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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Samwise on February 11, 2002, 09:26:21 AM
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I\'ve always been a fan of the AMD Athlon XP, and as such never been too fond of the Intel Pentium 4. But now they\'ve made a P4 that\'s actually worth my time. :)
The Intel Pentium 4 \'Northwood\'. At 2.2 GHz it\'s pretty fast at everything. Another pro is the fact that it uses a less power than an Athlon XP, which generates a lot of heat... Forgive me God, but I\'m seriously considering upgrading to a P4 1.6 GHz Northwood as it can be OC\'d to 2.2 GHz and beyond... and that\'s with the included in-a-box fan. I\'d could live with that. :)
Besides the CPU/mainboard upgrade I think I\'ll get myself one of those cute little GeForce 4 cards. Mmmm, can\'t wait... but I\'m still a bit torn between a Northwood and an Athlon XP. My only gripe with the XP is the heat it generates... I don\'t want to waste my hard earned money in a meltdown. ;)
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P4 = very expensive
AMD athlon = cheap
nuff said
and there is NO need for gf4 since nearly no game stake advantage of gf3
I\'d better wait if I were you
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Nah, the 1.6 GHz costs the same as the Athlon XP\'s. Besides, it\'s when it\'s overclocked the fun begins. At 2.2+ GHz it\'s amazing.
And the Geforce 4 Ti 4200 isn\'t going to be that expensive + it\'s faster than any Geforce 3 card out there. For more power and performance you can\'t go wrong.
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I know if I could look back to this day in the near future I will probably wish I never asked this, but what is entailed with overclocking your computer. Are their any good sites that tell the procedures to tweak it, etc...
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p4 1.6a northwood is the way to go
its beats the athlon in price, overclockability, and speed
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Well people are saying the Northwood is the new Celeron 300A, if so that\'s cool.
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Originally posted by Videoholic
I know if I could look back to this day in the near future I will probably wish I never asked this, but what is entailed with overclocking your computer. Are their any good sites that tell the procedures to tweak it, etc...
http://www.overclockers.com/
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/index.html
http://www.pcnut.com/cool/index.html
Well, last night I was playing Civilization III on my sorry old Pentium 3 - 500, and the PC really bogged down later in the game when there were lots of units on the map. It made me wish I had one of these newer PCs... just for a few moments. Then I remembered I\'m saving for a car, and forgot about it. :)
BTW, in the article on Tom\'s Hardware, they they say:
The more reasonable of us might claim that the performance potential of the top processors from the AMD Athlon and Intel Pentium 4 series is completely sufficient. However, the urge to reach greater heights lies within all ambitious users who do not regard the PC as merely a simple tool. And lucky for us, for even the strongest and most expensive CPUs, there are methods of enhancing performance. (One can never get enough!)
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww6.tomshardware.com%2Fcpu%2F02q1%2F020128%2Fimages%2F1.jpg&hash=53ce1643b815cac825f0e555dc82bbd991815932)
Does this remind you of anything? Heh heh, this sounds just like one of those import car magazines, and the picture looks alot like a turbo kit on a Civic or something. I know I\'m not the first to make the comparison, but man I just thought it was so funny.
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Cored- Unfortunately Tom\'s HW won\'t let you directly link to pics. He\'s gotten cheap. ;)
Video it can be as simple as going into your BIOS and selecting which speed you want. I have an Asus CUSL2 mobo coupled with a p3 800eb. If I want to oc all I have to do is hit Delete during startup, navigate to the CPU menu and choose 800 - 1300.
I\'ve only gotten it to be stable at 933, but since I am into DV editing I keep it at 800. It\'s not recommended you OC since it can mess with sync & timings while exporting a movie.
I did notice a good improvement in UT and other games. I would have gone for more than 933 but then I would have had to tweak other things, and then buy more expensive & loud cooling fans. Just not worth it for me, but for others I can see the benefits.
As for the Northwood CPU, it\'s nice to see Intel price matching the Athlons. When I upgrade next time, price/performance will be a huge factor and not just name brand. Glad I got to hear all the Athlon testimonials on th enet. :)
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Bah, way over my head. I\'ll stick with my 1.4 for a few more years.
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Originally posted by THX
Cored- Unfortunately Tom\'s HW won\'t let you directly link to pics. He\'s gotten cheap. ;)
Ah yes, I see what you mean. I dumped my cache, and reloaded this page, and now I can\'t see it anymore. Too bad, it was pretty cool. :)
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As you can see, they are pushing the Northwood to some extreme\'s, and some people are apparently getting pretty high using only air cooling.
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.muropaketti.com%2Fartikkelit%2Fcpu%2Fnorthwood2200%2Fln2%2F3.jpg&hash=c2432c0260e13f90264188a99a960caa66fbf843)
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.muropaketti.com%2Fartikkelit%2Fcpu%2Fnorthwood2200%2Fln2%2F3675.gif&hash=9c341163e1c67b145ce9458f2cb86f6213b4595b)
kinda cool, and here I am dreaming about watercooling my Tbird
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now thats extreme!
for us regular users, a P4 1.6a northwood will overclock to 2.2 G with a mere front side bus change
and thats with the stock cooler alone
a simple menu change in yer BIOS nets you 600 mhz increase
wow
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i almost wish i didn\'t have a laptop, damn things suck for upgrading.
