Recomendations/Help deciding

[Fatz]

Hi guys, I'm new to the board but I frequent anandtech and have been for a long time now.

I am interested in upgrading my puter. I currently have a Tbird 800@950 in an Asus A7V mobo, 320 PC133, GeForce 2 GTS 32mb, SBlive value.

I had two possible system configs in mind and I would really appreciate all of your professional opinions

1. - AMD Athlon? XP 3000+ Barton @ 333Mhz FSB
- Asus® A7N8X-DX, Socket A NVidia® nFORCE2 w/ 8X AGP Serial ATA
- OCZ 2x 256Mb PC4000 DDR EL Dual Channel Optimized
- ATI® Radeon? 9800 Pro 128Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI

or:

2. - Intel® Pentium® 4 - 2.8C-GHz @ 800Mhz w/ 512k
- ABIT® IC7, Socket 478, Intel® 875PE Chipset (ATX)
- OCZ 2x 256Mb PC4000 DDR EL Dual Channel Optimized
- ATI® Radeon? 9800 Pro 128Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI

I think either of these systems will haul some serious FPS's but I would like to know which you guys think would be the best bang for my buck. I can get either of these setups for about the same price. I am an AMD guy myself, but with 800mhzFSB its hard to argue with Intel these days. I would like to overclock whichever system I decide to get, so that could factor into your advise too

Thanks allot guys.

 

[boyRacer]

What about you replace the 3000+ with a 2500+ and overclock it to a 3200+... it's almost guaranteed. But either of those systems would be just fine... depends on your budget then i guess.

 

[Fatz]

Would it be much faster to get a P4 2.4C or 2.6C and overclock to 3300 or something than overclocking an xp 2500+ ? How about temperatures? do both processors tend to run around the same temps?\

Also, is Serial ATA worth upgrading to? If not I dont have to pay an extra 60 bucks for it.

 

[Overkiller]

I dont believe serial ata in its current early stages offesrs any real tangible improvements..especially for $60 more..

also if you do a lot of cpu-intensive tasks (such as Distributed computing, video editing, and to a smaller extent gaming) the Hyper threading of the P4 shines...

for best bang for ur buck get a 2500+, some Mushkin level 2 (2,2,2) pc-3500 and ur set to go. remember for amd systems Latency is king. its better to have a 2,2,2,6 setup than a slightly higher clocked setup w/ 2.5, 3,3,7. For intel the highest o/c usually overshadows latency issues....

but yeah, for best bang go amd. for MY personal next rig getting the Abit IC7-Max3, 1 GB corsair XMS pc=3700 (not the best but its very darn cheap..ocz for same is like 140 dollars more!), 2.8 ghz p4, and already have a 9700 pro..

 

[Corporate Thug]

as mentioned, if you are OCing, get the 2500+ and save yourself A LOT of money. also, PC4000 is waaaaay overkill for AMD setup. get buffalo pc3200 ($180 for a GIG)

if u have the cash to spend, i would go with the p4

 

[Fatz]

That's good to know about the latency issue. And ya I have lots of different ram I'm chosing so PC4000 won't necesarily be what I end up getting. If you guys say PC3200 then thats probably what I'd get. And I guess these days the motherboard will unlock the XP chip for you unlike my T-bird. Sounds like a pretty simple overclock these days.

Would you guys think I'd notice a speed difference in games between an overclocked 2500+ (@3200+ or so) and a P4 2.4C at 3200mhz (or whatever they overclock to) ?

One more thing, would my 300Watt PS be sufficient for those setups or should I goto a 350W or 400W PS ?

Thanks tons, this really helps.

 

[Fatz]

bump