I've been reading posts saying I'd get more bang-for-the-buck with and AMD setup than a similarly priced Intel setup, so I'm looking into it.

The CPU/board combinations I listed in the subject line seem to be similarly priced as near as I can tell. However, when I compare them at <A HREF="http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=64&model2=112&chart=21" target="_new">http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=64&model2=112&chart=21</A>, it looks like they perform pretty equally with games and the P4 630 finishes quite a bit higher than the A64 3000+ on video encoding.

Also, what's the difference between socket 754 and 939?

Again, I've always been an Intel guy but am looking for an excuse to switch to AMD. Can someone please explain this to me?

Thanks!

Tim

What's your price ramge? Go with the 939 for AMD.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by HardwareBoss on 10/22/05 03:45 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

That was hard to rig. Every other site has the Amd 10% or better, in games.
As far as encoding goes, where the files are set up nicely for SSE2, the prescott wins. Where you are dealing with personal videos, the higher ipc of the A64s shine.
The A64 3200 is usually closer in price to the 630. Esp when you take into account the price of DDR2 ram.
I also award points to Amd for thier hsf. The stock 630 fan is loud and whinie.
You can also expect the mobo for the Intel chip will wear out a lot faster, with that kind of load on the mosfet cct.

As far as my budget goes, this is our 4th PC for a family of 4 and I'm not sure I should go all out on it. I was thinking a good price point for decent performance would be about $175 for the CPUs. Both of the CPUs I listed can be had for under $174 at ZipZoomFly.com.

I'd be surprised if the PC in consideration will ever be overclocked (or at least not until our 9yr old takes full responsibility for it), as our boys use it more for internet stuff and my oldest boy wants to use if for Lego Digital Designer.

I'm considering this because I was trying to extend the life of a Asus P2B-F P3 550MHz -based system. I discovered the power supply couldn't support a Radeon 9800 Pro I have (which would be way overkill for the system) and the motherboard didn't have the PCI rev.2.2 slots I needed for a wireless NIC. I just want to put something intelligent together that'll be bulletproof and not require any of my troubleshooting time.

So if I decide to stick with a P4 630 it'll be mostly because I'm familiar with Intel products. I have a concern with how hot the CPU runs, but I thought Intel had slightly mitigated some of the heat issues with the 600 series processors. It sounds like you're saying that's not quite true. I have a number of friends that always buy Dell computers and some of them are using 600 series processors and don't say anything about problems with heat. Is it because they just don't know? Or has Dell incorporated extra cooling in their systems to negate the issue of heat in their systems? Or perhaps this heat is only a factor when using 100% CPU time for extended periods of time?

I like everything I've read about AMD and their widespread use in the overclocking community and will give it serious consideration when upgrading my current computer. I'm just not as sure if it's the best direction to go for upgrading the family's #4 PC that probably won't be overclocked and I don't really want to put much time into.

Thanks for any advice you can provide at this lower price point.

Tim

Its hard to say if they are the same price...


Hyperthreading IS nice. This is coming from a fan of AMD processors.. my fiance has a 3ghz P4c, and man.. when it comes to tabbing in and out of games and having more than one thing on the go, hyperthreading really does make a difference. Of course my A64 is faster for pure gaming speed, but that doesnt mean the P4 is a slouch.. it is still quite fast.


of course, if you dont have something very memory and cpu intensive running, A64's have no problem running more than one thign at once..

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Pop in a Tualatin Celeron 1.4 on an adapter card and enjoy your old P2B-F. Use a USB 2.0 wireless NIC by adding a USB 2.0 card.

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That's definitely a tempting way to go for the short term, Crashman. I just don't know how long it's going to be before the boys want to take advantage of the Radeon 9800 Pro and run a bunch of games through it. If and when they do, it would be nice to already have the system set up so I don't have to spend time upgrading again.

Tell them that patience is a virtue and they'll really appreciate the system when you finish the upgrade...

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Did you find a 925 board that uses agp?
My 13 year old has a s754 A64 3000+. It was cheap, and works great.
Pick up this <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127190" target="_new">board</A> and this <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103483" target="_new">chip</A> and your boy will be happy for a few years, maybe even till he's 13.

yepp, ABIT and nForce is the way to go.

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That looks like a good way to go for him, but I read that socket 754 has been phasing out in favor of socket 939. Shouldn't I pay just a few more bucks to get s939? Or is the RAM for that board more as well?

RAM is the same price. The mobos/CPUs may be a little less, but you could get a <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049" target="_new">Chaintach VNF4 Ultra</A> for $73 and a <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537" target="_new">A64 3000+</A> for $146 or the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535" target="_new">A64 3200+</A> for $190. The way to pay less with s754 is to go with a Sempron, but you lose a lot of gaming performance and 64bit.

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How can he use his Radeon 9800 Pro with PCI express mobos? And there's 64 bit Semprons available, too.

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You should consider getting a Sempron 64. They're cheap, and practically as good as A64s for almost everything except gaming. In games, it's not as fast as A64 but good enough to compete with P4s. And for the latest games, R9800 Pro will be the bottleneck, not the CPU.

Sempron 64 will be good enough for a 4th home computer, and it will be a long time before this PC will need to upgrade it's CPU or Graphics card. By then, S939 will become a discontinued socket just like S754.

Get ABIT NF8 and consider getting one of these Semrron 64s. You can get Sempron 64 2600+ for only $64 (<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104249" target="_new">link</A> ). I would recommend getting either <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104237" target="_new">3100+</A> or <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104229" target="_new">3300+</A>

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Better option for the mobo, then is the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081" target="_new">Asrock 939Dual</A> for $69.99 and future upgradeability to PCIe. I hadn't caught that the Semprons were in 64bit now. What's the best review you've seen comparing their gaming perf to the A64s?

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