aarchaon

I was planning to upgrade my computer prior to the news that the 64-bit processors are coming out, and now I dont know what to do. I'm tossing up between waiting for the prices to come down a bit, or going ahead with what I originally intended to upgrade to, which is as follows:

Corsair 512mb PC3200 DDR RAM –CL2 XMS
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Processor
AOpen QF50B ATX Midi Tower – Front USB (Black)

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Lasereth

It's gonna be a while before the Athlon 64's make any big price drops. The only thing I'd even consider getting anytime soon is the Athlon 64 3200 which isn't as powerful as the FX-51.

If you were gonna go ahead and upgrade to that, I would go ahead and do it. Well...it depends. What are you using now? If your current PC is decent, then I would wait. But if it's outdated and you want to play games that are coming out, then go ahead and get that setup. Which videocard are you looking at? With that setup, a good videocard is essential.

Another motherboard suggestion is the Abit NF7-S Revision 2.0. It has extremely nice SoundStorm audio.

-Lasereth

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Dilbert1234567

no ther is no software writen to take advantage of the 64 bit arch.

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propaganda

Yeah Dilberts got it, its not worth it... at the moment nothing is written to take advantage of it and doesn't seem nessecarily for awhile and those prices

Lasereth

Of course nothing is written for it yet, but it doesn't change the fact that Athlon 64's are extremely powerful. They have 1.6 GHz front side buses. Their L caches are bumped up considerably. The Athlon 64 3200, the worst Athlon 64 out right now, is already better than a 3.2 GHz Hyper-Threading Pentium 4. Needless to say, the Athlon 64 FX-51 is simply a powerhouse.

AMD has been quoted by saying that these processors are built with media and gaming enthusiasts in mind. Simply enough, the Athlon 64 series is incredibly powerful, but still too expensive right now. That's why I said that it might be best to go ahead and get his current setup...it's gonna be awhile before they go down in price. The 64-bit processing isn't what people are going to buy these processors for...they're going to buy them because they're fast as hell and loaded with L cache. That 64-bit processing won't be used for a long time, but it doesn't change the fact that the rest of the processor can and will be used. Using it in a 32-bit application does not slow it down.

-Lasereth

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Dragonlich

Question: what are you gonna use it for? If for games, keep the extra cash, spend it on a great videocard. If for something else, perhaps spending it on another (slow) part of the computer makes more sense.

Depending on what you do, your processor might not be the bottleneck of the computer, but your harddisk, videocard or memory might be. A well balanced system is better than one with one very fast part, and moderate parts everywhere else.

(Note: if you're going for the original setup, remember to take two DIMMs instead of one; that'll be faster with this motherboard.)

Blistex

Unless you're some kinda digital Rice-Boy save your cash.

for the momment 64 bit is for people with multi-terabyte databases and others who compile massively complex stuff for a living. Wait until there is either a considerable price drop or a reason that a sane person would want one other than being an uber virgin.

AMD is looking for any reason they can to get their rabid sweaty fanboys to convert their non-basement dwelling friends to their side.

64bit is as beneficial to gaming right now as the Pentium 4 2.8GHZ is to checking your email.

Sapper

Repeat after me .... Linux is my friend.

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oberon

There is software written to take advantage of AMD64 systems if you think outside the box (i.e. Windows).

In any case, my machine is fast enough that my plan is to wait til the end of August 2004 and by then a half-decent AMD64 machine should be quite a good deal.

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Silvy

My thoughts exactly...
Though the date may be pushed as I might upgrade in between and upgrades don't come cheap... My machine is barely hanging on now... If I can get it to last till August.... I hope so.

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Lasereth

Yeah, it's all about what his current PC is. If it sucks now, I'd get the Athlon XP system. If it's decent and plays current games, then it's not worth upgrading yet. If it plays today's games, then it should be alright until the Athlon 64's go down.

-Lasereth

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aarchaon

Well, my current PC is as follows:

Pentium III 450Mhz OC to 526 Mhz
2 x 128mb PC133 SDRAM
AOpen AX6BC motherboard
80Gb 7200 RPM HDD
64MB Geforce4 MX 440 SE (slowed down using CoolBits, because the motherboard can't handle a core clock speed over 116)

As you can see, its not exactly the world's greatest computer. It can play some newish games quite well, like GTAIII. Games like Battlefield 1942 and Halo don't work that well, but are mostly playable.

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cradeg

i would just buy a pc with the best price / performance ration ... 64 bit is not that performance bringer right now so i guess you should stick to a "normal" amd cpu

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rocinante2003

This is excellent advice.

