New Computer AMD 64 or Pentium 4

[longarm]

Looking at buying a new PC.

Can anyone offer any advice on what is best for my needs, I'm looking for a new PC that will be used for General Home use that includes Internet, usual basic office stuff, games , photo editing and hopefully in the near future video editing.

The two systems I'm looking at seem very similar to me and both work out at exactly the same price. What is the difference between the AMD 64 chip and the Pentium 4 ? Which will be faster for me ? All advice on the systems and their suitability would be appreciated (also appreciate advice on Mesh & Evesham). I've given details of the systems below. Thanks in advance.



Mesh A64 3200+

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor
Mainboard 800mhz SB, GB LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA (que?)
512MB DDR RAM (PC3200) Memory
160GB ATA (150Mb/s) Hard Drive
128MB nVidia GeForce FX 5900XT, TV out/DVI
17" TFT LCD monitor (viewsonic I think !)
52x CD-RW
SONY DWU-18A-8x DVD-RW (r/w all standard formats)
Creative Labs soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
Creative Labs Inspire T7700 - 7.1 Surround Sound speakers
Microsoft Works Suite
Pinnacle Studio 9 SE Software
3 Year warrantly
Midi tower with 6 USB's

or

Evesham Blue Beast

Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz
MSI MS-6728 865PE Mainboard
2x256mb dual channel DDR Ram (pc3200) 400mhz
120gb Hard Drive
128mb nVidia GeForce FX5900XT, TV-out, DVI-I
17" Viewsonic VP171S TFT monitor
Creative inspire P580 5.1 speakers
DVD-ROM 16x
DW-U18A 8x multi format DVD-RW
Microsoft Works

[Mac the Knife]

No point getting a 64-bit processor unless you're going to use a 64-bit operating system. (though Windows will still work on the AMD-64, albeit perhaps fractionally slower than on an equivalent 32-bit AMD CPU). I don't know what the "sweet spot" is now for the Athlon 32-bit XP range.

Longhorn (M$) is a l-o-o-o-o-n-g was off and will be horribly expensive and full of bugs. SuSE Linux 9.0 for the AMD-64 is here, stable and working (but I's wait for 9.1 which will be out in a couple of weeks).

But if, as I suspect, you want to go the M$ route you might as well get the P4 (although IMHO the Athon XPs are the better chip).

[goates]

If the price is the same or close, I would get the Athlon 64 system. For office and internet surfing, you won't notice a difference between them. The Athlon 64 chips run 32 bit programs just as well as, if not better than, the 32 bit Athlon chips. For video and media encoding the Pentiums are slightly faster but again, unless your into serious editing, you won't notice too big a difference. The Athlon 64 will give you a little more room to grow in the future if you plan on keeping the computer for a couple of years.

The big issue with 64 bit chips is that for most people the only apparent advantage is that you can use far more RAM than the 4GB limit for 32 bit processors. Most people don't need anything close to this right now. There will be advantages though with games and graphics programs when they start optimizing them for the 64 bit chips. There are 64 bit versions of Far Cry and UT2004 in development, and probably Doom 3 too.

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

longarm,

Hands down the Mesh Athlon64. You will find that is a great performer that will only get better and the 64bit applications come out. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[longarm]

Thanks for the replies so far. A couple of other things if I may, firstly is it worth paying extra for a digital tft screen or should I save some money and get an analogue tft. Secondly has anybody dealt with Evesham or Mesh and how do their products/services rate. Thanks.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

longarm,

If you are short on space you want an LCD monitor. If you have the room it would be worth saving money and going with a CRT. If you are looking to play games, you would get a better picture with a DVI Input over the standard 15 Pin D-Sub. Also with LCD Monitors the response time is what matters, you want an LCD with a 16ms response time if you can get it.

Take Care,

Richard

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I'd wait.

Wait until July. By then the full-on AMD 64 will be with us. Couple that with the nVidia 6800 Ultra in a case supplying 500w and you will have a desktop that 3 years ago cost Pixar $180,000. I'd use the current Mitsubishi 19in CRT or maybe LG/Illyama equivalent to enjoy the result.

I believe we are at the Top Dead Centre of a new generation of PC's. Hold on for a few months if you can and ride the wave.

Cheers

WWW

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Wee Weasley Welshman,

It sounds like you have been doing your homework. :ok:

As for the nVidia 6800 Ultra, forget the 500W Power Supply, it is going to need something more along the lines of a suitcase nuke to power it. :D

Take Care,

Richard

[longarm]

Will this full on AMD 64 just be a more powerful version or will it be a replacement chip? And more importantly will I have to get a new mortgage (the two systems above come out at under 1300 quid) to buy one.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

longarm,

AMD is changing the process of the Athlon64 from Socket 754 to Socket 939.

Take Care,

Richard

[Saab Dastard]

Longarm,

I bought an Athlon PC from Evesham a couple of years ago - hi-spec. and good value for money then (hopelessly obsolete now, of course :{ )

No problems with the order, delivery or support (only had to complain about a faulty floppy disk drive, which was easily sorted out).

I wasn't impressed with the pre-delivery set-up of the system, though - I basically had to open up the case and re-install the SB Live hardware, cables and software. Fortunatley I 'm technically savvy, so not a big issue, but for a non-techie it would have meant a site visit or RTB.

I would certainly consider them for another system, though.

SD

[goates]

Richard,

As I understand it, isn't AMD moving the Opteron/Athlon 64-FX from socket 940 to 939, and keeping the socket 754 for the "lower" end Athlon 64/Athlon XP+?

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

goates,

As i understood, it both would be:

AT News Update: Athlon 64 name revisions (http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1985)

Take Care,

Richard