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Originally posted by Samwise
Nah, the 1.6 GHz costs the same as the Athlon XP\'s.
Do you mean the 1.6 P4 costs the same as the Athlon 1.6ghz? If so then you are betting you\'ll make up that performance in overclocking. B/c stock for stock Athlons beat P4s in most benchmarking.
If you can make it work go for it. Personally I don\'t go in for the overclocking. I have enough software probs w/out having to worry about hardware problems. I tried overclocking my Radeon LE but burned some damage on. :( So no more overclocking for me.
But if you decide to do it, wait for the price on RDRAM to hit a good price. Or are you thinking on DDR?
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Mr. Rob\'s got a point, the main problem with the P4 isn\'t it\'s performance it\'s a very good performer the thing is in order for it to perform the way it was designed to do you\'ll need rdram and it\'s expensive, it\'s horrible with normal sdram and it didn\'t do that well with ddr. On the other hand if one can afford some rdram the P4 is great.
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u can use 2700 [333mhz] ddr ram with the P4
i have rambus memory in my rig, and its not THAT expensive
256 megs [two 128 sticks] costs about 70$ USD
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Go P4, AMD cpus are cheap cause they go. BZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT if any small thing happens.. EG sink comes off.
They also kill your MB while they are at it.
so AMD = risky.
Intel has thermal diodes. They don\'t fry. They freeze. :)
I just have hate for AMD.. We get more people bringing AMD cpus back then Intel. Sigh... depressing
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AMD is just risky if you have no idea what your doing, it\'s good they don\'t choose to add to the price by having some heatspreader on the cpu.
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Originally posted by nO-One
Mr. Rob\'s got a point, the main problem with the P4 isn\'t it\'s performance it\'s a very good performer the thing is in order for it to perform the way it was designed to do you\'ll need rdram and it\'s expensive, it\'s horrible with normal sdram and it didn\'t do that well with ddr.
No no no, if you use a mobo with the SiS 645 chipset it lets you use DDR333 ram (PC2700). And then it overclocks like a baby... the RDRAM versions don\'t overclock well. But besides that, the price on RDRAM isn\'t too steep anymore (at least compared to normal DDR RAM - it\'s almost the same). But performance wise DDR333 isn\'t far behind.
As for Rob\'s comment on price:
I meant that the 1.6 Northwood costs about the same as a XP 1700+ (1466 MHz). And it costs half of a XP 2000+ (at least here in DK).
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Oh yeah I forgot you\'re a dang foreigner. I only know U.S. prices. Where do you plan on buying?
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I\'m waiting for AMD\'s next chip.
But yeah I hear the P4 1.6a overclocks like a mofo.
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I don\'t find the 1.6G @ 2.2 a suprise. It\'s been since before December when the Athlon 2000+ debuted, nothing new has been released. It\'s Intel\'s time to be in the overclocking spotlight now, AMD had theirs when they released their AYJHA stepping procesors (which I do own). I can easily overclock my 1.4 to 1.65 with a good cooler.
It\'s the same conclusion on these lame ass debates.
Go by what best suits you. Wanna save money and aren\'t paranoid? Go with an Athon XP. Offers exceptional speed.
Wanna save money and are paranoid? Go with a 1.6G P4.
Have so much money to blow you could care less? Get a 2.2G P4 and overclock that sucker to 3G. Nuff said.
Sites have their benchmarks, you take a look on how they did. I bet you they are gonna say the same things I said just in their different ways.
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Originally posted by Solid Snake 88
I\'m waiting for AMD\'s next chip.
The Thoroughbred? or the Appaloosa?
I\'ll probly get a Thoroughbred, and then make a big upgrade when the Clawhammer debutes
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Their next big one (not Athlon XP). Thoroughbred I think. But who knows, I might wait a bit longer and go for their next chip after that. I have an Athlon Tbird 1.4ghz, so I don\'t desperatly need a new processor.
A new mobo maybe (KT266 :/).
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Originally posted by EmperorRob
Oh yeah I forgot you\'re a dang foreigner
I take that as a compliment. ;)
Where do you plan on buying?
I\'ll just use the Danish version of pricewatch.com to find a good/cheap online store.
I might wait for Thoroughbred though... I don\'t quite know yet. I\'m just not sure I can afford to spend all that money upgrading right now. :eek:
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It is hard to say what the prices will do. Although I have heard that the price of RAM is going back up. But it always comes down again; depends on how long you can wait.
I used pricewatch to get my pc pieces last year. Good place. Don\'t know if they have a Danish version of their site but http://www.newegg.com has some awesome deals.