System specs question

Prismax,

Thanks for the RELEVANT info compared to the rest of the spam. I do score just over 5000 in 3DMark2001. I overclocked my Duron 800 to 1.1 GHz and it seems to be doing a little better. I figured it was my CPU...I've kept my MoBo and chipset (VIA) updated so I know those are in good shape. I am thinking about getting an AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz processor...would that be a smart move or should I just scrap what I have and start over?

(Serious replies, only, please)...
 
If youve overclocked to 1.1ghz i would save up for a new shiny PC... maybe keep your graphix card and the ram for the new one...
 
Yea Elite I'd really have to say wait and just go from scratch at least on mobo, proc and ram.  Your computer is at that like plateau where it's really as good as it's going to get from minor upgrades and to get somewhere where it makes sense to have spent the money of the parts you'd have to replace one of those which would in turn require you to replace the other two to justify the original investment.  When you consider that a completly new system is far more logical when the price difference is minimal if your wise.  Like Rizz said keep the video card, and the sound card if you have a PCI one and if not pick up a first generation audigy for like 50 bucks.  Of course you'd be silly not to go DDR right now as it's that sweet spot between speed and price and has only been getting cheaper and 512 of like pc2700 will do ya just fine.
My personal preference is of course Intel and that's what I'd tell you to get if you can find a good deal on a chip though I'd go with a SiS chipset.  If your buying in the very near future I'd say go with something like the Pentium4 2.0A.  The A's can be found relativly cheap (though more expensive then their normal brethren for reasons I'll get to in a minute) and are quite special chips if your willing to overclock (though re-clock is more accurate in this case).  The A's have this fun quality of being built on the Northwood core (that which the normal 2.4's and up are built on) making them a .13 micron chip with the 533 bus and 512 l2 cache.  What Intel's done with all these chips though is underclocked the FSB to 400 taking away 1/3 of their speed.   Being naturaly on the Northwood core and having the larger FSB built in they have no problems going back up their natural bus and there is almost no taxation seem on the processer (which is why this really isn't overclocking), in fact when I booted mine for the first time the FSB was already set to 133.  
Word of advice if anyone buys one of these though, only buy one that is in a sealed retail package and has never been tested.  The reason is there have been alot of reports that those which have been tested and OEM chips have trouble with the higher FSB and with any hardware it's always different how easily and far things can be overclocked but with a retail package your far less likely to get a "dud".

-Trevor
-amusedtoe

*Edit* I've added paragraph breaks for you whiny old folks with bad eyes and short attention spans, i.e. those over 22. ;-)
 
hes doing the no paragraphs again
sad.gif
 
Yea sorry that was another one of those it wasn't meant to be that long but just happened and wouldn't make sense if it had paragraphs in it deals. :-D Yea Intel's the best though if I could get more for my money I'd have no problem going AMD, I've just always been able to find an equally good deal for an Intel chip.

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
Socket A's for nubs. ;-) If you do have the money/patience to wait and want to get top of the line by the way I'd say definitly wait for AMD's 64-bit proc. and the next version of Windows which will be 64-bit.

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
too bad there is nothing else that takes advantage of the 64-bit processing. just a waste of money until you get into 2005 and beyond...

it's also been proven that an Athlon XP running at 1.73 ghz (stock speed) can outperform a P4@2.2ghz (stock). I havent seen one relating that to the 2.4ghz northwood, but the thing about that is the Athlon is a very good overclocker.

Elite - what kind of mobo do you have? If you have a decent one, you may not need to change that out.

if you're going AMD, defenitely go for the nForce2 chipset, and if you can get a soundstorm certified integrated audio on that, all the better. nVidia's Soundstorm audio is reputed to be almost as good as an Audigy 2, or at least something similiar.

Socket A... how is it for nubs? if anything, Intel is for nubs. FIRST, they have Paladium. basically a we-can-come-into-your-system-and-look-around-if-we-want license for the g-men. NOW they have a new thing that prevents you from overclocking. it's t3h sux0r. Which is why I decided to go AMD.

Also, an Athlon XP 2100+ will go for $100 or so (less if you buy online OEM). A P4 2.4B Northwood will go for $170-$180... and their performances are about the same...

