AMD 64 V Pentium 4 Prescott

[myth]

Socket 754 is Single Channel, 939 is Dual Channel (can't remember 940 but I imagine Dual but it needs reg. memory).
Again though pure bandwidth isn't a useful comparison - a 754 with half the bandwidth of a 939 will only be about 5-10% adrift in performance. With the memory controller on AMD64 being on die & using HyperTransport connection to the memory bottlenecks are cut down.
Here are some figures for a socket 939 board though.

Interesting article about Dual Channel
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=480

Buff, thanks! I never invested much intrest in AMD until now.... Since I will be building a AMD rig I decided to reserch them... So far I like what I see! Well I can get the 3500+ for $341 US Thats about $120 more then my P4... By the time I buy they should be much cheaper!

[bouncin]

i used to really like my old northwood tbh. on the desktop the difference was noticable.
everything exept games just seemed to run that little bit quicker. But since changing to an amd64 i havent really looked back cos the difference in games is gr8.

But as a side note the slower desktop could be down to losing half my ram in the change over. cant wait to get this eb

[StormPC]

i used to really like my old northwood tbh. on the desktop the difference was noticable.
everything exept games just seemed to run that little bit quicker. But since changing to an amd64 i havent really looked back cos the difference in games is gr8.

But as a side note the slower desktop could be down to losing half my ram in the change over. cant wait to get this eb

It could also be a problem with your configuration. You may want to doublecheck your BIOS settings and make sure you installed all of your drivers properly.

[Byatt]

I would say that both processors would suit your needs but would probably opt for the amd64 option - but then I'm a gamer, where AMD chips shine a little more than intel. My other concern is the amount of heat the new P4s chuck out - I like my systems quiet, and I don't think that's particularly easy or cheap to achieve with Prescotts. The lack of maturity in the s775 platform would bother me too - Northwoods on s478 are still faster aren't they?

[myth]

Northwoods on s478 are still faster aren't they?

Not no more.. the 3.8GHz presscot is amazing! And it Oc's to 4.4! Add DDR2 to that and look out! Too bad that setup would cost $2,000 US!