What CPU do I get?

[eastley]

I am just about to purchase another CPU for my second PC, I other PC has a AMD Athlon 3200+, but i was wondering what everone elses views were on CPU's. I am looking to spend no more than about $320 on one, so any suggestions?

 

[Vette73]

Is the $320 for Board AND CPU or juts cpu?

I would go for a Athlon64 right now. 3000+ seems to be the best bang for your buck and 3400+ seems to be best bang for your MIGHTY buck. 🙂

 

[imported_zenwhen]

I would go for a 3.0C from Newegg.com.

They have been shipping 30CAP 3.0C's. These are 3.0C's that have the thirty capacitors on the bottom, usually reserved for Xeons. These things overclock to insane speeds at stock voltage.

It is true that the A64 does have a slight advantage over similarly prices P4's in games, but when you get the P4 around 3.6GHz.... things look a little different. It is not great feat to get a 30CAP P4 to 3.6. I'm doing it on AIR in a tiny Sonata case. with a $30 Thermaltake Spark 7.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Originally posted by: zenwhen
I would go for a 3.0C from Newegg.com.

They have been shipping 30CAP 3.0C's. These are 3.0C's that have the thirty capacitors on the bottom, usually reserved for Xeons. These things overclock to insane speeds at stock voltage.

It is true that the A64 does have a slight advantage over similarly prices P4's in games, but when you get the P4 around 3.6GHz.... things look a little different. It is not great feat to get a 30CAP P4 to 3.6. I'm doing it on AIR in a tiny Sonata case. with a $30 Thermaltake Spark 7.

an equally priced Athlon 64 3000+ will performe about equally with a 3.2 with HT, and has just as much room to OC 🙂

 

[imported_zenwhen]

Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy

Originally posted by: zenwhen
I would go for a 3.0C from Newegg.com.

They have been shipping 30CAP 3.0C's. These are 3.0C's that have the thirty capacitors on the bottom, usually reserved for Xeons. These things overclock to insane speeds at stock voltage.

It is true that the A64 does have a slight advantage over similarly prices P4's in games, but when you get the P4 around 3.6GHz.... things look a little different. It is not great feat to get a 30CAP P4 to 3.6. I'm doing it on AIR in a tiny Sonata case. with a $30 Thermaltake Spark 7.

an equally priced Athlon 64 3000+ will performe about equally with a 3.2 with HT, and has just as much room to OC 🙂

Care to show me a 600-800Mhz OC on an A64 on air?

Edit:

AWhackWhiteBoy, after seeing your AMD zealotry in other posts... let us just end this here. We will never agree.

 

[Zebo]

In the states the P4 2.8C is a much better value if you overclock to 3.5. $180 vs. $220-$270. Of course the Athlon xp-m is the best value @$85 but you already have a athlon xp.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: zenwhen

Originally posted by: AWhackWhiteBoy

Originally posted by: zenwhen
I would go for a 3.0C from Newegg.com.

They have been shipping 30CAP 3.0C's. These are 3.0C's that have the thirty capacitors on the bottom, usually reserved for Xeons. These things overclock to insane speeds at stock voltage.

It is true that the A64 does have a slight advantage over similarly prices P4's in games, but when you get the P4 around 3.6GHz.... things look a little different. It is not great feat to get a 30CAP P4 to 3.6. I'm doing it on AIR in a tiny Sonata case. with a $30 Thermaltake Spark 7.

an equally priced Athlon 64 3000+ will performe about equally with a 3.2 with HT, and has just as much room to OC 🙂

Care to show me a 600-800Mhz OC on an A64 on air?

Edit:

AWhackWhiteBoy, after seeing your AMD zealotry in other posts... let us just end this here. We will never agree.

Well that is thge point, A amd chip does not need to have a extra 600-800 mhz to go fast.

Also the diff . between a 3000+ and 3.2Ghz P4 would be a ration of 1.6. So it would take about 2.2Ghz on a A64 to equal a P4 at 3.6Ghz. a 3000+ on a nForce3 250 will do 2.2Ghz easy, if not 2.4Ghz.

So again, a Athlon64 would win hands down.

 

[eastley]

I never over clock my hardware and I aint interested in A64 they are not good enough at the moment, they have extreme driver issues and i want something i can bang on my motherboard and have no trouble with. I will be also purchasing a Motherboard but Im going to purchase that after the CPU so i know which one I need.

 

[justly]

I never over clock my hardware

Then the Athlon 64 should give you the best performance in most cases.

and I aint interested in A64 they are not good enough at the moment,

Not good enough? I think you need to do some research.

they have extreme driver issues

how so ???

and i want something i can bang on my motherboard and have no trouble with.

I don't know of any CPU that you can "bang" on a motherboard and have no problem with...I hope that I misunderstood what you meant.

 

[MDE]

My A64 system has never crashed, even overclocked (and it's a laptop). Do a little more research.

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: eastley
I never over clock my hardware and I aint interested in A64 they are not good enough at the moment, they have extreme driver issues and i want something i can bang on my motherboard and have no trouble with. I will be also purchasing a Motherboard but Im going to purchase that after the CPU so i know which one I need.

Ummm...what are you talking about? The A64's are amazing chips. 🙂

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Marlin1975 already responded with my thoughts 🙂

 

[eastley]

Ok i went down my only trust worthy computer store today and asked about the A64's he told the truth and now im in favour of them so i might be getting a A64 3200+.
Thanks for the advice guys.