Pentium4 1.3 or PIII 1.0??

[Flat]

I am building a budget system for a friend who will only take Intel (dummy), and he either wants a P3 1.0 or P4 1.3, it basicly cost the same exept for the RDRAM, which he is willing to pay more for if the P4 is a better option. What do you think P3 or P4?

 

[Shmorq]

If those are the choices, I would go with the P4 since it at least gives you an option of upgrading to a faster processor. Other than the memory, the motherboard probably costs more for the P4 as well... not to mention the better supply required.

 

[boran]

<< If those are the choices, I would go with the P4 since it at least gives you an option of upgrading to a faster processor. Other than the memory, the motherboard probably costs more for the P4 as well... not to mention the better supply required. >>



not really eh .... the socket will change soon, so I dont think either is a good choice .. but I would go for the PIII (avoid integrated video when picking that one !!!)
so that he has some money left so that he can change to an athlon system later when he sees that P4 is utter and total crap (not really but the performance per mhz is waay to low to justify the (in this country) 4 times higher sales price than an athlon sys

 

[dullard]

The P3 1.0 GHz is probably a better machine than a P4 1.3 GHz. However if your friend is willing to upgrade, get the P4 now and upgrade to a 2.0 GHz as soon as the Northwood pushes the regular P4 prices down. I don't feel a 1.3 GHz to 2.0 GHz upgrade an dead end motherboard, others do.

 

[Noriaki]

I doubt there is much percievable difference between the two.
Benchmarks will decide in favour of the P3 1.0Ghz though.

If he doesn't mind the extra bit for Rambus I would go P4 1.3Ghz because then you can upgrade a little bit at least to 1.8Ghz anyways.

The P3 1.0Ghz is it, the Tulatin is coming soon, but it will need new motherboards. So there is nothing faster that you will fit on a current P3 mobo.

Northwood will also require a new mobo over current P4s, but at least with a P4 1.3Ghz you can upgrade at least to a 1.8Ghz...likely 2.0GHz-2.2Ghz.

 

[Flat]

I thought that the Asus boards would work with Tulatin?

 

[Sugadaddy]

<< If he doesn't mind the extra bit for Rambus I would go P4 1.3Ghz because then you can upgrade a little bit at least to 1.8Ghz anyways. >>



That's kind of expensive, don't you think? Already spending too much on the 1.3ghz, then upgrading to a 1.8ghz which won't make a huge difference...

If he's absolutely gotta have Intel, than either go for the cheaper alternative (P3 1ghz), or make him squeeze his wallet right now and get at least 1.5ghz or 1.7ghz. (I'd get 1.7)

Of course an even better decision would be to wait for the new P4 motherboards, or go with an Athlon. (socket-A is here to stay...)

 

[KpocAlypse]

<< I thought that the Asus boards would work with Tulatin? >>



The TUSL2 will, but thats about it... The CUR-DLS might get another revision that will too. (with the serverworks-t chip)


Note: Abit was release BIOS for a few boards - like the be6-2 1.2 and the BX133, that will support the Coppermine-T 1.1 gig chip, so asus might do something similar. Note, the coppermine-t isn't exactly a tully, it appear on the roadmap as a 1.1gig 100mhz, .18 micron, p3...

 

[bacillus]

wouldn't the 1.3 gig have 423 pins which is soon be an old factored chip making upgrading impossible with the newer faster p4 cpus with more pins??

 

[bacteria]

P4 for sure. Not only he will be able to upgrade to atleast 1.8GHz when those become cheaper, but there's a good chance that once the SSE2 optimizations get implemented they'll give a P4 a nice performance boost.

 

[Wingznut]

Definitely the P4. But since the 1.4ghz is only $10 more, get that one instead.

 

[damocles]

P4 without a doubt.

It's slowly getting more support and you will have an upgrade option if needed in the future- in so far as that you can probably pick up a 1.8 cheap in a year or two (which is probably the soonest you would have to consider an upgrade)