To AMD or Not AMD that is the question

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Killrose
I myself am going the AMD route. I have nearly all my components I bought cheap on ebay and here to replace my old epox 8RDA+/Barton mobile setup. However, I have not bought the AM2 Motherboard yet due to the fact that Motherboard makers can't be trusted to release a working bios for excisting AM2 boards.

Remember, though a Phenom, or whatever AMD AM2 chip might "drop in" to your AM2 socket, it is still upto the Motherboard manufacture to release a bios to truly support it! :frown:

So will you have to hold off until you are able to buy an AM2+/AM3 mobo then?
What was the point of buying all that AMD stuff if you weren't going to buy a mobo until you were sure of the upgrade path? If you would have waited and bought all parts later, you would have saved some coin, right? The "cheap" parts you got on Ebay might have been even "cheaper" by then.

 

[jediphx]

i have always loved AMD for various reasons, im running a athlonXp mobile 2600+ @2.5ghz right now for 3 years but the C2D seems like the way to go now. im limited on what i can spend now and will not be able to upgrade after that for a long while (new child on the way in Sept )

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Killrose
I myself am going the AMD route. I have nearly all my components I bought cheap on ebay and here to replace my old epox 8RDA+/Barton mobile setup. However, I have not bought the AM2 Motherboard yet due to the fact that Motherboard makers can't be trusted to release a working bios for excisting AM2 boards.

Remember, though a Phenom, or whatever AMD AM2 chip might "drop in" to your AM2 socket, it is still upto the Motherboard manufacture to release a bios to truly support it! :frown:

So will you have to hold off until you are able to buy an AM2+/AM3 mobo then?
What was the point of buying all that AMD stuff if you weren't going to buy a mobo until you were sure of the upgrade path? If you would have waited and bought all parts later, you would have saved some coin, right? The "cheap" parts you got on Ebay might have been even "cheaper" by then.

Bought a new AM2 AMD Opteron Heatpipe hs/fan for $15 shipped, 2gigs of new HP PC5300 promo ram for $49 shipped, a brand new retail box X1800XL for $80 shipped and a used X2 3600+ Brisbane for $45 shipped. Some of the items would have never gotten cheaper really and though Intel based would be the set-up to go with for the high-end power user, I am not one of those. For me, this will be quite an up-grade and get me into a Pci-e/DDR-2 system.

You could certainly point out that an Intel system can be had for cheap Today and will perform at a very high standard Today compared to an AMD system that has a questionable up-grade path. I will not argue that at all. I plan on buying an AMD 690G chipset board I can OC well and be happy. But as you point out, I may have to wait to get true compatability. Can I wait or will I? who knows

 

[golem]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Solofly, and why is that? Haven't you heard about AMD taking back marketshare from Intel? And why that is happening? Coz amd owns the lower segment of cpu sales. If you're on a budget, am2 + cheap x2 is a pretty good deal.

Is AMD gaining market share something really new? I thought they lost all their gains from the past 2-3 years back to Intel in the past few quarters?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Killrose


Bought a new AM2 AMD Opteron Heatpipe hs/fan for $15 shipped, 2gigs of new HP PC5300 promo ram for $49 shipped, a brand new retail box X1800XL for $80 shipped and a used X2 3600+ Brisbane for $45 shipped. Some of the items would have never gotten cheaper really and though Intel based would be the set-up to go with for the high-end power user, I am not one of those. For me, this will be quite an up-grade and get me into a Pci-e/DDR-2 system.

You could certainly point out that an Intel system can be had for cheap Today and will perform at a very high standard Today compared to an AMD system that has a questionable up-grade path. I will not argue that at all. I plan on buying an AMD 690G chipset board I can OC well and be happy. But as you point out, I may have to wait to get true compatability. Can I wait or will I? who knows

Well, you certainly are the froogle shopper! Really nice deals there. Maybe you can find an interim mobo for about $8 ?? hehe. J/K. But you never know

 

[Killrose]

^
Frugal!!!?

Hell no i'm just cheap!

 

[imported_rod]

Link: www.froogle.com

------

If you just want a mid-range system that runs well at stock, then AMD is a better choice. You can get the same performance at a lower price than the Intel alternative.

But if you want maximum performance, or you're an overclocker, then go with Intel.

 

[chmike]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
If you want a CPU that will last you 5 years, get a quad core intel chip.

