Intel vs. AMD

Hmm the hard disk LED is very bright on my case too, I was considering changing it somehow, but couldn't be bothered. Blu-tac suffices if I'm watching a film...

 

Estuansis,

Yeah, the older 3000s had metal! Mine, which was bought in 2005 was a pop off plastic. Still, it was pretty strong. it also came with a nice copper heat sink. For what it was and the $250 it cost me, it wasn't too bad. Upping the CPU from the 2.8 to a 3.0/800 and adding a couple of sticks of DDR400 and better video helped too! It was still slower than the Asus at stock speeds by a bunch!

Happy Holidays,
theone

 

I suppose it's like a workhorse truck compared to a sports car, they're solidly made and will last a long time, but don't give you anywhere near the performance... That's probably a really bad analogy, but I think you get the idea.

 

i got a pentium d 930 for teh christmas, good present??

 

glad i got the Opteron 185 when i did there are gone at Tiger Direct for that price

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2040&msg=2513653

 

D930 are fairly fast and awesome with video. Have fun

 

oh man oh man oh man!!

 

Depends what you had before of course! Assuming you started with a single core P4, you'll be amazed at the difference.

 

yeah i had a p4 2.5 ghz... the difference is amazing, plus i just got sli nvidia 7600 gt OC's... which is just icing on the cake, i'm running all my games at the highest quality

 

What do you guys think about this
mobo: DFI Infinity UltraII-M2
Processor: AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4200+
Graphics: GeForce 7600GTS
1 GB of Memory

Thanks.

 

To xomblei: Good for you, max quality has to be seen to be believed... Although I have my suspicions that having one 7600GT would probably give a similar result
TCStr8: The 7600GTS seems to sit squarely in the middle between the 7600GT and the 7600GS performance wise. It's a pretty decent card that sits midrange in today's performance spectrum. It can play FEAR at 47fps at 1280x1024 using high quality, so it performs quite well. The 4200+ is also a very good CPU (having used one!) and, is better than the Pentium D series.

 

Anyone got any recommendations for a cheap($60-$75) socket 775 mobo? I just recently got my hands on a Retail Pentium 4 541 for $30 at the local shop.

Newegg preferrable, PCI-E or AGP, link please!

 

Estuansis,

O.K. I'm assuming you have a Prescot 3.2/800. What memory do you want to use DDR400 or DDR2? If DDR2, what speed? You definately want to get an Intel chipset as via and SIS suck! Do you plan on any future for this machine such as upgrading it to say, a Conroe? IDE drives or Sata?

Give me a little info on your plans and I'll see what I can do. The choice id just too varied without this information!

If you were just building a backup I would normally suggest an Asus P5P800 SE but the price has balooned to around $400 as it's a great MB but production stopped several months ago. The only place I found one was from pricegrabber.com and it was $399 and that's almost 5 times what I paid for mine less than a year ago. It has 4 DDR400 memory slots, 4 PCI, 1 4x-8x AGP, 2 Sata and 2 IDE. Supports up to 4 GB of memory and is about as good as you can get for a P4 or a Pentium D without going DDR2.

Happy Holidays,
theone

 

Well, in the realistic still-made line, perhaps this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131037

 

@theonejrs thnx dude...i appreciate

@PacMan777 u to man...thnx

 

I like the look of that one sammorris. The PCI Express just might make it a candidate for my old X800GTO. It's still a very strong runner placing between the 6800 and the 6800GT. I might even transform it into an X800XL if it likes to unlock.

theone, any type of memory would be fine, I would even go higher in price if the board seems worth it.

I said that newegg is preferrable but it isn't mandatory. Other sites are fine. Try as I might I can't seem to find a promising Socket 775 board anywhere. theone, with your more advanced knowledge of intel boards maybe you've seen something else that I could look up?

 

Estuansis,

If that's the case, get you one of these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128017
I know a number of people who have used this MB with great success. It's got everything except support for Quad-Core. The GA-965P-DS3 is one of the best boards for Intel from the P4 to the Conroe. Great overclocking features, 4 DDR2800 slots for up to 8GB. 1 16x PCIe, 3 1x PCIe, Great Lan and can handle 6 S-ata 3.0 drives. Down the road you can upgrade it to a Conroe and already have everything you need. Why muck around with something you can't do a serious upgrade with? At $118 it's a very good buy, and you would be set for a good while! I wish I had done that when I built my 940 as I already would have had a 6600!

Sell the X850GTO AGP as they are still very much in demand! I know I would like one for my P5P800 SE!

GTR35,
You are most welcome! Glad you got it!

Happy Holidays.
theone

 

If I upgrade my CPU/Mobo or build a second system in the next year/18 months, that board looks a promising foundation.

 

Sammorris,

I'm gonna hold out for this one!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128323

It's supports 8GB memory, 8 (count em) 3.0 S-ata, Firewire, 2 16x, 3 1x PCIe, 2 PCI, 6 Phase VR, a Great Lan and the price is slowly coming down. It also has passive cooling that works! And a whole raft of other features. Besides, it looks cool too!

It had it's teething problems, like so many other MBs for the Conroe and is still a little fussy about memory, but I want to give one a try. Put a 6600 in that baby and it should rock!

Happy Holidays,
theone

 

Given my situation as a student, a second PC seems a little unlikely at this point, so an extravagant board like that is probably out of the question. I'm going to see what happens to CPU prices, and if Conroes drop a lot more, I may get a 6600, but for the moment I'm ignoring CPUs and investigating the purchase of an R600 GPU. I'm of the opinion that AMD's next generation CPU will be worth waiting for.