P4 or Athlon system?

[Gix]

my friend is looking for a new system. he wants something that can last him for a couple of years with a geforce4 and 512mb of ram.
He wants an athlon, but I said go with P4, because the new 533mhz fsb motherboards and p4s are faster and have a better future.
Also concerning memory, he has no idea what to get? If you guys recommend P4, would you get DDR or RDRAM? His budget is a ~ $1000
And he wants a full system.
Could you give me your thoughts on P4 or athlon?

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

The real questions you should ask him is how much is how much is he willing to spend, and does he plan to overclock to get the best bang for the buck.

I'f he's on a budget and doesn't want to overclock a 1.6Ghz to 2.4Ghz then I say go Athlon. If the above doesn't apply then go P4.

 

[Gix]

he's sitting right next to me. ~$1000, no overclocking

 

[cholley]

athlon would be cheaper to build
also the new Tbred cpus are going to work on all current socket a boards

 

[CableDude]

Athlon.

 

[Athlon4all]

Definately Athlon XP. Here's a inital thought price list (although you are asking for quite a bit(ie GeForce4 is a lot for a full system under $1000) to keep it under 1 grand if he needs a monitor, OS, etc:

Athlon XP 1800+ $130 Retail
512MB Samsung PC2100 DDR $100 or so at Crucial
Asus A7N266-C $100
WD 80GB Special Edition HD $130
nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 $170
On-board sound (not some junk On-board, this nForce Audio rivals the SB Audigy)
Antec SX635 Case $75
Floppy $10(Generic)
Speakers $10(Generic)
DVD/CD-RW Combo drive $130
$855 Total+Shipping
Those are your basics, add I'd say $100 for a 17" monitor, and $100 for XP Home tho. The only way to get it down would be to get just a plain vinilla CD-ROM drive, and a Smaller HD to save $150 or so.and maybe only 256Megs of PC2100.

 

[Gix]

sorry to bother you again, i made a mistake. i have a spare monitor i'm letting him use, he has a keyboard, and a headset, mouse and a new burner. he'll be using his system for gaming basically. you think it's possible to bump up/change couple things?

 

[Athlon4all]

Athlon XP 2000+ $160 Retail
512MB Samsung PC2100 DDR $100 or so at Crucial
Asus A7N266-C $100
WD 80GB Special Edition HD $130
nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 $170
On-board sound (not some junk On-board, this nForce Audio rivals the SB Audigy)
Antec SX635 Case $75
Floppy $10(Generic)
Win XP Home $100 OEM
$20 Linksyz NIC
$25 56k Modem
$890 Total+Shipping

That should be about everything

 

[Pabster]

P4 Northwood. DDR. Enough said

AthlonXP is on the way out, along with .18u technology. They run too hot and, price-wise, don't offer enough of a savings to justify the extra case fans, extra cooling, or extra electricity they consume. Northwood is where its at right now, and, unless something drastic changes in the Thoroughbred core (which I don't expect) for the forseeable future.

RDRAM is on the way out as well. It's a dead duck. DDR costs less, runs cooler, and provides more bandwidth at a lower latency.

 

[Athlon4all]

Pabster, I disagree. First of all the Athlon XP's at similarly priced Northwood's (ie 1.6A vs 1800+ and 1.8A vs 2000+), the XP takes the lead in everything except for SYSMark2002 when the P4 is using DDR. And as for the XP's heat, it doesn't cost any more to cool an XP than it does a P4. You only need a HSF with a Thermal Pad, and a Pentium 4 actually needs more current than an XP.

And as for RDRAM, Intel may have stopped supporting it, but still, it is clearly the fastest memory for the P4, and is needed to optain optimum performance

 

[Windogg]

If you plan on OCing: P4 Northwood w/ DDR
If you don't plan on OCing: AthlonXP w/ DDR
If you want insane performance: P4 Northwood w/ PC1066 RDRAM
If you want best value for your money: Athlon XP w/ DDR2700

JMHO

Windogg

 

[Pabster]

Athlon4All wrote:

"Pabster, I disagree. First of all the Athlon XP's at similarly priced Northwood's (ie 1.6A vs 1800+ and 1.8A vs 2000+), the XP takes the lead in everything except for SYSMark2002 when the P4 is using DDR. And as for the XP's heat, it doesn't cost any more to cool an XP than it does a P4. You only need a HSF with a Thermal Pad, and a Pentium 4 actually needs more current than an XP."

Of course we know AthlonXP is faster at an equal clock to both Willamette and Northwood Pentium 4. Looking specifically at Northwood, how many people are going to stick with 1.6 or 1.8 when they can do 2.1+ easily with no additional cooling or risk? And once the Northy hits the higher clock (as well as FSB), performance is impressive. I simply can't recommend AthlonXP, given the current market conditions. Thoroughbred is near. If you're a die-hard AMD fanatic, at least wait. Northwood (IMHO) is still the better choice. Chipset and mainboard availability and stability also being major factors.

"And as for RDRAM, Intel may have stopped supporting it, but still, it is clearly the fastest memory for the P4, and is needed to optain optimum performance"

Baloney. My DDR rigs run all over RAMBUSt configurations. Not in synthetic benchies, no, but in real-world performance. The only thing "clear" right now is that RDRAM is a dead-end road. DDR (and the forthcoming -II iterations) are set to take front and center on both platforms (AMD/Intel).

 

[Gix]

what P4 motherboard/hsf since we're on that subject. and why would you suggest pc2700 ddr for an athlon, since it's only 266mhz fsb?

 

[SnoopyDog]

Athlon4all
Couldnt agree with you more.

Athlon is the way to go if: You are on a budget, are NOT going to OC.

P4 is the way to go if: Money is not an issue, ARE going to OC.

But I have to say Athlon XP can also be OC

SnoopyDog

 

[Flatline]

P4 Northwood also has a clearer upgrade path than the Athlons, though it pains me to say it. As far as stability is concerned, I haven't had any problems with my Athlon (but I also don't OC). I would go with DDR-not necessarily because of price (RDRAM isn't that much more expensive anymore), but because I simply can't stand Rambus!

 

[subxeon]

Why can't you stand RAMBUS?

It is clearly the superior memory option concerning the Pentium 4's as of now.

 

[Flatline]

Mostly because of the way they do business, which is why I'm not exactly crazy about Intel either. I realize that pretty much every company is crooked in their own way, but you've gotta draw a line in the sand eventually. By the way, DDR solutions have just about caught up with RDRAM performance; I agree that RDRAM does hand the P4 more bandwidth (I'd have to be in total denial not to), but the margin is becoming slimmer and slimmer.