If you DO go for the P4, though, P4 1.8A or 2.4B is your best bet for overclocking. the 2.4B (533mhz FSB - NOTthe 400mhz one) can be brought very high on the stock HSF, and higher on, say, an SLK-900 (which I'm getting for my 2100 w00t w00t).
 
Well the special version of UT2003 will. ;-) Well of course anything can outperform anything else given the right conditions. No AMD chip can touch an equivalent P4 if the P4's got rambus, that's just far pricier then DDR and Elite doesn't really need it. The G-Man was my favorite charecter in Half-Life so I don't know what your problem is. If you'd read the thread you'd see he has an 800 overclocked to 1.1(I think too lazy to go back and read it now
wink.gif
). Well the 2.0A still gets a 33% performance gain from bumping the FSB up it's just not as good compared to the 1.8A on price/performance and I wasn't not recommending that since that's what I have and it's beautius. Agreed with Morph buy AMD OEM if you go that way cause they're HSF are garbage and you'll need to replace it and you can save a good deal that way. Intel's HSF on the other hand is an absolute beast and most people would argue it's the best cooler out there for Intel chips.

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
actually, the best cooler out there for an Intel chip is a Thermalright SLK900 with a 92mm Vantec Tornado on there (that thing pumps 119 cubic feet of air per minute, man...)...

check it
and the fan

thats right, Intel has the advantage in the RDRAM sector, but only recently have we had a P4 board that supported RDRAM well (the i850 chipset).

Athlons just lack the bandwidth capabilities to take advantage of the Rambus, but DDR is fine, for all intents and purposes.
 
Acctually if I'm remembering correctly when the P4's first came out they could only use RDRAM. Well I said most people would argue that the stock HSF is the best as it's all very subjective and all things considered is still one of the best coolers around made even better by the fact that it's stock. Wasn't saying DDR's quite the opposite just stating that when AMD does most of their comparisions to Intel chips for marketing they use things that are skewed in their favor(of course Intel and every single other company does the same thing AMD's just "notorious" to an extent for doing it).

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
actually, it's not just marketing thats placing the AMD's performance at the level of a higher mhz p4 - benchmarks by independent reviewers confirm that. AMD has 9 instructions per clock cycle, P4's have 6 (I think).

Therefore,
2.4ghz P4=
2,400,000,000*6=14,400,000,000 Instructions per second
however, theoretically,
Athlon XP 1800+ (or so)
1,600,000,000*9=14,400,000,000 Instructions per second

theres other factors, of course, which make the P4 have a performance gain over the 1.6ghz Athlon, especially the increased memory bandwidth and its 533mhz FSB. In reality, though, a 2400+ will best the P4 @ 2.4ghz (a 2100+ can come *very* close to a 2.2ghz P4)
 
Well going from a Duron to an Athlon will boost performance by itself. Buying a Athlon 1.3mhz will increase performance, but I wouldnt waste that amount of money for such an old processor. I would buy an 1800+ or higher. To do that you will probably need to either flash your mobo BIOS or get a new mobo. I would get a new mobo and some DDR ram. The DDR ram is so much faster. Plus if you want to play future games you will need the extra power. I would save up build a whole new PC. At least most of it.
 
of course Athlon > Duron. Duron was developed to counter Intel's low-price mid-range chip (Celeron)... which is why it was called the "Celeron-Killer"... just like P4 > Celeron, Athlon > Duron
 
My old system could crank 100 fps on the button nearly 24/7.

PIII 866 MHZ
384 MB Ram
GF2 64 MB (Pro model I think)

I ran at 1024x768 resolution I think, that or 1152x864. Open GL of course.
 
Well, I have an Abit KT7A motherboard. I chose AMD because of the overclocking capabilities. I am also considering buying that 1.33 GHz Athlon because it's only like $40 and it would be a cheap upgrade.

If I went the other route...I would be spending 10 times that amount. I might just keep my "1.1 Ghz" until I can afford to spend another $1K on upgrades, I guess. Ain't nothing like www.pricewatch.com!
 
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