use ATI chipsets or AMD processors unless you are stuck on the AMD Athlon Processors. How you decide is based on a few factors. First, the AMD CPU is less expensive in the high end and runs hotter and needs better cooling. Second, the Intel CPU runs cooler on a Retail box CPU Cooler, and I think they are more stable and work better with Geforce Graphics cards, and the drawback is a higher price for the high end processors.

You need some type of graphics card and that is a draw between Geforce4 TI-4200/4600 and Radeon 8500/9700 for gaming and lower end Geforce4MX420/440 or Radeon 9000 for people not into gaming.
There is a lot of selection for graphics cards. There are other companies trying to get into the Graphics Card industry. Trident is making a bid to make its newest desktop Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) compete with Geforce4/Radeon video cards, but I would wait for a benchmark test so you can see a comparison. I havent seen any new Trident video cards, but as soon as they are out, I would bet there will be a benchmark test.

Another website you may want to look at is:

Benchmarks:
www.tomshardware.com

Hardware Forum:
www.pcmech.com

OEM Computer Shop:
www.adamant.com

Favorite Online Store:
www.newegg.com

 

[piasabird]

Here is a site that ranks motherboards and has motherboard tools. There is a site that ranks online stores as well but I cant remember it:

http://www.motherboards.org/motherboard-rank.html

 

[CraigRT]

I have used both P4 and AXP and the AXP's are still quicker.

>IMO<

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: Yield
I have used both P4 and AXP and the AXP's are still quicker.

>IMO<

2.4 Ghz P4 + Rambus thrashes my 1700+ setup IMO the difference is huge

then again the difference should be huge

 

[Markfw]

What are you going to use the computer for ? I am am AMD fan, but there may be things that you use it for that would work better on a P4. I still think that AMD is more bang for the buck though.

 

[Tanked]

Either way, you can't really go wrong - both Intel and AMD offer a ton of performance for your dollar.

No, the P4 is not more stable then the Athlon XP. That's a myth that's been reused over and over. Any instabilities come from the chipset - and I admit that VIA chipsets aren't very good. (Proud user of AMD's 760 chipset!

Athlon XP's also do not run much hotter if you find a Throughbred core, although they are somewhat rare at this point.

 

[ElFenix]

bah, my via chipset is perfectly stable. now my nvidia graphics card... not quite so stable.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
bah, my via chipset is perfectly stable. now my nvidia graphics card... not quite so stable.

Put you Nvidia card in an Intel chipset board & you'll see it become magicaly stable.

Via is unstable IMO

 

[klah]

It depends on the $$$ you are willing to spend. If you want to spend $150 get a XP2200+, $90 a XP2000+ or if you are willing to spend $250 get the P4-2.53. If you choose the intel chip and DDR go with an intel 845e-based board. For the AMD chips go with a Via KT333 board. Here is a good article comparing these chips: www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1615&p=1

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: Tanked
Either way, you can't really go wrong - both Intel and AMD offer a ton of performance for your dollar.

No, the P4 is not more stable then the Athlon XP. That's a myth that's been reused over and over. Any instabilities come from the chipset - and I admit that VIA chipsets aren't very good. (Proud user of AMD's 760 chipset!

Athlon XP's also do not run much hotter if you find a Throughbred core, although they are somewhat rare at this point.

I cant even think of one AMD760 that does not use a VIA Southbridge

IMO stick with an SiS chipset for AMD

hopefully AMD will start making their own chipsets come hammer time

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: klah
It depends on the $$$ you are willing to spend. If you want to spend $150 get a XP2200+, $90 a XP2000+ or if you are willing to spend $250 get the P4-2.53. If you choose the intel chip and DDR go with an intel 845e-based board. For the AMD chips go with a Via KT333 board. Here is a good article comparing these chips: www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1615&p=1

Well, more like spending $195 on a P4 2.26B or about $170 on a P4 2.2A

 

[MacDude]

Wow! Thanks for all the kind replies, I never expected so many I've compared the prices and I think that the Athlon XP is still a much better value than the P4. The mobo's for both cost about the same. I can get a P4 2Ghz for 294 CAN$ and a Athlon XP 2000+ for 184 CAN$. That should be fast enough for me for the moment. After all I'm just a computer engineer not a graphics artist or anything fancy like that As for what I will use the pc for; I want a dual booth Linux/Windows XP. I will be coding in Microsoft Visual C++, watching DivX, DVD's, playing a lot of mp3's and Unreal 2003, a bit of Photoshop, hopefully some Maya if I get the time to learn it.

So I will go with the AMD chip. The RAM will be DDR 333Mhz Samsung. Now I need to choose a mobo. I really want something that will last me a long time, that can be a good overclocker and that can provide support for the new AMD XP's with 333Mhz FSB when they come out. Would the VIA KT 400 be a good chipset? I am interested in the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP VIA (KT400 Chipset). This board supports the 333Mhz FSB for the Barton That way if I decide to change the CPU in a year, it will be a very cheap upgrade. So far, I haven't been impressed with the reviews on TomsHardware. Should I buy a KT 333 mobo instead?

 

[Imported]

My 1.8A@2.6 with RDRAM annihilates my XP2000+ system.. all I need now is another stick of ram and I'll be set for a while.

 

[MacDude]

Why didn't you OC your XP? An XP against a P4 of the same ''clock rating" will be faster in everything exept SSE2 optimized apps.

 

[CrazySaint]

The only trouble is that you can't OC a 2000+ all that much. He might hit 2200+ with it. He could unlock the chip and crank up the FSB but that's about it.

 

[Imported]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
The only trouble is that you can't OC a 2000+ all that much. He might hit 2200+ with it. He could unlock the chip and crank up the FSB but that's about it.

Exactly. My 2000+ doesn't OC well at all, and I don't really want to unlock it. And in actuallity, I only paid $100 or so extra for my P4 setup compared to the XP setup.

 

[CrazySaint]

Right. Where AMD truly shines is the extreme value market where the $100 +/- between AMD and Intel outweighs the Intel OC advantage (not to mention the fact that the $53 1600+ will still yield some pretty impressive OCs). So for about $350-400 you can actually build a "powerful" (by non-enthusiast standards) system sans monitor based on an XP 1600+ and maybe even OC it to around 1.8GHz which will more than suit most people's needs and even have sufficiently powerful graphics to satisfy the occasionally gamer.