Intel P4 vs AMD

theonejrs

SLI allows one to use two graphics cards at the same time acting as one but with faster graphics processing.

 

Like I said, hock the progeny. You can benefit from the twin GPUs I mentioned for a "dream machine" without serious overclocking. It only costs several hundred dollars more. LOL

 

Well i,m on my first ever amd as i decided i wanted to spend a fortune on a pc that would be future proof for a few yrs so my system consists of the following maybe you can tell me how it stacks up against my older p4 3.60 560

AMD FX-57
2 gig of pc 3200
asus sli diamond mobo
2 x 256MB NVIDIA 7800GTX GDDR3 PCI-E graphics
2 x 320GB 7200rpm SATA hard disk
sony multi format dual layer dvd burner.
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
creative mega works 770 7.1 speakers
sony 19" x black monitor


so far it kills my p4 in everything but i,m only had it 2 weeks so have not got round to any video processing. but i much prefer it over my p4 to date.

 

Well, that's a lot to spend for a single thread chip. A dual core would have been a good play at those prices. You bought bragging rights though, it is a fast chip. Various sites are showing similar processing capabilities from the less expensive AMD CPUs that have been OCed. And where are the Raptors for the RAID?

It would have been interesting as well if you'd given us some info on the components you used. What you gave us is a vague shopping list. What PC3200 RAM was used? Which Asus board was it? Even on the Asus site they don't list a Diamond Board? Little things like those tell us if what you have is all it could have been?

 

SLi stands for Sacelable link interface, but generally means 'loaded', 'rich' 'damn you' 'your PC's better than mine' and so on and so forth.
The rival system is ATI's Crossfire, which debuts in my country (UK) on November 28th. Preliminary Benchmark results have proved inconclusive so far, but the benchmarks on the X1800 series single cards have shown a large performance increase over the rival 7800GTX, so things look promising.

As for me, a single AGP card will do, it's the most expensive single component I've ever bought.

 

sorry not to sure heres the url from the web site i bought it from

http://www.evesham.com/PCs/Info.asp?e=A5993C32-5DDD-4C59-9D68-189BE8CF41A2

But the memory is HyneX and the memory board is A8N-SLI Deluxe says diamond on the sticker lol. i went for the all in one box bought of the shelf pc

 

tallandy

I don't know where you purchased your machine but the FX57 is a waste of money and Hynix memory is mediocre. You could have purchased the AMD64 4000+ which has the same San Diego core as the FX57 and you could have purchased two 512 mhz sticks of the best memory sold. That's both for less than $600 which is a savings of over $400 against the price of the FX57 alone without counting the cost of the cheap memory. The AMD64 4000+ only differs from the FX57 by a little binning and its clock multiplier of 14 versus the 4000's clock multiplier of 12. They are otherwise exactly the same San Diego cored chip. With good quality memory the front side bus could essily hit 240 MHZ or higher and with the 4000+ clock multiplier of 12 it would reach a core speed of 2.88 GHZ which is faster than the FX57. With the savings you could have bought another nvidia 7800 video card and still saved.

 

That hurts. I feel really sorry for him now.

 

And for those who think in dollars and not pounds, that site is listing the PC for 2,499 pounds which converts to about $4,376. Considering that a person could get the AMD 64 4000+ CPU, Asus board, and good RAM for a little over $700 (about 400 pounds), just think what could be done with the rest of that money. I person could have a super PC as compared to just a fast one. Decimator is a good name for that PC. Overpriced as it is, that's exactly what it does to a bank account.

 

Ok Agreed but you cant compare $ to £ as our cost of viving is so much hogher here that yours example a gallon of petrol Gas is £5 here thats about us$9 also cigarettes are more they go about us$11 for 20 so the whole price of the machine in dollars seems more than it is, also the machine came with the 4800+ as standard it was only us$75 upgrade to the fx-57 and according to sisoft it clocking at 2.84 and i think $75 for the fx 57 over the 4800 is pretty good the 4000 is hard to get here as its considered a budgetchip most people go for the 4400 and over also yes $4700 seems a lot but it comes with 3 yrs warranty onsite, micrsoft office ,1 yrs broadband subscription, webcam and over 20 games and a saitex cyborg evo joystick so its a good package and i still prefer the amd over my old p4 so i am a convert and i have 2 7800,s graphics cards already lol , and its ok sammorris i asked for the advice and bro told me i,m not upset over it as i said i dont know the diff beteeen the various chips on amd i did a web search and time after time the 57 won against all the others p4 or amd i dont go into overclocking so am happy with the speed according to an american website the 57 is about 8% quicker than the amd 4800 and almost 13% quicker againd the p4 3.73 ee so i,m very happy with it

 

Ironically brobear, Evesham brought out a £2400 media centre PC called the decimator earlier this year, with an FX55, X850XT Platinum, 2GB of memory etc.

The X2 3800 is quite common in the UK, being the cheapest option, and a large number of system manufacturers use it and the 4200. The 4400 and 4600 arent quite so common (the 4600 especially, with good reason), but the 4800 being the top end model appears on numerous websites.

 

tallandy
I only mentioned dollars to pounds so the audience on the US side of the pond would have a better picture. I understand monetary rates and how local economies affect those exchange rates. I'm well aware of the cost of living being higher in the UK. That's why 1 pound is about $1.75 US. Currency values fluctuate, I've seen the pound much higher in the past. Fuel cost is a poor example though, because you have the taxation as well as import and production costs.

