Question on Intel vs AMD

[phillyman36]

Basically ive been an intel buyer because its what ive heard i should get. Other than surfing the web i do some video editing light game playing and mp3 stuff. No i hear that the AMD 939 socket is now just as fast or even better than Intel in encoding and things of that nature. Since (please correct me if im wrong) AMD run cooler is there any reason when i do my next major upgrade to stay with Intel or should i just gconvert to AMD. Is there anything i should know about AMD when building my new rig. What problems/faults do these cpu/motherboard/chipsets have.

Basically should i jump ship or stay aboard?

 

[dc5]

jump.

 

[Markfw]

939 is more exspensive than Intel unless you PGA775 (or whatever the new socket is). Personally I like socket 754 right now for mid-stream, but what is the budget ? Socket 939 might be the way to go ! And what parts do you want to upgrade ?

 

[phillyman36]

I was going to redo my whole rig my current specs are

2.8 northwood pd
gigabyte 865pe (ga-819e1000 pro)
512 mgs ram pc 2700 i think
120 gig WD ata drive
nvidia 5700 ultra
antec 550 psu
creative labs sound card (mp3 version)
pioneer 105 dvd burner
toshiba dvd/crw drive

the prescott scares me a little i want good performance. Do i stick with northwood maybe get an 875 board and go up to a 3.2 or 3.4 cpu(northwood)
Do i wait for the prescott with the fsb 1066 an upgrade to that or jump to amd

right now my budget is $600.00 if i do it next month if i wait until October my budget will be about $1000.00

 

[Falloutboy]

if I were you I would hold off on upgrading. no point on dumping 600 dollars into something that really won't increase your performance more than 10%. wait till thier are some PCI-e AMD boards out and go with that a new chip and a 6600GT or 6800GT if you have the money. Would give you a very noticable boost and would have a platform which will be much more upgradable than if you wen to amd now or went with a newer 478 based board

 

[Sheriff]

Depending on how urgent and what your current Rig is I'd too would wait and go AMD because
You'll have more to invest plus prices will drop and you'll want an addition 512MB RAM, not to mention more socket 939 Mobo's will be available (ie. Epox&DFI)

 

[Markfw]

Is your current rig slow at something ? What ? (doesn;t look that bad to me) It doesn't look like a good time to upgrade unless:
1) You have cash burning a hole in your pocket, and that doesn;t look like it with a $600 budget
or
2) You have a task that just takes way too long to run (and what is that )

 

[MrK6]

If you really want to upgrade, get 1GB of PC3200 RAM, as that'll help in your video editing. Also, you could overclock your 2.8C and get a nice performance boost out of it. What's your current cooling set up? Other than that, I'd wait, as your system is pretty good as it is, and nothing out there will give you a huge boost.

 

[phillyman36]

The cooling setup is just the stock hsf.
a) Systems seems to be slowing dow also the gig utilities usually load when i boot but sometimes i get an error and they wont load at all ive done a clean install

b) cables inside my pc(antec amgplus view 1000) are a mess and am looking for a case where i can hide the cables better for better airflow

c) i want to start to get componenets so i dont have to keep upgrading ie motherboard etc which is wyh i was looking at the 939

 

[Viditor]

I would definately jump, but wait until 90nm A64s start shipping next month (price drop).
I am also a video editor (video+editor=viditor), and I work with MANY rigs (I work freelance as a trainer, consultant, and editor) including Intel, AMD, SGI, Quantel, etc...
What I chose for my own rigs is the A64 and Opteron...
One of the main reasons is that I've been playing with some beta apps for video (releasing next year if all goes right) that are written for AMD64...the other of course is that the speed rocks! (I HATE waiting for renders...!)

 

[Viditor]

Another few suggestions...

1. PCIe doesn't seem to make much difference on any of the rigs I've tried it on
2. Be sure to set up with striped SATA drives (Raid 0). The speed is excellent, and the cables are tiny.
3. For video, I've found that the best 64bit is Nvidia (Quadro if you can afford it) by far...for 32 bit, ATI still looks to be the best bang for buck (though the new 6600 from Nvidia looks pretty good!)
4. Don't skimp on your power supply!!! No matter what you end up with, this is crucial...

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: phillyman36
I was going to redo my whole rig my current specs are

2.8 northwood pd
gigabyte 865pe (ga-819e1000 pro)
512 mgs ram pc 2700 i think
120 gig WD ata drive
nvidia 5700 ultra
antec 550 psu
creative labs sound card (mp3 version)
pioneer 105 dvd burner
toshiba dvd/crw drive

the prescott scares me a little i want good performance. Do i stick with northwood maybe get an 875 board and go up to a 3.2 or 3.4 cpu(northwood)
Do i wait for the prescott with the fsb 1066 an upgrade to that or jump to amd

right now my budget is $600.00 if i do it next month if i wait until October my budget will be about $1000.00

Intel still shines on video editing. Socket 939 may give it a run for the money on some software, but you won't really get any benefits, until you migrate to 64-bit software. By that time, both AMD and Intel might have some solutions that offer a more tangible advantage over what you have today. (there are core improvements in AMD's .090 micron K8s)

I say the same about 3.2GHz and 3.4GHz, can't see that you're going to experience much of a difference.
Stick to your 2.8 for awhile. I think your eventual choice for an upgrade will/should be AMD, because I can't see anything competitive coming from Intel within 18 months, or so.

If your performance concerns have anything to do with "light gaming", just get a better videocard.