Thinking about switching to AMD, is there anything I should know?

[Warthog]

I am thinking about upgrading my P3 700 that I run at 805 to a Athlon XP1800. I have a few questions. -

What is the difference between the Athlon and Athlon XP?

Will I need to get a new power supply? I have a 250W ATX supply that meets all the voltage requirements on the AMD website, but the don't specifiy wattage.

Do Athlon XP's run hotter than Pentiums? I have good fans so maybe it doesn't matter.

Are they stable? May seem like a weird question, but I have never used them.

Should I be looking at the P4 1.6a that I see everybody talking about?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Rainsford]

The Athlon XP is the only thing I would get right now (vs "regular" Athlon). It has SSE support and a few other changes, plus you can get faster XP models since the non-XP line stopped at 1.4ghz.

I would get a better power supply, a 300watt quality power supply (like Antec or Sparkle) should be good for a new Athlon system.

The whole "heat" debate is somewhat silly IMHO. Yes, on average the Athlon XP supposedly runs hotter than a P4, but the real question should be, does it run too hot? Modern CPUs have fairly high operating temps, and neither chip runs "too" hot. If you have average case cooling you should be fine. And you do not need high powered, loud fans to cool an Athlon XP system despite what some people might say.

Yes, they are stable. People with stability problems seem to either have bad components or forgot to install some driver or something. Despite what people say, most hardware review sites say there is nothing wrong with the VIA/AMD combo if you know what you are doing. This very sites runs off of AMD servers, and Anand is one of the most respected reviewers in the industry. That should tell you something.

That all being said, Intel makes some good stuff too. The P4 1.6A is an excellent overclocking chip, and is very well liked on this board because of that. But I hesitate to recommend overclocking to someone unless they know the risks that are involved. If you are willing to risk a bad chip, or a shortened lifetime for your chip, go for it. I for one would much rather just run my chip in spec, which is why I'm probably going to be building an AXP system.

As review sites have said, the P4 has improved a lot since it was first released, and now either chip will offer your great performance and stability. If you want to overclock a lot, I'd say get the P4. But I still don't think Intel can beat AMD when it comes to price vs performance at stock speeds.

 

[Warthog]

Thanks for the info. Especially on the normal Athlon. I was thinking of buying one used.

"I'm probably going to be building an AXP system"

What is an AXP system? Edit: Nevermind, I realized the A is for Athlon.

 

[CrawlingEye]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
The Athlon XP is the only thing I would get right now (vs "regular" Athlon). It has SSE support and a few other changes, plus you can get faster XP models since the non-XP line stopped at 1.4ghz.

I would get a better power supply, a 300watt quality power supply (like Antec or Sparkle) should be good for a new Athlon system.

The whole "heat" debate is somewhat silly IMHO. Yes, on average the Athlon XP supposedly runs hotter than a P4, but the real question should be, does it run too hot? Modern CPUs have fairly high operating temps, and neither chip runs "too" hot. If you have average case cooling you should be fine. And you do not need high powered, loud fans to cool an Athlon XP system despite what some people might say.

Yes, they are stable. People with stability problems seem to either have bad components or forgot to install some driver or something. Despite what people say, most hardware review sites say there is nothing wrong with the VIA/AMD combo if you know what you are doing. This very sites runs off of AMD servers, and Anand is one of the most respected reviewers in the industry. That should tell you something.

That all being said, Intel makes some good stuff too. The P4 1.6A is an excellent overclocking chip, and is very well liked on this board because of that. But I hesitate to recommend overclocking to someone unless they know the risks that are involved. If you are willing to risk a bad chip, or a shortened lifetime for your chip, go for it. I for one would much rather just run my chip in spec, which is why I'm probably going to be building an AXP system.

As review sites have said, the P4 has improved a lot since it was first released, and now either chip will offer your great performance and stability. If you want to overclock a lot, I'd say get the P4. But I still don't think Intel can beat AMD when it comes to price vs performance at stock speeds.

Don't forget that you have to worry about crushing the AXP when you put the hsf on, as well as worrying about having the hsf fall off while on. I remember the good 'ole tomshardware.com video of the P4 chugging along (albeit at like 2fps) with it's hsf off, in Quake 3, while the AXP was smoking with the hsf off.

The P4 has thermal throttling which activates itself somewhere around 60c and will skip threads of code until it's to it's said level. It will only throttle back to 50%, so OCing with the p4 is really a non-issue, as far as damage is concerned.

 

[BeefcakeVA]

If you have any desire to o'c at all I'd buy the 1.6A. That is what I did and I'm really looking forward to getting my mobo/RAM so I can have some fun 😀 Of course, I'm really "off" of AMD atm, so I'm sure there is a fair amount of personal bias in this response.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: CrawlingEye

Originally posted by: Rainsford
The Athlon XP is the only thing I would get right now (vs "regular" Athlon). It has SSE support and a few other changes, plus you can get faster XP models since the non-XP line stopped at 1.4ghz.

I would get a better power supply, a 300watt quality power supply (like Antec or Sparkle) should be good for a new Athlon system.

