Buying a new PC- AMD or Intel?

[jeffersuk]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I’m planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I’ll probably get an MP3 player once they’ve got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I’m using Savacentre.com ’s custom build option as I haven’t got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I’m restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

 

[MDX]

AMD 64 3200+

 

[Christo]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I'm planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I'll probably get an MP3 player once they've got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I'm using Savacentre.com 's custom build option as I haven't got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I'm restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

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AMD

and go for pci-express, its better althought you wont notice it now you
might in a few years or even a year

 

[Derek Baker]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I'm planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I'll probably get an MP3 player once they've got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I'm using Savacentre.com 's custom build option as I haven't got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I'm restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

AMD and PCIE.

'The clock speed of the [AMD's] motherboard' is actually the hypertransport
speed and not comparable with the 800MHz which is the Pentium's Front Side
Bus speed.

 

[Christo]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I'm planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I'll probably get an MP3 player once they've got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I'm using Savacentre.com 's custom build option as I haven't got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I'm restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

AMD and PCIE.

'The clock speed of the [AMD's] motherboard' is actually the
hypertransport speed and not comparable with the 800MHz which is the
Pentium's Front Side Bus speed.

so whats the FSB on the A64's? I originally thought this had been replaced
with the HT

 

[Derek Baker]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I'm planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I'll probably get an MP3 player once they've got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I'm using Savacentre.com 's custom build option as I haven't got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I'm restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

AMD and PCIE.

'The clock speed of the [AMD's] motherboard' is actually the
hypertransport speed and not comparable with the 800MHz which is the
Pentium's Front Side Bus speed.

so whats the FSB on the A64's? I originally thought this had been replaced
with the HT

Sort of. The memory access function of the FSB has been passed to the
processor's memory bus - 400Mhz effective - the HT bus handles the other
functions.

 

[bbaka]

Hello
Hello. First time poster.

Been looking at putting together a new PC for my parents. Basically on
the ammount they want to spend it comes down to a P4 3.2ghz Prescott
(1mb cahce) or a AMD 64 3200+ Am wondering which to go for.

I'm planning on getting them 1gb of RAM (2 x 512mb PC3200 DDR)
whichever processor gets chosen.

Main uses of the machine will be web/email, Word processing, digital
photography and I'll probably get an MP3 player once they've got it-
so add ripping CDs to that list.

I'm using Savacentre.com 's custom build option as I haven't got the
time to build it myself and the motherboards they offer seem to swing
it towards the AMD- the clock speed of the motherboard is 1ghz and it
offers 4 DDR RAM slots and 8 USB ports (MSI RS480M2-IL Graphics
Socket939 Micro-ATX) where as the motherboard for the Pentium 4 (MSI
915PM-ILR LGA775 Micro-ATX) is 800hmz with 2 DDR ram slots and 4 USB
ports. I'm restricted by the options they ofer. Or am I missing
something?

One other question- AGP or PCI express?

Many Thanks

AMD and PCIE.

'The clock speed of the [AMD's] motherboard' is actually the
hypertransport speed and not comparable with the 800MHz which is the
Pentium's Front Side Bus speed.

so whats the FSB on the A64's? I originally thought this had been replaced
with the HT

Keep it simple and go with the AMD and PC-2700. The PC-3200 at 400 MHz
will most likely not work with more than one chip due to the capacitive
load on the CPU address and data lines. PCI-express is just a bit too
new for now and unless your parents are serious gamers will be happy
with an AGP. Non of the uses you mentioned require more than a 64 MB AGP
4X board, which will quite happily play a DVD movie on the monitor.
Don't blow your money unless you feel you have too much of it. The
system will be worth half of what you paid for it in 6 months anyway.
Bill Baka