Shantanu Sen wrote:
> I am planning my first home-built pc and at the moment doing some research
> to decide whether to go for a P4 or an AMD 64. The things that I plan to do
> with my PC is basically same video editing and working with (and
> compiling/building) enterprise Apps and databases such as WebLogic/oracle
> etc. No high-end gaming is on the cards.
>
> I am also on a budget - $100-120 on the mobo and ~$200 on the processor. I
> was leaning towards a P4 3.0 but puased a little to check out the AMD 64
> 3000/3200 since it offers me some sort of 'future proofing' for the 64 bit
> software coming down the pipe in the next 3/4 yrs.
More like a few months from now. Expect there to be plenty of 64 bit
software a year from now.
>
>
> On researching the mobos for the AMD 64, I see that most of the 754 pin ones
> are priced well (means withing my reach), but the upgrade path is clearly
> with the 939 ones which higher than my budget.
There are some socket 939 motherboards for around $120. A socket 939
Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ will also cost around $25 more than the socket
754 version, so it will be around $60 more(cpu and motherboard) going
with socket 939 rather than socket 754.
> If I am realistic about
> myself - I do not see myself upgrading after every 6months/1yr - I will
> probably upgrade after 3/4 yrs and by that time I might as well get a new
> mobo since dual core's will most likely be a norm by then.
Dual core chips are intended to be direct drop in replacements for single
core chips, although, I don't know if socket 939 will still be used 3 or 4 years
from now.
>
>
> The only reason then, I would go for a 939 pin socket mobo now, is for dual
> channel memory. All the P4 mobos within my budget (e.g. Asus P4P800-E Delux)
> has this by default
Not really, as the Pentium 4 doesn't have the memory controllers integrated
on the cpu, which is a very important difference.
> whereas the corresponding AMD ones do not support it -
> typically they have 3 dimms. (on a side note - if I get one of this, how do
> I use a 2 gig ram? why do these have 3 dimms and not 2?)
>
> The question I have is that is not having DDR on AMD that big a deal?
The Athlon 64 uses ddr dram. The newer Winchester core (socket 939)
Athlon 64 chips all have dual channel memory access. They are probably
on average comparable to the Newcastle Athlon 64 chips in performance
(it might vary a bit depending on the application), since for example the
Newcastle Athlon 64 3000+ runs at 2ghz, while the Winchester Athlon 64 3000+
runs at 1.8 ghz.
> What
> are the pros/cons of this compared with that of P4, given what I have for my
> planned use of my PC?
>
>
> Thanks for any inputs on this.
>
> Shantanu Sen<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: question regarding AMD 64 
FAQ
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