The whole "heat" debate is somewhat silly IMHO. Yes, on average the Athlon XP supposedly runs hotter than a P4, but the real question should be, does it run too hot? Modern CPUs have fairly high operating temps, and neither chip runs "too" hot. If you have average case cooling you should be fine. And you do not need high powered, loud fans to cool an Athlon XP system despite what some people might say.

Yes, they are stable. People with stability problems seem to either have bad components or forgot to install some driver or something. Despite what people say, most hardware review sites say there is nothing wrong with the VIA/AMD combo if you know what you are doing. This very sites runs off of AMD servers, and Anand is one of the most respected reviewers in the industry. That should tell you something.

That all being said, Intel makes some good stuff too. The P4 1.6A is an excellent overclocking chip, and is very well liked on this board because of that. But I hesitate to recommend overclocking to someone unless they know the risks that are involved. If you are willing to risk a bad chip, or a shortened lifetime for your chip, go for it. I for one would much rather just run my chip in spec, which is why I'm probably going to be building an AXP system.

As review sites have said, the P4 has improved a lot since it was first released, and now either chip will offer your great performance and stability. If you want to overclock a lot, I'd say get the P4. But I still don't think Intel can beat AMD when it comes to price vs performance at stock speeds.

Don't forget that you have to worry about crushing the AXP when you put the hsf on, as well as worrying about having the hsf fall off while on. I remember the good 'ole tomshardware.com video of the P4 chugging along (albeit at like 2fps) with it's hsf off, in Quake 3, while the AXP was smoking with the hsf off.

The P4 has thermal throttling which activates itself somewhere around 60c and will skip threads of code until it's to it's said level. It will only throttle back to 50%, so OCing with the p4 is really a non-issue, as far as damage is concerned.

Hmm, true, I forgot about that stuff. Yes, the P4 is able to run without the heatsink (at least it won't be destroyed if it falls off), but the Athlon XP has controls to shut it down if it overheats, and some boards (like the Asus A7V333 I think) are starting to take advantage of that. And yes, the P4 heatsink is easier to put on, but the Athlon is by no means impossible.

 

[First]

Originally posted by: CrawlingEye

Don't forget that you have to worry about crushing the AXP when you put the hsf on, as well as worrying about having the hsf fall off while on. I remember the good 'ole tomshardware.com video of the P4 chugging along (albeit at like 2fps) with it's hsf off, in Quake 3, while the AXP was smoking with the hsf off.

The P4 has thermal throttling which activates itself somewhere around 60c and will skip threads of code until it's to it's said level. It will only throttle back to 50%, so OCing with the p4 is really a non-issue, as far as damage is concerned.

If you're an inexperienced builder and have never installed an HSF for Athlon or Duron CPU's, then you could crack or chip the die. So if you're an inexperienced builder, your best bet is to find someone who has experience installing HSF's and the like, and learn from them.
And just as a FYI, an Athlon/Duron HSF is no more likely to randomly "fall off" than a P4 HSF is. It would take an act of God for an Athlon or P4 HSF to randomly fall off, assuming the builder installed the HSF correctly of course.

Btw, where did you learn that Pentium 4's throttle @ 60C.

 

[Warthog]

On the P4 side. Is there a 1.6, and if so, what is the difference between it and a 1.6a.

 

[Duvie]

A 1.6 p4 is the willamette version of the chip that only contains 256kb of l2 cache and is built on the .18 micron process...they are older then the northwoods...They could come in both socket 423 or socket 478

1.6a p4 is the newer northwood core built on a .13 micron process and contains 512kb of l2 cache...Also it oc's like a maddog!!! Willamettes were beginning to reach end of product life of .18 mocron so they oc very poorly comparably to the northwood...They only come in socket 478....


If you dont plan on cing at all go with amd as you get best performance for the dollar....

If you wont to oc and get industry leading speed then the p4 is the only one who is going to take you there...

 

[swifty3]

the age old question. here is my advice. stay away from amd. i just switched to a 1900, and am not very happy with it. they run really hot, and i just had to get a higher rpm fan for my huge heatsink to lower my temps. (from 65+C down to 57+C) I got 4 case fans and my MB temp is still around 35C! plus my comp sounds like a lawn mower. My old dual processor P3 system ran at around 25C MB temp, and the processors never went above 35C. Pay the extra money and go P4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CubicZirconia]

Don't forget that you have to worry about crushing the AXP when you put the hsf on, as well as worrying about having the hsf fall off while on

As long as you take your time this really shouldn't be a concern. As far as worrying about the hsf falling off...well I don't know what to say to that. If your hsf falls off, you did something horribly wrong. At this point I too would probably go with a p4, but I still think most of the "problems" that people describe about xp's are generally just operator errors.

 

[DoubleL]

Well I build computers and have for many years, I have never had a heatsink fall off a AMD processor but did have the fan quit working on one, All it did was over heat and the computer shut down, No problem, I build a lot of P4's but use a Dragon+1900XP, It does not run hot or loud