Gee, I don't believe anyone reading these forums is interested in a 5 year CPU...

June 2002:

The big choice was between the P4/2533 vs Athlon XP 2200+

Anyone here still running this for your main system?:roll: :Q

I highly agree with this:

Originally posted by: rod


If you just want a mid-range system that runs well at stock, then AMD is a better choice. You can get the same performance at a lower price than the Intel alternative.

But if you want maximum performance, or you're an overclocker, then go with Intel.

It all depends on what your looking for and what your budget is...

 

[nerp]

Get what you can afford and be happy with it. Worry about the future later. Now isn't a necessarily bad time to build, but it certainly isn't as interesting as it will soon be when AMD's new products finally come to market. Then we'll see.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: chmike

Originally posted by: SickBeast
If you want a CPU that will last you 5 years, get a quad core intel chip.

Gee, I don't believe anyone reading these forums is interested in a 5 year CPU...

June 2002:

The big choice was between the P4/2533 vs Athlon XP 2200+

Anyone here still running this for your main system?:roll: :Q

Um, have you ever heard of the Barton Mobile 2500+? I was using that chip up until a few months ago. :roll:

P.S. It's August.

 

[rmed64]

Well, the Pentium E series core 2 chips are severely starving for cache, it only has 25% of the cache of the conroe 4mb chips, and it shows during gaming BIG time.

So, if you want to be the cheapest bastard you can be (like me), I recommend the X2 3600 and Biostar Tforce 550 motherboard. Then overclock it to ~2.8-3Ghz and you will be good to go.

If you want more performance though, go ahead and get a core 2. Just remember not to get the tard ones i.e. Pentium E2160 chips. Core 2 architecture LOVES cache.

 

[jbass]

I went with a AMD AM2 4400+ X2 and overclocked to 2.8Ghz. I am plenty happy with the decision and thrilled that the AM3 processors will be backwards compatible.

 

[MarcVenice]

It's a dutch link: http://core.tweakers.net/nieuw...-terrein-op-Intel.html

you could try running it through babelfish and translate it to english. Key words would be Mercury Research, who came up with the numbers. Google that and you should get some hits.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/33080/118/ that link was provided in the Dutch article, but it won't show up correctly for me.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: jbass
I went with a AMD AM2 4400+ X2 and overclocked to 2.8Ghz. I am plenty happy with the decision and thrilled that the AM3 processors will be backwards compatible.

If everyone bought Intel I most likely wouldn't be running a quad core chip as I am today. I hope Barcelona turns out to be good so I don't have to spend a lot of money on Penryn when it's released. 45nm goodness...

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: solofly
If you're building from scratch Intel is far better choice than AMD.

I agree and I run AMD.

If you already have decent AMD hardware and can support a 6000+ AM2 then while that won't beat out the C2D ultimately it will handle anything out there now and be a lot lower cost using the current hardware platform.

Buying everything new....definitely C2D today.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
To me it is:

TO WAIT, or go with Intel now.

If you can wait, hold your horses - I am curious myself what's cooking at AMD in terms of new CPU's.

They should be out soon.

If you wait there is always something better and cheaper tomorrow. Like every 3 months now things change a lot.

However, buying now your machine will ALWAYS do what you bought it to do. More often than not still be able to perform decently for a lot longer than needed (when the upgrade hardware becomes next to nothing to buy).

Too many people get caught up in the best of the best. In reality today a modest CPU is all that's needed for most people and adding an middle tier GPU. It seems graphics cards should be more peoples focus today.

Now if you are truly a folder/number cruncher....high-end rendering/modeling then ultimate CPU power usually can be measured in dollars returned to you in time.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
If you wait there is always something better and cheaper tomorrow. Like every 3 months now things change a lot.

Too many people get caught up in the best of the best. In reality today a modest CPU is all that's needed for most people and adding an middle tier GPU. It seems graphics cards should be more peoples focus today.

Great Advice.

Originally posted by: chmike
Gee, I don't believe anyone reading these forums is interested in a 5 year CPU...

June 2002:

The big choice was between the P4/2533 vs Athlon XP 2200+

Anyone here still running this for your main system?:roll: :Q

I am.

As a matter of fact I'm typing to you now on a SocketA AMD Athlon xp2200+ while I watch a football game in HD on a 42-inch flat panel.

When you get past all the fan boys what you typically find is whether it's AMD or Intel ...

It's all just dandy . . .