Intel P4 3.0Ghz OR AMD Athlon 3200+ ??? Please Help

[GenuineInfinity]

Hi. I really need advice.

My current system configuration is this:

- Intel P4 3.0Ghz with the 800Mhz FSB with Hyper Threading (I think its the C revision, and not E)
- Intel D865GBF Mobo
- 1Gb DDR400 Ram (2 x 512 in dual channel mode)
- ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
- 2 Maxtor 40gb drives on RAID 0.
- cd burner etc etc etc...


With the above computer, I was not planning on buying a whole new system again but the opportunity arose where i am getting the following 2 parts, so thats why i am able to consider a new system):

- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754) chip
- Asus K8V Deluxe SE mobo

i don't know if the athlon chip will have 1mb of L2 cache or 512kb. I'm really unsure.

I have 2 choices. I can keep my intel system and give my brother the amd system, or i can take the amd system and give my bro the intel system.

Regardless of the outcome, if i do take the AMD system, i will be moving all the parts out of my intel system and into my amd system which includes the 9600 card, the maxtor raided drives, cd burners etc etc. I will leave my brother with teh barebone components of hte case, the mobo and the chip and he can pay for the rest of the components himself. =)

So regardless, if we looked at both systems, with same configurations except for the cpu, the mobo and the single vs. dual channel ram differences of the amd vs. the intel respectively, which system should i keep?

I am not an enthusiast and dont' overclock and i don't play heavy games either. (i have my xbox and ps2 for that). I will be using MS office, Adobe Acrobat, surfin the web, MATLAB (with simulink and linear programming packages), C++, JAVA SDK, Visual Basic and i think thats about it. For games, i play UT 2004, and warcraft 3. Doom 3 and Half Life 2 aren't high on my list and i don't truly care about them either.

So what do you guys recommend? sorry for such a long article.

 

[Corporate Thug]

for games, i perfer the A64 3200+

i believe it has the 1 mb L2 cache

 

[Mo0o]

HOw about a 2.8Ghz Intel OC'ed to 3.0? Save you a few bucks

 

[Zebo]

MATLAB (with simulink and linear programming packages), C++, JAVA SDK, Visual Basic
-------------------
AMD 64 then. It's crunching power is unmatched. The aceshardware link I provided in your other thread shows this. Heres another link http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/socket_939-27.html

 

[elkinm]

Another vote for the AMD 64.

 

[magomago]

isn't the A64 faster at compiling sourcecode according to Quake 3 compile times?

 

[howdyduty]

Build the new one and see what you think. If you have not purchased the parts yet, I'd agree with Mo0o...To go with a lower cost cpu and overclock it. I'd go with a AMD XP Mobile 2400+ shoot for an OC to 3200+ speeds.

 

[NFactor]

If you program the Athlon 64's compile faster than the P4's as a general rule.

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
HOw about a 2.8Ghz Intel OC'ed to 3.0? Save you a few bucks

He already has the 3.0 system

 

[FiberoN]

Athlon64
Edit- The Athlon64 3200+ has 1mb L2 Cache, the Athlon64 3000+ and 2800+ have 512k L2 Cache.

 

[Mik3y]

the athlon 64 3200+ is faster then the p4 3.0C. dont worry about the cache too much, amd doesnt benefit from it as much as intel does.

 

[butch84]

well, the A64 is faster for games, but if you arent gonna game that much, thats not a big deal. The athlon might be faster for some of the things you mentioned, but for me hyper threading is the deal breaker. I dont know about you, but I'm always doing more than one thing at once, and its really nice to have the HT to keep things going smoothly. If given the choice of having word load 1/5 of a second faster, and keeping a movie playing while loading it up, I pick the p4 with HT.

BUT, thats just me .....
sounds like you will have a pretty awesome rig either way

 

[Bad Dude]

I have this same dilema but my board is the Asus P4C800 Deluxe for the Intel. Anyway, no overclocking since the systems are as fast as they are.

 

[MrCodeDude]

3200+ unless:
You plan on OCing a lot. The K8V has no PCI/AGP lock, so that ruins any massive OC's right there.
You plan on using the machine to encode and stuff.

 

[nick1985]

A64

 

[Cerb]

compiling is faster on the Athlons in every bench I've seen. Chances are a heavy math program will do better with the Athlon64 as well. Aside from that, the A64 will be a touch snappier as a basic desktop box.

...however, unless a 10-20% performance improvement in those few apps is really worthwhile, a P4 w/ HT should be fine. If you can get the new parts free or for less than $250 total, then sure, go for it.

 

[dguy6789]

the Athlon 64 2800+ is about as fast as a 3.2C P4, so get the 3200