thinking of getting athlon 64.. but...

[Snow-Munki]

Hi,

thinking of upgrading my gf's pc. she doesn't play games at all really and uses it for more desktop work and photoshop / graphics work...

i've been umming an ahhing all day about what cpu to get and came to these conclusions:

athlon xp barton mobile 2500 - overclocked to 2.3ghz speeds +
this option is the cheapest but is it any good ?

Athlon 64 3000
do these overclock much ? as they have new HT technology might be good for photoshop work and paying about an extra £50 overall might be a good investment ?

Intel 2.8ghz ?
know very little about intel but always been told ofr apps always go for Intel, is this still the case, but they seem to be VERY expensive

so what are your views on this, kinda on a budget here... but don't want to get somethingthat becomes obsolute quickly....

thanks

[mike_w]

If you don't want something that'll become obsolete quickly, then I think you should go for a Socket 939 Athlon 64. Socket A is at the end of its product lifecycle, and the majority of the faster CPUs from AMD will be on Socket 939 rather than Socket 754. This means you can upgrade in the future, and the CPU is already pretty fast. The only downside is the higher price.

[Swafe]

dont go with intel

as for athlons, hmm

XP2500M and overclocking is a cheap way of doing it, depends how long your keeping it for tho, if you want it for a long time, it may get obsoleted, and AMD64 may well be the way to go (Socket 939 anyway)

[Rave]

TBH any one of those will run photoshop like greased lightning unless you're manipulating some seriously monster files. The A64 3000 should overclock pretty well although choose your motherboard carefully if that's what you're planning.

For office work AMD has been better than Intel for a long time; the P4 used to be best for stuff like photoshop but as I understand it the A64 is all round king now.

Rich :¬)

[Snow-Munki]

thanks for the replies

the athlon socket 939 is out of the question pretty much as way to expensive..

been speaking to a few other ppl and it seems if its not for games then might aswell just get the cheaper athlon xp mobile rig and overclock it...

it will probably last about 2 years maybe, at which time the windows 64 bit edition 'might' be out, by which time can worry about that then ....

i guess more importantly is to spend the extra £50 i would be saving from an athlon 64 to go towards a gig of ram....

that sound good to you guys ?

so might get:

athlon xp mobile 2600 - hear these overclock the best ?

abit nf7-s - best motherboard really ?

[Nomadd]

Don't listen to the AMD fanboys! :-)

re: "know very little about intel but always been told ofr apps always go for Intel, is this still the case, but they seem to be VERY expensive"

Intel are still *very* strong in video/audio encoding and graphics work. Probably more, much more, than fast enough for your needs. As regards the expense, I've just checked the Intel (Northwood) P4 2.8 and the AMD 64 3000 you mention and the ex-VAT prices are within £10 of each other. And the 2.8 P4 will probably be a steller overclocker (i.e. hiting 3.4GHz+ out of it shouldn't be a problem (see HardOCP and a million other hardware sites.)

Now, I'm not saying you *must* buy Intel, but at least make sure you have a balanced perspective before you purchase. Some of the posts around Hexus lately seem to be from the "AMD Owners Club" and don't contain much balance at all. Yes, AMD makes sweet CPU's, but then so does Intel.

Nomadd

[joely]

dont like intel out of principal they remind me of microsoft too much
<torrents of abuse from other people on>

[chiyau]

Here is a good arcticle showing the performace of the Amd 64's Vs the Intel Cpus.

[mike_w]

thanks for the replies

the athlon socket 939 is out of the question pretty much as way to expensive..

been speaking to a few other ppl and it seems if its not for games then might aswell just get the cheaper athlon xp mobile rig and overclock it...

it will probably last about 2 years maybe, at which time the windows 64 bit edition 'might' be out, by which time can worry about that then ....

i guess more importantly is to spend the extra £50 i would be saving from an athlon 64 to go towards a gig of ram....

that sound good to you guys ?

so might get:

athlon xp mobile 2600 - hear these overclock the best ?

abit nf7-s - best motherboard really ?

If you're not going to be much gaming or other particularly demanding applications, then a Barton should last quite a while. I would recommend a Mobile Barton 2400+/2500+ for the CPU. Firstly, they run at a lower voltage than the other Bartons, meaning that you can safely overvolt them more. This allows you to achieve a much higher overclock. They are also multiplier unlocked, whereas you can't change the multiplier on the other Bartons.

The NF7-S is what I would personally recommend for the motherboard. Great for overclocking, with decent onboard sound, network, etc.

You also need to consider what heatsink you want if you're going to be overclocking. For Socket A, I recommend the Thermaltake Volcano 12. It cools extremely well, and includes adjustable fan speeds, so you can keep it quiet when you're not doing much, and turn it up to cool when the CPU is being stressed.

For all of the things above, I would get it from CPUCity (and don't forget some thermal paste such as Arctic Silver 5).

Hope this helps

Mike

[3dcandy]

The P4 seems to be more responsive to me if it's Hyper Threading enabled...but I'd say you'd get more bang for your bucks with AMD at moment....

A64's are nice, run quite cool (have you tried a Prescott P4 yet?) and would be more future proof, but of course cost more....

[BUFF]

Don't listen to the AMD fanboys! :-)



Intel are still *very* strong in video/audio encoding and graphics work. Probably more, much more, than fast enough for your needs. As regards the expense, I've just checked the Intel (Northwood) P4 2.8 and the AMD 64 3000 you mention and the ex-VAT prices are within £10 of each other. And the 2.8 P4 will probably be a steller overclocker (i.e. hiting 3.4GHz+ out of it shouldn't be a problem (see HardOCP and a million other hardware sites.)

Bang for the buck you just can't beat the performance of an nForce2 board & an Athlon. A very good board & CPU for less than the price of an Intel CPU.

NF7-S V2.0 £55 incl IEE1394, SATA RAID & great sound
XP-M 1500 or 1600 £30 will do 2.3-4GHz if you can find any (CPU City are out)
XP2500+ £50 should do 2.2GHz no problem
XP-M2400/2500/2600 £65 every chance of doing 2.6GHz

Tbh for your gf I would just get a standard desktop XP2500+ & run it as a 3200+

[PanzerKnight]

You should prolly go for the intel route looking at the stuff your g/f does. It should give her a smoother experience. Best bet is to get a hyperthreading one. AMD dual cores arent due out till q4 2005 or round a bout then

[BenW]

The most future proof in upgrading terms without going socket 939 must be a new socket intel, i think they come in 2.8 and hardly cost any more than the current socket chips

[myth]

[BenW]

Well, ignore the 3DMark 03 score, PCMark is more important in this case i think

Looks like the P4 Northwood is your best bet, beats the A64s

[myth]

Well, ignore the 3DMark 03 score, PCMark is more important in this case i think

Looks like the P4 Northwood is your best bet, beats the A64s

hehehe.. I added the 3DMark 03 score for all the "AMD Fan Boys"