AMD to P4 an Upgrade or Not?

[congo]

I've got a Soltek Nforce2 mainboard, an XP2600+ clocked at 2.2ghz, 1024mb of Dual Channel PC2700 ram running nice on a 170mz fsb (340mhz @ DDR). The whole thing benchmarks just over all similar setups I've seen posted. (slight o/c)

Intel are tempting me away with the memory bandwith specs which doubles on Intel i865PE or i875 chipset mainboards. These boards support an 800mhz FSB with apparent easy overclock options on air cooling.

Is it reasonable for me to believe that I should get a budget based system using an overclocked 2.4gig P4 on an i865PE or i875 chipset mainboard running 1024mb of dual channel DDR400?

Buying a P4 3ghz CPU is not an option if this is to be a budget system.

Or isn't there any practical advantage?

I don't want to start a fued between AMD and Intel supporters, I just need to know if the above is practical in real computing. It looks ok on paper.

[Selbio]

Congo,

I'm not a computer expert but I read your otherpost and I have to say that you have a good system that will alst you for awhile. If I were you I wouldn't upgrade just now. I'd wait a few months and then get a P4 3.06GHZ or above, maybe by six months prices have gone down.

I have:
AMD XP 2600+ 333fsb
1024MB PC 2100 Dual Channel(I know that I should get the ddr 333 or 400 but I'm just going to leave like it is for awhile)
40gb IBM 7200 ATA 100
20gb WD 5400 ATA 100
Nvidia GF 4 TI 4200 64mb
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 sound card
WIndows XP Home Edition

All the games I have run very smooth on this config.
So I'm not going to upgrade until they put out something that doubles my configuration.

[chomp_rock]

a p4 2.0 ghz is far superior to an XP2600 (512k l2cache) and it has a bus speed of 400 (or opt. 533MHz) a p4 2.2 is no better than a 2.0 and a 2.4 is a marginal (no noticable framerate changes).

[congo]

Ummm, well Piper, not according to this respected benchmark.




It didn't have a 2gig P4 in the list so I placed a 2.4gig just under my XP2600.

Note I also clocked back to stock settings for this test.

Also note the speed range of the other listed cpu's.

I went ahead and bought a gigabyte 8IPE 1000 pro mainboard and a 2.4gig P4c 800mhz cpu.

I've got to build another system for a client (this guy is gonna get one heck of an office PC!), so I should be able to report on the results when It's all done.

I'm hoping the 800mhz FSB speed and the Hyperthreading technology of the pentium will show some positive result against the poor old XP2600.

[Selbio]

a p4 2.0 ghz is far superior to an XP2600 (512k l2cache) and it has a bus speed of 400 (or opt. 533MHz) a p4 2.2 is no better than a 2.0 and a 2.4 is a marginal (no noticable framerate changes).

I don't doubt that. I had an AMD XP 2400+ but it messed up. Going from a 2400+ to a 2600+ made performance drop, the only differnce is that the 2400+ ran at 55-58 C and the 2600+ runs at 31-34C. As you see I had no choice but go ahead and get a 333FSB processor.

Next Upgrade will a Pentium 4 of some kind, I'd say something like a 3.06GHZ. AMD processors are good but the fact the a 2600+ 333 runs at 2.08 just bothers me, that processor should run at 2.60 or close. Look at the 3000+. It runs at 2.17 just like the 2700+ except it a different chip I beleive and it has more cache. That 3000+ should be running at 2.8 or 3.0GHZ. Besides AMD run hotter than pentium processor.

No pun intended for AMD users but I'm done with AMD.

[congo]

Ok, overnight post brought me my new rig this morning, so here are the results.

First the new Pentium4 2.4ghz cpu speed comparison with my xp2600 below it.



Next is the memory bandwidth benchmark.




And then I overclocked the front side bus speed in BIOS to give me an instant 3ghz pentium!

[Selbio]

Congo,

Before you overclocked your new P4 cpu how hot did it run?

[congo]

2 to 4* cooler I think, it's hard to tell because I have to quickly reboot to bios for a temp reading, as all my temperature sensing software has gone nuts on this system.

[Hogans_Alley]

I'm a ittle confused about the lettering and numbering which describe the specification and performance of the various computer components especially the motherboards, the memory and the CPU. Perhaps one of you guys can explain. also please tell me which do you recommend.
1.   Go AMD or P4?
2.   Are the manufacturers for Asus, ABit,Intel, ECS, MSI relatively good?
3.   I presently have an IWill KK266 motherboard measuring 305 mm x 235 mm which supports the ATX Form factor. I would like to keep my existing case. If I buy a new motherboard with the same dimensions, it should fit in my existing case, correct? I do have a 400W power supply.
4.   What do you think of mobos which support 8 ATAPI drives.
5.   What is the criteria by which a mobo will support memories. For example:  What FSB will support a PC2100, PC2700, DDR 400, DDR 333, RAMBUS 800 MHz?
6.    Lastly what would be the recommended specification for a bundle at around 2.4 - 2.8 GHz speed. I presently have 1.2 GHz.
Or I should keep my rig for awhile. I have no problem with my Flight Sim games thus far except CFS3 which gave me problems. I returned the soft ware.

Thanks gents ( and lady)

Hogans Alley

[Selbio]

Well,

Q1. It depends on what you like. AMD are very fast although I have heard that the new 3200+ wasn't as good as they expected(So I've heard). I currently have an AMD XP 2600+ processor and next time I upgrade or build a new pc I'll go for the P4 3.06GHZ CPU and one of those 800Mhz FSB motherboards.

Q2 I had an Asus A7S333 sis745 chipset motherboards and it was very stable, I liked it. I have an MSI K7N2 with the Nvidia Nforce2 chipset and I like it even more.

[congo]

Well, after a couple weeks on the new Pentium PC,
having shelved the AMD - nForce2 computer temporarily,
I am still not convinced that one is any better than the
other.

Overclocking the Intel system didn't have much affect on my frame rates in FS2002.

The AMD system still has slightly smoother and faster graphics.

Benchmark tests show the Pentium is technically more capable especially in memory bandwidth.

Comparisons- both systems were tested using:
Seagate 7200rpm 80gig Hard Disk,
1024mb PC2700 DDR RAM and also, 512mb PC3200 RAM.
Both RAM sets were Kingston "Value Ram" in DUAL
CHANNEL configuration and were tested seperately of
course.

A Mercury GeForce4 TI4200 128mb 8x AGP was used as
the Graphics card.

AMD system: