Questions about AMD

[mangled]

In a previous post, I asked about upgrading my current p4v4x board and then later in the year I was going to do a full upgrade with a new baord and P4 2ghz.

However, after doing some more research, I'm now considering an AMD processor. Price and performance are swaying me after being a diehard Intel guy.

Now, I"m not interested in debating which is better. I don't care about that right now. What I am interested in hearing from the AMD guys is this:

-If I'm planning to do this major upgrade with a new board and processor at the end of this month, and price is relatively not an issue (within reason-if it was really not an issue I'd have no problem dropping $$$$ for a P4 now), what board and processor combo is recommended? I heard a little about the Palomino. That's AMD's latest chip, correct? Is anything else coming down the pipe within six months that will surpass this? Or will I be a happy camper with this for a while. Please see current system specs in my sig.

-Anyone with an AMD, have you had any problems with Photoshop crashing? My first PC was an AMD K6 266 and Photoshop hated it. It turned me off from AMD cuz I do quite a bit of photoshop work with big files (40mb).

Thanks for your help. Right now I really don't have any plans to OC, but ya never know....

 

[shathal]

Palomino (I read on the Register) is supposed to ship for Desktops now on October 9th - if it doesn't get delayed. However, I wouldn't count on it being available worldwide at launch, so - depending on where you live - you could be more or less lucky.

Personally, I'm a little bit curious due to AMD cutting the roadmap for Palomino & releasing it 3 months earlier. Either they've done some serious bug-fixing like never before, or they've cut a few things & corners. Either way, we'll see I guess.

As to what board to use - have a search on AT on AMD + mobos and you should find more than enough threads to fill your heart's desire.
Personally, I'd got for an AMD-chipset, not a VIA one, if you're going for AMD. But that's me & my oppinion .

Hope this helps .

 

[alpha88]

get ecs k7s5a + tbird 1.4 (65+110=175) now or wait 2 weeks or so and get althon xp for about 150-250 ish

 

[yodayoda]

dude, if you have some time to wait, i would wait for the upcoming nVidia nForce chipset motherboards. they have dual pipeline DDR RAM, an integrated Geforce2 MX400, and 5.1 dolby-certified sound. even got onboard NIC. this should be the fastest athlon motherboard when they are unveiled and with all the extra goodies integrated, it could save you a few bucks in peripherals. over course, if you are a serious gamer or graphics designer, you're going to want to use your own video card, but that should be OK.

there is also a Via KT266A chipset coming out. i wouldn't buy a KT266 chipset motherboard until that chipset is released and but in board. i had a KT266 board (soyo dragon) and it sucked ass. horrible memory benchmarks (it was as if Via just made DDR adapters for their SDRAM chipset--it really sucked) and bad USB. i switched over to an AMD 761 based motherboard and its stability is unquestioned and memory benchmarks are the same as the KT266.

also, don't forget about the AMD 762 chipset and the Tyan TigerMP. you don't have to be rich to afford multiprocessors. the Tiger is about $200 and supports regular Athlons or AthlonMP processors. not so good overclocking, but it does have 64-bit PCI which is cool and 4 DDR slots. if you plan to use regulat non-registered DDR (it is $30 for 256MB stick at crucial), you can only use two slots. if you want to shell out more bucks for Registered or Registered ECC, you can use all 4 slots. but think--you can have a 512MB SMP 1 GHz x 2 system for $200 + $150 x 2 + $60 = $560! that's awesome!

 

[rondeemc]

You are going to pay a prem for a Palomino. I would go ahead and get the T-bird OEM 1.4 for $98 ($119 retail) with a board that has the KT266A chipset (should be out soon). Grab a handful of DDR memory and you are good to go. The nvidia boards are interesting. If you haven't read the Anand tech article you should take a look.

comparison


After the price drops on the Palomino pick one up

 

[rondeemc]

BTW your experience with the K6 won't be repeated the T-bird. Since the K-2 came out AMD have been great.

 

[mangled]

Thanks for all the comments.

I am a pretty serious gamer and have a Geforce 3 - so will the nforce still be worthwhile?

If I go with a Tbird 1.4 now, and new motherboard, can I later install a Palamino on that board?

Any sites compare the new Palamino to the current Tbird 1.4? I'll take a look around this one and Tom's to check out.

Good to hear I won't be having the Photoshop problems I had before. I do have some time and by looking at the price of the Palamino's at pricewatch, I can afford it. Like I mentioned, I want to do this at the end of this month, or even beginning of next month after XP is out. I'm upgrading my hard drive as well so it's as good a time as any to do it all at once.