Getting back to PCs. One comparably priced in the US would be about $4,400 US. Here's a factory built custom for about that price. It comes overclocked and liquid cooled and is one of the fastest gamers available. You can check it out at Alienware's site. http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/aurora_alx.aspx

They've even got a $5,100 P4. http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/area51_alx_sli.aspx P4s are more expensive to build to get comparable results to the AMD at top end.

Taking in to account the exchange rates, those are similarly priced with the P4 being somewhat more expensive, with the AMD version being almost dead on.

At those prices, I'd still rather build my own for less than half the cost. It may not have liquid cooling, but then I prefer something a little less extreme with a better life expectancy.

 

Cost aside it does look like a nice system. I can't afford to buy completed systems so I build.
Building your own can give performance advantages for a lower price if you have the time and don't mind fixing problems yourself.

The dual cores are a much better deal for future proofing because you get 2 processors to thrash instead of one. With multitasking and new programs coming out to take advantage of SMP then in a year you'll be less likely to need a faster processor.

 

And with an X1000 series video card, you won't need a fast processor at all, since AViVo will do all the work for it!
My planned new system involves a mere Athlon64 3500 but with an X1800XT. That's how I like my systems. It works out at £1100 with finance (i.e. pay nothing for 9 months lump sum) which is around about $1900 at the moment i think, not bad for something with THE top end graphics card in it!

 

Actually the Venice core 3500+ is a fast processor. It'll run 2.6 ghz without pushing hard. 2.8 with some extra power. Video cards can only do so much. They still have to be fed by a decent processor.

 

Donald
I agree with you. As I mentioned earlier, at those prices, I'd rather go with dual core. Doing a custom build isn't being a CAB, it's just using what's available to be more cost efficient. Plus a custom build insures you're getting exactly what you want. Building better than what you can buy is what it's all about. The only time I've seen factory units be more cost effective is for the "working" PCs like the low to midrange Gateways, Dells and such; where custom tweaking isn't desired.

 

With the new AMD's you don't really need liguid cooling in fact in most cases you only need the stock heatsink and fan. The point that I was making earlier is that the FX57 is just a highly clocked San Diego core. Any middle priced processor from AMD can get at least another 300 MHZ on top of its rated speed. I was able to increase my CPU speed by 440 MHZ over top the 2200 MHZ that it's rated for while staying operationally quite conservative. The AMD San Diego core comes off the same production line as the FX57 does and until their multipliers are set there is no real difference between any of them and when they're over clocked to the speed of the FX57 then they're effectively FX57's. Most failed over clocks are caused by cheap memory.

For $334.00 (Newegg) in North America one can pick up the the AMD 4000+ San Diego core which comes at 2.4 MHZ. To increase my speed to its current over clocked speed of 2640 MHZ (I had it higher)I had to increase my frontside bus speed to 240 MHZ which when multiplied by 11 gives me my current CPU speed and with a memory command rate of 1T. My temperatures idle between 33 to 35 degrees celcius and under full load it has never hit 49 degrees celcius. If I were to use the same memory with the AMD 4000+ I should be able to hit the same frontside bus speed. That would mean 240 MHZ times a multiplier of 12 which would bring the San Diego core to 2880 MHZ. At the same speed an overclocked CPU is usually a little faster because the non over clocked CPU is running with a front side bus speed of 200 but the overclocked CPU is running with a frontside bus speed of 240 or greate. Now one needs to add quality memory.


Right now Newegg has a great price on CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB)TWINX1024-3200C2PRO for $124. This is the same memory that Tomshardware.com and most other technology sites that are into overclocking use. The total cost of the CPU and memory is $458.00 that's $553.00 less than the FX57 sells for alone and since you also had to pay for you memory let's fact that in at $47.00 which brings the total savings to $600 for a slightly faster system (that's enough to buy and extra Nvidia 7800 and two 74 gig western digital Raptors). If someone came to me and told me that they wanted a cheap PC for under $600 I'd say just grab any of the bargain brands at bestbuy, but as the price begins to exceed $1000, then I recommend a home built for the best value. At $2000 for parts one can build a PC that should be able to beat or match the $4000 units.

 

Besides, who wants to miss out on killing a board on a bad flash and breathing life back into it. So much fun to have.
I have 2 extra boards to fill with a 939 AMD processor. I am just waiting for the right price on the right part.
I figured to use one as a low power server and the other at work.
Maybe a 3000+ and 3800+ x2 respectively.
I have to go to my second job to pay for my habit now

 

Sophocles
LOL I was just pointing out what one could actually buy for such and extreme price. That Alienware PC was one that's been to the races and came back a winner. It needs the liquid cooling for the way it's set up and for what it does. I'd never advocate buying one though. As I said, I prefer the naturally aspirated models.

 

64026402

I hear you loud and clear. I'm getting ready to pick up the X2 4400+. I was just going to add it to my current setup but now I think that I'm going for a complete build. I have two gigs of Corsair XMS CAS2 memory not being used, an 80 gig SATA 150 western digital not being used( get another and put them in a raid), a 430 watt antec power supply, a samsung combo cd rom, a sony DRU 500, Nvidia Ti 4200, and an ATI 9500 Pro vid cards which are fine since I don't intend to do any serious gaming, I also have several CPU's and a an unused gigabyte socket A board just to name a few. I told my wife that if she hassled me about all this stuff that I'm buying that I'd take up building automobiles which is more expensive and uses a lot of room.LOL