Intel P4 vs AMD

@ theonejrs
Yes I like that A8N-E :^)
That's my type of mobo, one graphics slot.
I think it's a joke that one must choose between ATI x2 'crossfire' mobo or NVIDIA x2 'SLI' mobo, they are not compatible! Crazy.
I s'pose you could buy a SLI mobo and run 1 ATI vidcard in it... LoL.
It's like bloody Beta and VHS y'know? (groan) shouldn't be...
@ sammorris - How good's the Abit KN8 Ultra?
I love ABit! They are great :^) Don't scrap that idea - what negatives? It's all good.
I especially enjoy (and promote) the 2 ABit optical S/PDIF, both in AND out. Asus has 1 coax S/PDIF, out only - how can one record anything digital with that? It is for digital playback only :^(
Actually, for this reason I use ABit AN8, but they are getting 'rare' - ABit has moved AN8 into top-of-the-line deluxe SLI x16 only, and KN8 for regular folks (S/PDIF out only).
KN8 and A8N are similar price and features anyway... with ABit you get optical S/PDIF; with Asus you get Asus.
I'm waiting till at least July/August anyway, you'd be crazy to purchase anything now. S939 stuff will drop like a rock in price over the next 6 months, mark my words.
I have purchased a new ATI X800XT (AGP8x) 256MB GDDR3 (256-bit) just to hold me off for 1/2 year... I'm good now until next-gen stuff is rolled out. My intention remains to skip over Socket939 completely!
Still don't know though - AMD or Intel? We will see...
L8R

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568

If I was springing for the other nice parts, I'd go with this nice mobo. Throw in a good Zalman 7000 and some good case fans and theres not much to worry about the chipsets warming up. I like the heat tube cooling. With a good cooler fan like the Zalman, that alone keeps the chipsets cooled down.

I'd get this board for all the extras besides the SLI. But then I don't see an extra $100 dollars as that big a deal nowadays. About 2 tanks of gas as the SUV goes (conservationists don't worry, it's a six cylinder).

 

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=310

...since we are giving links :^)
~$200 bucks for AN8 32X, beautiful board. But now is not the time!
I find myself in the crazy position of selling people new custom PCs when they really should be waiting. But wtf, tick-tock y'know? Wife's gotta eat; world can't shut down until September!
But true Enthusiasts should know better...
Just my $.02

 

The_OGS
Theonejrs was asking about now. As for mysself, I'm in no hurry to build now; too many things happening that I want to see the results from. Even if a person builds now though, I don't think any of the changes happening are going to seriously effect obsolescence for a while. Having top end bragging rights is a fleeting deal at best. A person would have to be wealthy to play that game and have new equipment all the time.

 

Unfortunately even the KN8 sees me at the top of my budget, I don't really need the optical recording and such, I don't generally do that with my PCs.

This review is one of the ones that worried me:

and

I don't really want to wait until september, the new system kind of goes into hibernation ish until christmas once we get towards the end of september when university starts. I'll definitely be ordering after the 6th June though, so the AM2-related price drops should come into effect.

 

@sammorris,have a look here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16813136152
This is what I have.Absolutely dynamite board.Read the reviews.This board has more options than anyone is ever likely to use.
All japanese capacitors are used in the manufacture of these boards which gives you an idea of the quality.

 

I have no idea why a BIOS flash would be such a big deal. It's common practice when doing a custom build to check for BIOS updates. BIOS updates happen much like firmware updates for a drive. I updated the BIOS on this board when I did the build. A person should occasionally check for updates to see if there have been any improvements.

 

Hmmm, looks good crowy, except i notice that little chipset fan issue is cropping up here and there. However, I have the option to replace it with my own if i want for £5 (don't know how quiet they are though).

Brobear: A necessary BIOS flash is bad news if you don't have a CPU to hand that will boot in the board. Supposing I'm OC'ing and find a frequency that crashes, then have to reset the CMOS. I'm stuffed, am I not?

 

@ sammorris,
The DFI board required no bios flash to recognize my dual core athlon.
Instant recognition of the cpu no problem.
Also when overclocking there is an option to save your current bios configuration(in fact you can save 3 different bios settings) under the option "cmos reloaded".So if you tweak just a little to far and your pc wont boot,just restart your computer hold down a user predefined key
ie: F1,F2 etc. and the computer will boot at the settings that key is assigned to.No turning off and removing jumpers etc.

 

Okay I was directed here my aabbccdd. I'm not thumbing through 130 pages, so I'll just ask. People seem to be fanboys of Intel and AMD chips, without much middle ground. If they love one, they hate the other. I've read that AMD processors are preferable for gamers PC's and can run rings around Intel chips in terms of gaming and multitasking. There're other people who say that Intel chips are faster in terms of word processing apps and MS office apps. Which is it? Which one is faster all around? Or is it just as I described, they both excel at certain tasks. Thanks for the info.

