P4 dual core, P4 or AMD for £600 system?

[fileepfilop]

Hi

I'm looking to build a computer with a budget of about £600 for just the tower. I will use it for graphics apps (photoshop/illustrator) and 3d modelling in alias and 3DSMax.

My main probelm is what CPU to get. I'm getting told so many different things! Should I go for a dual core P4 or faster single core AMD or P4? My mate built a £1200 system for the same uses with a 3.0Ghz dual core P4 and is dissapointed with the performance.

Appreciate any comments. Thanks

[sawyen]

For £600, you will have to make some compromises.. Graphic apps usually favour Intel chips rather than mathematic giant AMD. I would say a dual core Pentium D 820 should be a good buy, tho you will have to pay up your neck for a compatible motherboard. Since you're going to be using 3DSMax, the Intel GMA gfx just wont cut the mustard.. you'd have to throw in something beefier like a 6800.. Throw in a good PSU, decent amount of RAM.. and ur almost up to the £600 mark.. Don't have to worry too much as PentiumD 820 overclocks like weeee... you could hit 3.4Ghz without much effort as long as ur PSU is up for the jobbie..

There's always the option of a faster single core with HT, they will be like £100 quid cheaper, but you'll lose the edge of 2 actual cores running, but running 2 virtual logics to fool XP. By doing so, you could also drop the price of ur mobo by about £20-40 quids for a simple i915.. jump in with an entry level FireGL for about £200 + all the usual stuff and you'll add up to about £500ish..

The DC Pentium D would be much better, but by using a simple 630, you could get away with 500ish and shell out another £100 + the extra £100 for a decent 19'' TFT..

[fileepfilop]

I came up with this spec for a P4 820 system.

CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Silver Case Black Body (Silver Trimmings) w/o PSU £34.99 £41.11

Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G - FSB1066, PCI-Ex16, DCDDRII667,4xSATAII, Raid, 8ChAudio, Lan,ATX £58.94 £69.25

Intel Pentium® D 820 Dual core 2x2.8GHz 800FSB S775 2x1MB cache Retail inc.Fan (3 year warranty) £143.00 £168.03

425W HiperPower HPU-4S425 4th Gen Quiet Dual Fan Active PFC (24/20 pin)(ATX/BTX) £29.89 £35.12

2 x 512Mb DDR2 PC4200, 533 MHz, 2x32Mx64, non-ECC, 240 DIMM, unbuffered, CL4 Retail £19.99 £46.98

200GB Samsung SpinPoint SP2004C 7200rpm, 8MB, SATA II Fluid Dynamic Bearings, 25dBA £57.99 £68.14

128Mb Asus PCI-E EN6600GT-TD Tv/DVI inc Software & VGA/DVI Converter OEM £84.99 £99.86

CoolRiver Complete water cooler Deluxe Version (VGA/N.Bridge/CPU) using 120mm + Fan Cont £49.99 £58.74

Net Total £499.77

Carriage £0.00

V.A.T. £87.46

TOTAL £587.23

[I know I need to up the power of the PSU.]



Someone in another forum said this:

As much as I hate recommending Intel, I think a P4 would be best for you. Assuming your graphics packages support hyperthreading. The single core P4 would be better that that has hyperthreading, ie 2 logical cores. The dual core may have two physical cores, but lacks hyperthreading, so there's still two logical cores. Why waste money on a dual core. Buy a faster single core.
If you graphics aps don't support hyperthreading then get the AMD.
EDIT
I forgot to say AMD is better for 3D stuff. Which type of work will you be doing more of?

What do u think?

[herulach]

Id go for a slightly slower cpu and at least 2gb of ram. and id be tempted to say that that watercooling kit isnt good enough for a dual core p4, which are hot, and not in a good way

[sawyen]

For that cheapish watercooler, you might as well settle for a Zalman 9500.. £15 quid cheaper... Also, I'd be tempted to recommend u getting either a Seasonic or a Tagan, they're a tad more expensive but then you get peace of mind.

and yea, 2GB kits will be much better..

[fileepfilop]

I added water cooling not to improve the cooling but to make it quiet - I hate humming fans, especially when it's in my bedroom and needs to be left on over night to render.

[sawyen]

Them Zalman 9500 are almost inaudible at 5v.. its as quiet as any watercooling tbh... with similar performance as well.. thank you very much

[herulach]

Them Zalman 9500 are almost inaudible at 5v.. its as quiet as any watercooling tbh... with similar performance as well.. thank you very much

Ok then, your zalman, vs my watercooling, lets see which is cooler Also, how the hell cold is your room that you get 19degrees idle?

[sawyen]

My rooms at constant 12C everyday... thanks to these winter days and my central heater's knackered..

I could post pics if you doubt my claims..

[herulach]

My rooms at constant 12C everyday... thanks to these winter days and my central heater's knackered..

I could post pics if you doubt my claims..

I belive you, just seemed excessively low for air in a normal room

[Hans Voralberg]

LOL dont u feel cold at all sawyen ??

[sawyen]

as a matter a fact, yes I do.. thats why I just bought a radiation heater today

[dave87]

Just as an alternative, can't you use an opteron rig, as they were originally designed for workstations, but got adopted by the overclockers because of their potential. They have widespread support due to now using 939 instead of 940, so cheaper motherboards allowing more ram and a decent gfx card?

Dave

[fredered]

I saw in, i think it was this forum, that dual core p4s are not as fast in single threaded aplications as their single core counterparts, and even fall behing x2s of similar rating for video stuff, but they are probably out of your price range, I would afree that 2GB ram would probably of more benefit tou you and/ or [depending on what you can afford] as faster single core cpu

[herulach]

I saw in, i think it was this forum, that dual core p4s are not as fast in single threaded aplications as their single core counterparts, and even fall behing x2s of similar rating for video stuff, but they are probably out of your price range, I would afree that 2GB ram would probably of more benefit tou you and/ or [depending on what you can afford] as faster single core cpu

Mainly because of the lack of memory bandwidth i would imagine

[Zad]

Adobe Photoshop and 3dsMax are both dual core / multi-processor aware aren't they? They need appropriate plugins/configuration to take advantage though. I wouldn't get hung up on processor speed for Photoshop, memory size and video card quality (not speed!) will have far more impact than a turbonutter cpu.

Mike