INTEL vs AMD

yurij_14 · Post by **yurij_14** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 10:27 am

Just wondering...I have heard alot over which company puts out better CPU's. I am planning on upgrading my computer soon.
What I have now is:

PII Celeron 400
384 MB PC-133 SDRAM
10 GB HardDrive
64Mb Radeon DDR
SB Live
Linksys LNE100
40X Panasonic CD

I don't want to really upgrade any of the extra stuff. I mean all I'm really gonna need is a new case/power, CPU and Motherboard. I'm planning on using Win2k, programmiung software and 3dgames.

So with this in mind which CPU would be best. Intel or AMD?

Gaming-Module · Post by **Gaming-Module** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 1:41 pm

How much are you willing to spend? If you like Intel then stick with em, prices are generally good right now. You can get a 700e and overclock it or if you dont do that sort of thing you can get an 800EB for a very reasonable price.

You might wanna get at least a 20 gig hard drive while you're at it. Full installs of games are reaching 2 gigs ( baldur's gate 2 anyone? ).

[ 02-07-2001: Message edited by: Macho-Module ]

FunK · Post by **FunK** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 2:28 pm

I would still go with AMD at this point.
MOBO
ABIT KT7A-RAID
CPU
T-Berd 1.2Ghz CPU (or look at Durons if money is tight)

Then a new full tower case with 300W PS.
Try Antec, I love their cases.

Price to performance ratio is leaning toward AMD right now. If you are really impressed with Intel, then you may try a P4, but I think you would have to upgrade your RAM too.

FunK

jayyy · Post by **jayyy** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 2:36 pm

Overall, AMD puts out cheaper and faster chips. With Intel, much of the extra you pay is for the brand name.

The P4 looks promising, and one day it'll probably be the prevailant architecture, but right now even the P3 outperforms it on some benchmarks. Plus it costs far too much, because its the newest technology. Especially with that RD-RAM

The only area where the P3 really excels is with games that use SSE instructions, like Quake. But then again, with AMD's cheaper chips you can get one at a T-Bird at a higher clockspeed and level out that advantage.

Here's a review of the the 1.2 Ghz AMD T-bird from anandtech http://www1.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1336&p=1 It gives some benchmark comparisons of the some of the strongest chips on the market

glc1 · Post by **glc1** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 3:09 pm

It's not just all about AMD CPUs vs. Intel CPUs. Look at the motherboards--BX/815e vs. KT-133/KT-133A. Intel motherboards are still better--stability, performance, design, etc, although, Via has come a long way in a short time.

yurij_14 · Post by **yurij_14** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 3:31 pm

Basically the P4 is out of the question because the price is so High. So it's a debate with either p3 or a thunderbird. The most I would be doing for now in terms of 3d gaming is Counter-strike. I'm starting to lean towards the AMD side of things. I won't be too inclined at overclocking a 1GHz CPU. I mean personally I wouldn't fine the need. So AMD would be he best bet for me?

glc1 · Post by **glc1** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 3:38 pm

Originally posted by yurij_14:
So AMD would be he best bet for me?

In your case, probably so. Is gaming the main purpose of the PC?

yurij_14 · Post by **yurij_14** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 3:45 pm

Also some C++ programming. Sort of 30/70 between programming and gaming.

Another question. I think in the past few weeks or month prices of CPU's and memory has gone done quite a bit. Is it expected to go up or stay the same or go down in the near future?

Cornbread · Post by **Cornbread** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 5:45 pm

here we go....

glc1 · Post by **glc1** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 6:15 pm

Originally posted by yurij_14:
Is it expected to go up or stay the same or go down in the near future?

CPUs: down, as always, as new CPUs are released. RAM: who knows, as prices have been up and down recently.

yurij_14 · Post by **yurij_14** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 7:43 pm

Thanks for the advice all.........

Heaven_No · Post by **Heaven_No** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 10:56 pm

For your 3D gaming, a new processor will only add so much. I just popped my Geforce 256 from my main machine (PIII-800@892) to another box (PII-400)... The QIII bench was only 8% better....

If you are doing any programs outside of gaming... By all means shoot for a new board and processor.

glc1 · Post by **glc1** » Wed Feb 07, 2001 11:12 pm

Originally posted by Heaven_No:
I just popped my Geforce 256 from my main machine (PIII-800@892) to another box (PII-400)... The QIII bench was only 8% better....

That's b/c your vid card is now the greater bottle neck of the two. In yurij_14's case, his CPU is a bigger bottleneck than his vid card, so a CPU upgrade of the caliber that he is considering (1GHz) should yield quite a performance boost.

[ 02-07-2001: Message edited by: glc1 ]

yurij_14 · Post by **yurij_14** » Thu Feb 08, 2001 2:05 pm

Thanks again everyone. I may wait a month or so for some $$$......Then who knows prices may go down to alllow for better.

Cheers!!!

cy · Post by cy » Thu Feb 08, 2001 3:06 pm

I think the price will go down for 10 or 20 bucks more next month since it did this month