To buy 820D or to wait ?

[ithai]

Dear friends,

I am currently trying to decide whether to buy a brand new Intel 820D with a 755 945P board or to go with AMD 3200+ 939 (save some money) and wait until the AMD X2 chips will get cheaper.

I am trying to create a machine that will provide for 50% gaming and 50% graphic design.

I want an upgradable machine and OC is also a possibility to make up for a less powerful CPU today, but a better platform for a Dual-Core upgrade tomorrow.

Am I missing something? please assist me with this decision...

Thank you so much,

Ithai.

 

[Technonut]

I would say go for the 3200+, OC it, then upgrade to the X2 when funds allow....

 

[LT4CAMSS]

Ithai - I am currently in a similar boat. However, the only thing holding me back right now is the release of ATI's new generation gfx cards, X-fire (a DFI version), and a drop in X2 4800s would be nice, too. Oh...and I didn't even consider Intel. I would go w/ the X2 system. Near-future games will benefit heavily from the dual/multi-cores and graphic design would benefit as well. I would not go w/ the Intel system b/c of heat issues...and it's just as expensive while not performing as well as the X2. I would go with AMD for now until Intel comes out with Conroe or whatever...like a year or more down the road. They may come out with something dope by then and if not, AMD always delivers. AMD is the safest choice right now, and if you look around no one is complaining about em. Overclocking is great on the X2s according to the guinea pigs...or early buyers . You can easily OC to FX-55/57 levels and have the best of both worlds. Hope that clears things yo.


Edit: BTW - Welcome to the forum. This place will be a great asset to you.

 

[hardwareuser]

Oooh. I'm facing the same dilemma too! I've been waiting for so long to get a new computer, but I feel like I should wait longer because of the upcoming ATI cards. I'm running on a P3 733 (overclocked to 913)!!!

ithai, I think the 3200+ is a better option. I'm not sure about how easily upgradable it'll be in the future if you bought the 820D. I'm also planning to get the 3200+.

Then again, I think a lot of people here on the forums are AMD worshippers not that it's not justified or anything.

(Please don't flame me!)

 

[Vegitto]

I'd wait until the X2's are cheaper.

 

[ithai]

This is great

I now realize its a better decision to go with AMD 3200+ and wait for X2 prices to drop. Now its time to build the spec.

Thank you so much for your help my friends.

lt4camss: tnx, its great to have such a useful resource available.

Ithai.

 

[Duvie]

Waiting can help as the 945 chipsets should only get cheaper as well as rumored DDR2 prices...

However if you look at your requirements....1/2 gaming - 1/2 graphics design (app depending)...and upgradeability...

The 820 is pathetically slow at 2.8ghz so any non multithreaded app is worse then a cpu from 2 years ago....It may perform well in certain 3d apps but in most instance p4s already performed well in some due to HT. If it is not decent to highly optimized multithreaded it may not be noticeable faster...

Then it all comes down to upgradeability....Your upgrade path with the P D will be what you see now...I believed this has been reported several times there will be NO higher chip released and my guess is the next dual core incarnations will not be the same socket.. I could be wrong...Someone tell me if I am....

As for The X2 it is two fold...IN one side it likely will have a few more chips then are released now to come out, but it will also be looking at a socket change for a DDR2 X2 chip.....So upgradeability may be slightly better on the AMD if my above statement was right about INtel, but sckt 939 is coming to a forseeable end...

 

[Sentential]

Right now, eventho I feel that Intel has the right idea (in terms of priceing) I would not touch a Smithfield core right now.

If you are looking for long term upgradability you honestally cannot beat a PEG/DDR2 Intel rig. Especially as people like Mushkin release low latency DDR2 800 and soon 1ghz.

The dual-cores to watch will arrive at about the same time as SocketM2 does, in 2006. Presler is a die-shrinked Smithfield with 4MB total cache. The heat figures are quite a bit better on them, and in addition they should scale alot higher.

They also have 2 seperate dice which should keep the purity of each core up, increasing the highest possible speed.

The issue here is that Smithfield's die is so large that it has a great deal of impurities within it. Things like that hamper overall clock speed and gives it a very "bloated" feeling.

If anything I would reccomend a single core P4 for now and a dual for later, much like the A64 route you have considered