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Lasereth · 08-11-2003, 02:02 PM

I guess it all depends on your own experiences. At college, me and a few friends sit around and debate which is better: AMD or Intel, NVIDIA or ATI.

Well, someone above mentioned that after you start paying $150.00 for a CPU, then Intel wins. I'm a die-hard AMD fan, but I have to agree in most instances with that. There are other circumstances, however -- like the CPUs that cost less than $150.00. Me and my friend at ASU built two PCs. He bought an Asus mobo with a nForce 2 chipset while my current PC was a Gigabyte mobo with a VIA KT333 chipset.

We loaded both computers with 768 megabytes of DDR memory. My friend who bought the Asus mobo with the nForce 2 chipset bought a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4b CPU. My current PC had a Athlon XP 1900+ Palomino running at 1.61 GHz. Both PCs had a GeForce 4 TI4200 128 MB video card in them. The Asus/P4 PC had 8x AGP; mine had 4x.

On benchmark tests, the Gigabyte/Athlon XP PC (mine) did about 5% less than the Asus/P4. Remember, there is a 250 MHz FSB difference between the Athlon and P4, and nearly 800 MHz difference in actual clock speed. The Athlon XP had a FIVE PERCENT decrease in score in 3d Mark 2001 as well as UT2k3 and Q3 benchmarks.

Tests like these prove that it's not always a massive FSB and clock speed that equals performance. My CPU was about $70.00 when I bought it. My friend's was over $200.00. When it all boils down to it, there are a cubic shitlode of factors that determine how good a computer will be. The motherboard, chipset, graphics card, and definitely the RAM all contribute to overall performance. But when two PCs sharing the same specs except for mobo and CPU are tested and one is nearly equal with 800 MHz clock speed difference, something can be said.

If you don't want to speed over $100.00 on a CPU, I'd go AMD Athlon XP, all the way. As a matter of fact, I think NewEgg has a sale on AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Bartons that run at 1.83 GHz with a 333 FSB right now, only $90.00. It overclocks easily to 2.2 GHz with a regular CPU fan.

If you want to spend a shitlode of money on a CPU, and know that you'll have the best, then go Intel. But I strongly suggest only buying a Pentium 4 if you want to spend over $150-200 dollars.

-Lasereth

08-11-2003, 02:02 PM	#30 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	I guess it all depends on your own experiences. At college, me and a few friends sit around and debate which is better: AMD or Intel, NVIDIA or ATI. Well, someone above mentioned that after you start paying $150.00 for a CPU, then Intel wins. I'm a die-hard AMD fan, but I have to agree in most instances with that. There are other circumstances, however -- like the CPUs that cost less than $150.00. Me and my friend at ASU built two PCs. He bought an Asus mobo with a nForce 2 chipset while my current PC was a Gigabyte mobo with a VIA KT333 chipset. We loaded both computers with 768 megabytes of DDR memory. My friend who bought the Asus mobo with the nForce 2 chipset bought a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4b CPU. My current PC had a Athlon XP 1900+ Palomino running at 1.61 GHz. Both PCs had a GeForce 4 TI4200 128 MB video card in them. The Asus/P4 PC had 8x AGP; mine had 4x. On benchmark tests, the Gigabyte/Athlon XP PC (mine) did about 5% less than the Asus/P4. Remember, there is a 250 MHz FSB difference between the Athlon and P4, and nearly 800 MHz difference in actual clock speed. The Athlon XP had a FIVE PERCENT decrease in score in 3d Mark 2001 as well as UT2k3 and Q3 benchmarks. Tests like these prove that it's not always a massive FSB and clock speed that equals performance. My CPU was about $70.00 when I bought it. My friend's was over $200.00. When it all boils down to it, there are a cubic shitlode of factors that determine how good a computer will be. The motherboard, chipset, graphics card, and definitely the RAM all contribute to overall performance. But when two PCs sharing the same specs except for mobo and CPU are tested and one is nearly equal with 800 MHz clock speed difference, something can be said. If you don't want to speed over $100.00 on a CPU, I'd go AMD Athlon XP, all the way. As a matter of fact, I think NewEgg has a sale on AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Bartons that run at 1.83 GHz with a 333 FSB right now, only $90.00. It overclocks easily to 2.2 GHz with a regular CPU fan. If you want to spend a shitlode of money on a CPU, and know that you'll have the best, then go Intel. But I strongly suggest only buying a Pentium 4 if you want to spend over $150-200 dollars. -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert