Pentium/AMD XP/or Hammer

[Dior]

Well I've been in need of a new computer for some time now and have been following the hardware news and whatnot. Frankly, I'm sick of waiting and am wondering what I should do...will the hammer (athlon 64) be that much better than the current p4 3.06 or 2.8, and if so how much better. Same goes for the XP 2800...Also I've really only been following the amd side of things and need to know (if i choose to go pentium) what motherboards are the best etc.

 

[microAmp]

Time and benchmarks will tell if the Hammer is going to be extremely good or not. It'll be a while too, 6 months give or take a couple. If you are sick of waiting, top end P4 would be a good choice instead of Athlon, since pricing is all the same. Lower end like 1600+ to 2000+ (maybe lower) would be cheaper to go AMD route.

Depends on how much you are willing to blow.

 

[Dior]

Originally posted by: motoamd

Depends on how much you are willing to blow.

About 2k (USD) Oh and what would be the best time to buy a pentium (any price cuts to be expected?)

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: Dior

Originally posted by: motoamd

Depends on how much you are willing to blow.

About 2k (USD) Oh and what would be the best time to buy a pentium (any price cuts to be expected?)

im banking next august, prices for hardware across the board should drop.

 

[bgeh]

imo, it depends on what you have right now
i have a xp 1700+ and kt266a combo and i'm waiting till hammer or prescott come out
i'll be buying mostly during mid 2004

 

[Dior]

Originally posted by: bgeh
imo, it depends on what you have right now
i have a xp 1700+ and kt266a combo and i'm waiting till hammer or prescott come out
i'll be buying mostly during mid 2004

hmm lets see...not sure about everything but I have a ...300 celeron with a savage 3 192 ram and some other junk...

 

[crisscross]

hmm lets see...not sure about everything but I have a ...300 celeron with a savage 3 192 ram and some other junk...

you definitely need a new computer! I am getting a Epox8RDA+ to replace my Pentium II350 should have it in a couple of days yaaay With your current config u should look at upgrading to a Nforce2 with a cheap XP run it for a year or so and then upgrade atleast that's what I plan to do anyway.

 

[crisscross]

tdas2: u got it mixed up. Bgeh has the XP1700 not Dior.

 

[glugglug]

Price cuts happen the first month of every quarter (January, April, July, October).

Usually the 2nd week I think

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Dior

Originally posted by: bgeh
imo, it depends on what you have right now
i have a xp 1700+ and kt266a combo and i'm waiting till hammer or prescott come out
i'll be buying mostly during mid 2004

hmm lets see...not sure about everything but I have a ...300 celeron with a savage 3 192 ram and some other junk...

DASM! DUDE!!! Looks like you fell from the Upgrade Tree and didn't hit a single branch on the way down!!!!

Why not go cheap, lower end Athlon XP, GF4 4400/4600 or Radeon 9500Pro, etc. That will blow you away and save a hunk of cash that you could use to upgrade later, or something.

 

[ncage]

If i was to get a petium i would want one of the ones with hyperthreading. Intel will start producing pentiums with lower clock freq with hyperthreading in the near future. Otherwise i would go with an AMD XP 2000 or so and get an board based upon the Nforce2 chipeset. I actually have a abit kr7a (kt266a) and an amd xp 1800+ and im quite happy. On the video card thing, if you play 3dgames i would get either a nvidia geforce 4 TI series or a radeon 9500 pro otherwise i would get a cheap video card if you don't. I prefer nvidia only because thier drivers are first class. The radeon is actually a little faster though.

Ncage

 

[Bovinicus]

I would definitely advise against waiting for the Hammer. I know it looks like a very enticing product, but it is just too far off. I think April-May is about the time it is supposed to be released. On top of that, you will probably have to wait a few months before the prices become standard.

 

[bgeh]

Originally posted by: Dior

Originally posted by: bgeh
imo, it depends on what you have right now
i have a xp 1700+ and kt266a combo and i'm waiting till hammer or prescott come out
i'll be buying mostly during mid 2004

hmm lets see...not sure about everything but I have a ...300 celeron with a savage 3 192 ram and some other junk...

i think that you should wait and get a hammer or the p4 800 mhz fsb hyperthreading enabled chip in Q2 2003
it's only 4-6 months away and since you have waited so long,it doesn't hurt for a few months more

 

[JBT]

I would go for something now the improvment from waiting another 6 months is gonna improve what only a couple hundred milliseconds? but you have to wait 6 months screw that and get something nice now. Or go a little cheaper but upgradeable and wait for these new machines to come out.

 

[dullard]

Frankly, I'm sick of waiting and am wondering what I should do...will the hammer (athlon 64) be that much better than the current p4 3.06 or 2.8, and if so how much better. Same goes for the XP 2800.

If you are sick of waiting, then Hammer isn't the chip for you. Not only is it 6 months away, but most likely Hammer will have insignificant performance gains over the top Athlon chip or top P4 chip at the time. Plus you'll be paying quite a large price premium for that Hammer chip - sure that gets you extra features, but at this point in time virtually no home user will use them. I'd focus on the P4 or Athlon if I were you.

Then you need to make your choice as to exactly when you want to buy the computer - since timing depends on which chip to buy. Prices do drop regularly, and a few new chips are just on the horizon.

Price cuts happen the first month of every quarter (January, April, July, October). Usually the 2nd week I think

While that is generally true, they don't have a set schedule that they must follow. Quite frequently it is the 3rd week where we usually see the price cut. But there is an article over at the Inquirer saying the next Intel cut is mid February. I don't know how true it is, but it certainly doesn't point towards an early January cut. AMD will cut prices at about the same time. And quite often memory prices spike in December due to the extra demand around Christmas, so waiting until February will likely get you cheaper memory too (but this one isn't guaranteed).

So can you wait until mid to late February? If so, you'll see nice price cuts. But you'll also see hyperthreading expanded down the Intel line (which will give a nice boost to programs without paying the premium for the 3.06 GHz that is the only chip that currently has hyperthreading.) On the AMD side, Barton should be out about then, which will have a larger cache and that should give a nice boost to *some* programs. I personally would wait until then if I wanted a new computer.

But maybe you cannot wait that long (maybe you want a computer for Christmas). If so, there are some good deals out there. I'd probably get either the 2.4 GHz P4 (533 MHz fsb) or the Athlon 2400+ XP. Both cost about the same, can do quite well on today's programs, and leave a good and clear upgrade path for when prices on faster chips plunge. At that point, I don't see any benefit of either company (AMD or Intel) - just toss a coin, you'll be happy with either.