Intel P4 vs AMD

The_OGS pointed this site out to me. It's for those of you who like to tweak things. http://www.tweakguides.com/ There's tweak guides in there for the ATI Catalyst and the nVidia Forceware as well as games and system tweak guides. I've not tried any yet, but The_OGS seems to be impressed.

 

Erm, brobear, what exactly is old about your system now?

 

The Asus board supports socket 478. So a board that supports old tech processors. The processor itself. A Northwood P4 which the Prescotts replaced. Now dual cores are available. Old tech CPU. The board has an AGP slot for the graphics card. The newer boards support PCIe cards. So, my graphics are a bit old tech. The good thing is that most of the old tech I have was top notch at one time. Some of the old stuff beats the new. So, as far as performance goes, it's comparable to or better than a lot of the current single core platforms. Just because it's a generation or 2 behind doesn't make it a slouch. That's why I said she's old, but she cranks.

To tell the truth, and as those knowledgable about PCs already know, the system is better than most currently available off the shelf. There are better, but a person is going to pay some big bucks to get them. Dual cores are going to win out, but that's a new breed.

 

True, it's old technology but the phrase in your signiature more refers to just general age, which your PC hasn't got a lot of, since while the stuff there is old technology, it's still new. Like for instance if you'll pardon the slight jab here, a new american sportscar with a bit of rear leaf spring action compared to a 7/8 year old european 4x4 with electronic air suspension. That's a bit extreme, since the technology doesnt overlap quite that much ('cept with the prescott) but I'm sure you get the idea.

 

Well, I'll give credit to most of the members here. I suspect they caught on just as you have. Old... old tech. Since I wasn't making a secret of buying new parts, I don't think I was pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. Probably about the newest tech of the lot is the Radeon card. Most of the the system could have been built at least 3 to 4 years ago. In PC time, that's old.

 

Old or not its a kickbum system, and built that long ago would probably have set you back a fair slap!
I'm not so sure on the X850XT bit. That probably came out early 2005. Do you think 1GB Corsair XMS modules have been around longer?

 

yes the the X850XT came out middle march 2005 ,i was the first to have one in my area

 

And I'm getting it today. 1 year later for $169. I don't wanna know what you paid.

 

Surely it's the opposite, he doesn't want to know what you paid?
I wanted to jump on the X800 bandwagon early in July 2004, but the XT just never showed up, so I settled for a pro in late september. Was the fastest card in existance then, and I paid a royal £289 for it (I found the invoice the other day) that's the equivvalent of $505 to you!
However, I have to admit I bought it at the relatively local shop (local as in about 60 miles) Because I mistakenly ordered the brand new X800XT PCI express version for a slightly higher £323 ($564) If i'd been an ebay user back then I could have probably flogged it and make about £30-£40 on it. Never mind.

 

Sorry another quick question since we're on vid cards. What settings should I use to OC my Vid card? Geforce 6600 GT PCI-Express 128MB

Right now the settings are

Core Clock 500 MHZ

Memory Glock 1000 Ghz

Thanks

I tried to optimally detect but my computer monitor went fritzy and I had to reboot.

 

Try it in small increments and see when the trouble starts. It'll be a long process getting the best speed possible.

 

Did you check the nVidia tweak guilde?

sammorris
Thanks for the compliment on the system. As I said, I suspected the graphics to be newer tech than the rest of the system. It's only about a generation back. As for pricing, the CPU would have cost about $500 a couple of years ago. I'm not sure when the 1GB chips started getting affordable, but I could have had 4x512MB easily. With the 1GB cards, I can max out at 4GB if I later decide to. Not needed anytime in the forseeable future. The C2 Corsair is good RAM for OCing with Intel and AMD, so, it's something I can use with an upgraded system. Maybe not the best, but still good and better than a lot.

 

Not for those running 32-bit CPUs. When I move to 64-bit and Vista comea along 4GB will be pretty much mandatory for gaming, eventually 8.

 

byron02
Where are you getting an X850 for $169. Even used that's a good price.

sammorriss
Vista and 64 bit... another board, CPU, and in the future. You're right though, Vista is supposed to be a memory hog. I don't know about 4GB, but I know that 2 is supposed to be in order for decent performance.

 

Well put it this way, Vista may use twice the OS overhead that XP uses, so let's say it would use 500MB in 32-bit mode. In 64-bit mode, everything uses double the RAM so you're looking at 1GB just to run office and it not be paging. With games, my XP page file occasionally gets over 1GB, so in Vista's 64-bit mode, it will be well above 2.5GB, and hence 3, more likely 4GB of RAM will be needed.
Ow.

 

Hi guys,
This forum is so busy I had unsubscribed from it, so haven't been back for a while.
I sure am glad that Tweakguide guy's knowledge is solid - that's good information he has there regarding Catalyst and Net framework.
All us Radeon types can now feel better about the CCC...
I like brobear's rig, it's still great :^)
My distributor has X850XT PE (AGP8x) 256MB GDDR3 in stock, but the thing is bloody expensive!
I could buy two Asus GeForce 6800s w/ 512MB DDR2 @ $199 each, and still pay less.
AGP rigs are everywhere still; I'll update to a new vidcard for AGP next week (payday).
Amazing how many people are buying new mobos (!) just to get the new express slot. How does that stand regarding The Definition brobear - new mobo, new vidcard... that's a new PC or what?
Just don't forget the dual-core Opteron CPU if buying a new mobo, LoL
My SocketA will hold me until AM2 and Conroe et al are released. I'm gonna jump Socket939 altogether!
L8R

 

sammorris

The reason that most people who are looking for large amounts of RAM stop at 2 X 1 Gig is because many systems won't run dual channel with 4 modules installed. I've been intending to do more research in that area to see how things are progressing but I just haven't had the time.

 

Meh, I went from a 370 P3 to an skt A Xp 3000. That a big enough jump?

Yeah I've noticed that, I only have 3 slots here so I can't lol but Ive heard that the ones that do often increase the latency. Still 2GB is enough FOR NOW anyway.

 

Sophocles,
Check back and see if your P4P800 board with the Northwood won't still be dual channel HT with 4 matching RAM cards. I remember seeing it somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it. Then you know how my memory is sometimes, it can be creative. LOL

 

brobear


Four modules will work but I think only on one channel, besides my Northwood PC is on the floor in the corner of my PC room. LOL