Point me in the right direction!!

[Syntax]

Please point me in the right direction! You guys have posted great recomendations.....!!

Here's the deal..... Building a new system for Gaming (Red Faction Rocks!) Not into overclocking and trying to keep on a semi budget..... (The most $$ will be put into mobo and proc...)

AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Processor w/QuantiSpeed? Architecture* and Soyo Dragon+ Motherboard Approx $349
(PC2100)

OR

Intel® P4 1.6GHz Processor and Intel® P4 Motherboard Approx $299
(SDRAM)

Also whats your opinion on the SDRAM PC133 Vs. PC2100 ?

Appreciate it!!!

 

[Grendel99]

A Pentium 4 with SDRAM is going to get PIMP slapped to hell and back by an Athlon XP with DDR (which is the PC2100). I would recommend going for the Athlon, as it is cheaper than a P4 and is faster in most cases. If you want to go the P4 route, get a P4 board that supports DDR PC2100 or RDRAM (more expensive though). I'm sure someone else can give you some more info. Also look around for reviews etc about the two processors. Anand has two good articles on the XP2000+ vs P4 Northwood and a big review of a bunch of P4 DDR based boards.

 

[microAmp]

<< AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Processor w/QuantiSpeed? Architecture* and Soyo Dragon+ Motherboard Approx $349
(PC2100)
Appreciate it!!! >>

 

[tcrosson]

Hands down the AMD/DDR rig.

Be sure not to insult the system with a cheap video card though!

 

[Syntax]

Thanks for the recommendations! If the Intel was with DDR would you still have the same recommendation?

GeForce 3 Is going into this rig!!

 

[PH0ENIX]

The XP with DDR is a superior system to the P4, though the margin is narrowed by pairing the P4 with DDR or RDRAM.

My suggestion, if you were thinking Intel, is to get a NORTHWOOD core P4, and pair it with either DDR or Rambus RDRAM.
Then, you might finally have an Intel machine worthy of comparison with the athlon...

As far as my opinion of SDRAM vs DDR-SDRAM...
DDR is superior for basically any platform.
Although the s370 P3 DDR platform is not only rare, but doesn't offer enough of a performance increase to justify the price difference;
Mine was quite cheap, so I went with it. $45 a stick for 256mb DDR, and thats .au $s 😉

RDRAM has it's ups and downs, but it's definately the best partner for the P4.

 

[killumanati]

Definitley go for the Athlon setup..I would probably get the XP1700+ as this has a better price performance ration....


REMEMBER GAMERS RULE!!!!!

 

[microAmp]

<< Thanks for the recommendations! If the Intel was with DDR would you still have the same recommendation?
GeForce 3 Is going into this rig!! >>



I'm an AMD person but if a person wanted me to build a Intel computer for them I would go with the Northwood P4 and nothing less than that, 2.2 GHz or the 2.0 GHz. Also it would either have RDRAM or DDR in it, and most likely the DDR.

But if you are going to get the other P4 with DDR I would still go with the AMD route instead.

 

[FlippyBoy]

if you wanna stick to a budget, then go amd. you'll shave more than $100 right off the top by doing that, and get nearly the same (more in many cases) performance. what video card in particular are you planing on putting into this system? good luck!

 

[Jen]

AMD there is nothing better for price per performance............i just put together a 1800+ and am impressed on how fast it is compared to my bird at 1600mhz.



Jen

 

[Muadib]

Go with the AMD.