New CPU

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dansker
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Dansker

I am building a new PC for only games and i was gonna get a P4 3.0GHZ
Prescott CPU. Is that a good CPU and ok to get?? I can get a CPU/MOBO combe
for $130 on Pricewatch. Any thoughts/ ideas will be appreciated.
TIA
C
 
Dansker said:
I am building a new PC for only games and i was gonna get a P4 3.0GHZ
Prescott CPU. Is that a good CPU and ok to get?? I can get a CPU/MOBO combe
for $130 on Pricewatch. Any thoughts/ ideas will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Nope... Prescotts are only good for making tiny waffles. If you are going to
go with technology that old, get a AMD chip. AMD chips have just dropped a
lot in price. You could get a 64 bit X2 at a decent price.

I hear the new breed of Intel chips are really great. Of course that means
DDR2 memory and PCIe videocard, but if you're starting from scratch, it's
not a big deal.
 
Thanks Noozer. What other CPU would be good for games? 64 X is about $200 a
little to much. Hope to keep CPU under $100 or so. Will be playing BF2.
 
I am building a new PC for only games and i was gonna get a P4 3.0GHZ
Prescott CPU. Is that a good CPU and ok to get?? I can get a CPU/MOBO combe
for $130 on Pricewatch. Any thoughts/ ideas will be appreciated.
TIA
C
Click to expand...
Sure, but you need a good graphics cards and decent memory. And you
want to keep the Prescott properly cooled.
It would help to know what MB you're thinking of buying.
At that price that's probably a socket 478 with at best the 865PE
chipset, all long in the tooth. The MB is probably low-end.
For a new build you'd really be better off going to more modern stuff,
say at least a socket 778/915 chipset if you stay Intel. It won't
cost much more and in the long run probably cost less. What you're
talking about doesn't have much upgrade potential.
And you might be better off going AMD, but I don't know anything about
them.
I do know that Prescott will play any current game well if the other
parts are right. You should study up a little before spending your
money.

--Vic
 
Thanks Vic. My videocard is a ATI 9600XT 256MB and i run PC3200 Crucial 512
but will get 512 more. Was hoping to find a MOBO with both AGP and PCI-E.
And what about a Pentium4 541?? 3.2GHZ not too bad for $102 or so.
 
Thanks Vic. My videocard is a ATI 9600XT 256MB and i run PC3200 Crucial 512
but will get 512 more. Was hoping to find a MOBO with both AGP and PCI-E.
And what about a Pentium4 541?? 3.2GHZ not too bad for $102 or so.
Click to expand...

That 9600XT is a marginal card now. Don't let it dictate your future
purchases. It just might be time to look pci-e boards and a new
graphics card. Sorry, I don't know anything about the 541.
I'm using a 800fsb 3.2 Northwood in a P4P800SE, with an
N6800 AGP graphics card. 2gb of matched Corsair 3200.
Plays Far Cry like a champ, but I haven't re-installed my other
games (ie, Oblivion) since I built it. But they ran ok on an
850 chipset chipset with a gb of 1066 Rambus and a 2.4.
The thing is, I already had the N6800 AGP card and the CPU
when my MB crapped out, so it was cost-efficient for me
to go to the P4P800SE MB, even if it's a dead end. It'll
work out for at least a couple years.
But you're looking at a new CPU and should be looking for a
new graphics card, so you should be moving on to a pci-e MB.
That's about all I can say, except my son is running a 3.0
Prescott 775 socket in a Gigabybe board, 1 gb matched 3200,
and a 6800 series pci-e graphics card, and can also run any current
game at high if not max settings. The Prescott runs hot, and
if you can avoid it without much pain, do so. But it's not a
deal-killer. After all, when you've got the volume cranked up
playing BF2, you won't even hear those cooling fans.
Spend a *lot* of time googling BF2 if that's your game. That might
steer you off certain configurations. When you pick your
configuration, spend a *lot* of time googling that looking for
problems you don't want to deal with. Read, read, read before you lay
out that cash..

--Vic
 
I am building a new PC for only games and i was gonna get a P4 3.0GHZ
Prescott CPU. Is that a good CPU and ok to get?? I can get a CPU/MOBO combe
for $130 on Pricewatch. Any thoughts/ ideas will be appreciated.
TIA
C
Click to expand...

Your 9600XT is too slow to get a good value out of a
motherboard and CPU upgrade for gaming purposes.

Now is the right time to replace the video card too, get a
Athlon 64... it need not be a X2, the single core A64 is
faster per $ at BF2.
 
How is AMD cpus clock speed stated? A64 3500 runs at 2.2GHZ and not at
3.5GHZ. Please bear with my possible dumb questions but this matter is very
confusing to me. What do i buy to run as fast as a P4 3.0GHZ??
Thanks Kony and Vic.
 
How is AMD cpus clock speed stated?
Click to expand...

Does it matter?
You can't compare clock speed to any other CPU because
theyr'e a different architecture.

A64 3500 runs at 2.2GHZ and not at
3.5GHZ. Please bear with my possible dumb questions but this matter is very
confusing to me. What do i buy to run as fast as a P4 3.0GHZ??
Thanks Kony and Vic.
Click to expand...

A P4 has poor MHz:performance ratio.

A P4 is not the best choice for gaming at any price range.

An Athlon 64 is what you should get... like I already
mentioned.
 
Thank you very much for all your help, Kony, Joe and Vic.
I hope my choice of Athlon64 3500 CPU and Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS MOBO can be
"approved" and accepted as a possibly good gaming system. MOBO choice is
because that way i can use the onboard nVidia 6150 untill i can afford a
good PCI-E card.
Thanks.
C
 
Oh, also thanks to Noozer.
Dansker said:
Thank you very much for all your help, Kony, Joe and Vic.
I hope my choice of Athlon64 3500 CPU and Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS MOBO can
be "approved" and accepted as a possibly good gaming system. MOBO choice
is because that way i can use the onboard nVidia 6150 untill i can afford
a good PCI-E card.
Thanks.
C
Click to expand...
 
Thank you very much for all your help, Kony, Joe and Vic.
I hope my choice of Athlon64 3500 CPU and Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS MOBO can be
"approved" and accepted as a possibly good gaming system. MOBO choice is
because that way i can use the onboard nVidia 6150 untill i can afford a
good PCI-E card.
Thanks.
C
Click to expand...
One of the AMD experts who sent you that way might "approve" it.
Since I don't know anything about AMD, and ain't an expert at
anything, I'll just say "Good luck, Dansker."

--Vic
 
A Pentium4 with a Cedar Mill core is a better choice for the same price.
http://www.digital-daily.com/cpu/intel_pentium_4_641/


An even better choice for future applications that will take advantage of it
is the Pentium D (even cheaper than a P4 Cedar Mill !)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_D


--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for grammatical errors or
omissions, i'm a "pure" french canadian! :-)
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)
 
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