 

sammorris
No problems with the AI boards from Asus. You OC too far and the sytem boots back with the default settings. Saved me a bunch of work. While rebooting all I have to do is hold the Delete key and go back into BIOS to reset whatever I need or want, it's jumperless. I know there's other good boards, but I'm sold on the ASUS for ease and quality. On the less expensive boards with the little problematic fans, just go ahead and replace it if you don't trust it. There's always some little tweak we're going to need or want to do on a new build.

 

The mini reviews were apparently low skilled newbies.
You can flash with the with 3800+ x2 if you use a single stick of ram in the correct slot. It is standard on the NF4 boards.

I guarrantee I could use the supposed DOA board.
Most of my refurb boards are from people sending their bad boards back. They all work.

 

Tokijin
Well, you caught me here. I'm middle of the road. I like both AMD and Intel. They're both quality merchandise as long as you stay out of the cheap bottom end.

Currently the AMD has an overall advantage for the highend processors. But in the real world, not many people are going to see the difference. Gamers use both and office apps use both. As far as word processing, there's not a human alive that could out type a word processing app as long as the PC was running properly. AutoCad and similar apps that require a lot of CPU input are where processor power comes in (plus RAM). A faster CPU can also search accts faster on a database. But as I said, in the real world, if you have a comparable AMD or Intel, they're both going to get the job done, just a slight advantage to AMD at present.

As for laptops, I like the Intel Centrino Duo Core systems. Intel is doing a better job with the mobiles than the desktops. Later this summer or fall, Intel has a new processor due out that is supposed to be more competitive with AMD. AMD fans say AMD will have an answer. All kinds of rumors and speculation. So that is wait and see. Intel showed the CPU at an earlier trade show, but it's questionble how reliable test results were. It wasn't exactly broad based independent testing.

For a person buying a PC, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. For the custom enthusiast that can tweak his system, go with the AMD till Intel shows something better.

 

The Donald

LOL I know I'm a novice, but didn't realize I was considered so rank. Sammorris was asking what if he was OCing and went too far, I just added what Asus AI does in such a case; not to detract from your addition though (that's the DOA and "won't work" boards). If a lot of people would just read the guides or check support, there'd be fewer returned "dead" parts. Then the refurbished pickings would be slimmer, so you may not want to do too many warnings. LOL

 

Well guys I got my new rig together today...not too shabby eh!Thanks to Sophocles for the pointers he posted.

 

Congrats and glad you're happy with it. Now you need to work on those screen captures so we can read them. Go to http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tg=dl-20&qt=CaptureWizPro&tag=srch/ and try out CaptureWizPro. The capture crowy did recently is easier on the eyes and a bit more legible.

 

Thanks I'll give it a try.Hows this?

 

I wasn't referencing your post Brobear. It was several posts back that some newbie problems were quoted as a reason to not buy a board.

 

Thanks for the info BroBear. Do you guys endorse OCing, or do you feel it's better to just get a stable mobo at a rated speed? I've discussed this with a couple people, and seems OCing is really just a hobby for tech freaks, and not really a necessity. I can get addicted to things with the best of em, but it seems like a stable mobo would be more to my liking. I've read Asus is high end, what type of mobo would you guys recommend for high end, but affordable performance? Thanks.

 

Tokijin
To me anything under $200 that adds significant performance or ease of performance is a buy. Mobos range from inexpensive to ones with the bells and whistles (mostly still below the $200 mark. Just remember, the mobo is home to that hard working CPU and RAM, so I like to give it the opportunity to do it's best while I enjoy the options. I've developed a liking for Asus as a personal favorite. In the future, I'll probably use them for builds unless someone asks me to put something else in. So far I'm just putting things together for the family, so they usually go along with my suggestions.

As for OCing, I'd recommend it within reason. Those that say it's for tech freaks probably have no understanding of how to do it or what's involved. A person can get significant performance gains from some processors without straining the system. 10% or so with a good air cooling system normally doesn't strain anything. I have a mild OC of about 10% and it runs cooler than most stock systems. It adds a noticable performance gain when I'm encoding, which I do quite a bit of. Some sytems OC even higher than mine and still remain stable. Those who take it to extremes aren't worried as much about stable systems as bragging rights. Just dial it up to where it still runs cool enough and stable and quit there. You can have OC and a stable system as well.

Boxwrench
By Jove lad, I believe you have it. LOL

Donald,
Just pulling your leg bud. We posted within minutes of each other, so I didn't really think you were doing a put down on me. It was just the way the posts fell. However, I do realize I'm a novice compared to some of the members here.