Lasereth

Thanks for updating. I'd get the Athlon XP system. The Athlon 64's still haven't shown any reasonable price drops. Athlon XP systems are so cheap now (and so powerful for the price) that the best option would be to upgrade. I still suggest the Barton 2500+ with an Abit NF7-S 2.0.



Athlon 64's are the most powerful processors in the world right now. They deliver the best performance, but for an incredibly high cost. The 64-bit aspect isn't what makes it powerful, however -- it's the increased bus speed (estimated 1.6 GHz FSB) and on-board cache upgrades that make these CPUs great. The Athlon 64 FX-51 is only 2.2 GHz and is more powerful than even the 3.2 GHz EE Pentium 4.

-Lasereth

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soccerchamp76

I just hope everything comes into place soon. If Intel releases a 64-bit processor, hopefully that might drop the prices of the AMD's. In August (when I start building my computer for college), I just hope the 64-bits are a lot cheaper, and maybe even faster.

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Wyodiver33

Well, an Athlon64 3200+ will be pretty speedy, due to the 1 MB of L2 Cache. But understand this: To use that CPU, you will be using Version 1.0 CPU and Version 1.0 Motherboard. (Well, MoBo manufacturers that make Motherboards for the Opterons have a head start, as from what I have read, the Opteron is close to an Athlon64.) IMHO wait until the needed chipsets get the bugs worked out. Case in point: the original nForce motherboards were not that great, from what I have read. But the nForce2 is great. I have never dealt with a nForce1, so I can't compare, but my nForce2 is fantastic. So, if you get an nForce3 motherboard, and one of the first Athlon64 CPUs, well, you might be getting into the same situation. Also, the 1MB L2 cache is very nice, but until you can install a 64 bit Windows, what's the point? Let the tech evolve. There are Linux distros that can take atvantage of the 64 bit chip. I'm gonna wait and see.

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Lasereth

The point is that the Athlon 64 FX-51 is the most powerful processor in the world right now and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it's 64-bit. If the price goes down, there is no reason not to buy one. Sure, nothing out there will use its 64-bit capabilities, but I know of more than a few applications that use processing speed and cache (cough games cough). I'll admit that they're simply way too expensive right now...but in the future, they'll be the new Athlon XPs, well before a 64-bit Windows is introduced.

-Lasereth

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charliex

i dont follow a lot of this thread, there is massive amounts of 64 bit software available since 64 bit chips have been around for years, perhaps not for the casual or home user, but when did that ever stop em buying systems able to run it

presumably you mean worlds most powerful home or regular mainstream PC processor Lasereth, note that even AMD call the AMD 64 FX the fastest 32 bit processor around 9since 64 bit tests arent vey available, which is marketing BS , they know some of the other true 64 bits would kick their collective behinds ) its only about 16% faster (according to amds charts)

purists would say that the amd 64 bit is not a true 64 bit processor, its somewhat of a hybrid. Whereas Intels IA64 is, and its based partially on some of the old alpha technologies, which reigned supreme 32/64 cpus for a long time.

personally i hope that people don't buy the amd 64 so we can finally kill off x86.

BuddyHawks

So any chance that the 64 bit will cause the other AMD prices to lower?
...well yeah,, there is a chance, but has it/ is it going to happen?

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Johnny Rotten

Wise words. An Athlon 64 in a gaming rig would be wasted on a GeForce4 and regular hard drive. You're only getting a fraction of the performance you paid for.I would recommend a hard drive with 8MB cache and a Radeon 9600 Pro (or a better Radeon, if you can afford it). Corsair is great RAM, though. Don't be tempted by the low prices on GeiL. High memory timings tweaked so they can get their speeds so high. It's not a good tradeoff.

hulk

The problem with the introduction of 64-bit chips in a market as large as the PC market is that it will not reach mainstream for a long, long time. This means that there will not be very many apps that take full advantage of the processing power and still be of use to the average user (unless you're a calculus professor or run number-crunching physics experiements on a regular basis). In minority markets, such as the Macintosh one, having 64 bit chips as the mainstream allows for more applications to be able to utilise it. As it stands, I wouldn't waste my money on a 64 bit chip just yet, unless it came wrapped in a G5 shell.

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Lasereth

The GeForce 4 TI4200 (lowest of the GF4 series) is more powerful and a better card than the Radeon 9600 Pro. A 9600 Pro would bottleneck it much, much worse than a GeForce 4 would. I agree, he needs a 9800 Pro or FX 5900 Ultra.

Yeah.

-Lasereth

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charliex

intel has had 64 bit chips on the market for a while.