Which processor is better?

[Squinky]

I'm looking at upgrading with a board/cpu combo, not really too interested in which board I pick, but I'm confused on the cpu's.....

My choices are :

an athlon 64 3000 or a pentium 4 3.0 ghz prescott.....the athlon is clocked much lower than the pentium, but I'm getting told that it cycles much faster or something ( I truthfully don't know mush as I'd like about this) and its 64 as apposed to the standard 32....Any help or advice?

[Privateer Puddin']

never buy a graphics card named after a politician

[TheYak]

What are your current specs?  It makes a bit of difference since it would seem you've got two good choices at the moment.  For example, I've got an Athlon XP 2800+ on an Asus a7n8x mobo, with a GeForce 6800 GT.  I wouldn't see a whole lot of improvement going to an Athlon 64 3000+, at least not enough to justify the expense.  However, I may consider going to a decent socket 939 with PCI-E SLI support so I've got a good upgrade path for the next year or two. 

Unless you're really hurting on processor speed, there's no point in not going for a nicely upgradable setup.  However, if you're still running in the 1800 Mhz range, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad cost/performance choice to go for something like an Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard with a 3000+ Athlon 64.  You could snag a mobo/cpu combo for $285-$300 online and be able to upgrade to an Athlon 64 FX-55 after prices drop.

[LGM]

Go with the Athlon, as long as it's the 939 socket. 754 is the slower, more resource-intensive budget version of the 64 bit line. If it isn't, as much as I hate saying it, go with the Intel. But don't expect to game as hard as you would on an AMD.

But even if you DO go with the 754 (which isn't necessarily a BAD thing), be sure to get the DFI LanBoy Motherboard. And of course, order them both from NewEgg!

Personally, though, if you aren't tied down to those two choices, I would wait a year or two until you switch to 64 bit. Once PCI-X, SLI, and DDR2 have had time to mature, you could upgrade to a second (or third) generation of 64 bit boards and processors. That way you won't regret it if something goes wrong with your setup.

I just upgraded to an Athlon XP 3200+ and an ABIT NFS-7 Version 2 MoBo. (512 Rosewill PC3200 RAM, of course) and I couldn't be happier. If you don't want a bleeding edge system, wait on the switch 64 bit.

You can grab an OEM 3200+ at www.gameve.com and buy a Volcano heatsink along with it for the same price as you could buy a S754 Athlon 64 3000+ at NewEgg.

I plan to buy another stick of 512 RAM and a GeForce 6600 GT once I get my money from M$

Of course, if you favor Intel for some reason or another, I'm sure you'll be happy with the Newcastle. But if your going to stay in the 32-bit realm,  AMDs are best. They're easier to shop for, and generally cheaper. And, of course, they also offer the best bang for the buck. (In my opinion, anyways.)

Hope I helped. Good Luck!

[Squinky]

Well, right now I'm using a processor that runs at about 1100, dont know what the hell it is though.....heh. I've got an nvidia card with 64 whatever....thats about all I know off the top off my head (at work). I'm, doing most of my pricing on pricewatch.com, and can get a motherboard combo and cpu for about 180, and 1 gig ram for 95....I think thats a good deal, at least compared to local stores......It seems like the athlon is the better choice do far, so I'll prolly go with that after I figure out which board I want to go with it....(I didn't know about sockets and junk so I'll definately use you guys as a refernce point, thank you)

[LGM]

All Athlon XP Models are Socket A. Keep that in mind.

[edmundito]

I always like the pentium chip myself, but the AMD is probably just as good, it's just that last time I had AMD I had a 233 mhz compaq that led to some bad experiences.

[Squinky]

Whelp, I made my purchases yesterday:

I went with the Gigabyte GA-K8NS Socket 754 AthlonTM 64DDR MB With Athlon64 3000+MHz Ã, CPU & Fan, because the 939 was just too much it seemed...Got myself 1 gig of ram and a swanky case....hope it rocks compared to my old school stuff....Paid about $350 for this little upgrade....

The ram I bought was generic pc3200, the site had a bunch of different kinds, when did ram get so complicated?

[InCreator]

Athlon isn't a bad buy if you take care of your processor.
Also, you need to support him with enough ram and a good cooler.

Complicated? For last 3-4 years it's like this: you don't go to buy a computer but a damned bowl of soup made of three-letter+number thingies.
What's good? What's not? It's nearly impossible to determine.

[LGM]

Good choice! Ram doesn't matter unless you are a hardc0re gamer or enthusiast.

I personally use Rosewill, which is basically generic. (compared to "Crucial" or "Kingston")

[TheYak]

RAM matters somewhat depending upon your board choice.  I got some Kingston value RAM initially for my board.  However, the motherboard didn't specifically support that particular model and Kingston hadn't tested it with that motherboard.  So, I was up s__t creek without a paddle.  I ended up getting some Corsair XMS (400 Mhz, 6,3,2,2) that kicks some ass. 

RAM matters in several instances: Whether it'll work with a dual-channel board in dual mode, whether it's registered or non-registered (The first A64 motherboards required reg), and if you have system instability.  If everything's smooth, you'll notice little performance increase but better RAM unless you're an overclocker.

If you've got an nVidia card with 64 megs on it, I'm assuming it's a Geforce 2, perhaps GTS or ultra. . . potentially a low-end Geforce 3.  Graphics cards have come a long way so your card would be your current gaming bottleneck.  A budget upgrade from the GF2 or 3 series would be a Radeon 9800 Pro 128M.  Running around $130-150 online, they still hold their own for Doom 3 and Half-life 2.  Avoid the GeForce FX series, the newer generation is much better with fewer headaches.