Hello all,
I am about to embark on my first attempt at putting together a pc. The friend of mine wants to use it for downloadng music, surfing the internet and manipulating photos with adobe, but NOT games.
I have not decided on the cpu yet as i am finding myself caught in confusion.
How do others select a cpu? What is the criteria?
If this Q is too general could people send me their specs (cpu, mobo) and i will decipher what setup would be good for us.
Also, is it true that AMD cpu's are limited in terms of variety in what mobo's can deliver? (read...i believe there are more 3rd parties making mobo's for intel than AMD)

cheers
anton :rolleyes:

Just a suggestion.
I'm not implying that you're unfit for assembling a PC, and I'm not trying to talk you out of gaining some great 1st hand computer assembling experience, but you may want to save that 1st computer assembly attempt for your own system because the 1st one is usually when Murphy's Law activates, especially when one is doing it for someone else.
And even the best efforts are plagued with problems, the worst of which are defective components and determining which ones are the culprits.

Do you think it would be better for your friend to just buy a ready made unit from a major supplier(Dell and e-machines have some great deals, and e-machines got a great review in a recent Consumer Reports issue), and equip it with sufficient RAM(suggest a minimum of 512 MB for photo work), a minimum 40 GB HD, and a minimum 2.8 GHz CPU?
By doing it this way you will not have to put up with the stress and pressure of your friend beating down your door asking when it will be finished if things do not go right, and your friend can call the supplier for support help if things go wrong after receiving the unit instead of asking you.

Your call.

Hey i was in your boat about a month ago.. just my pc was for gaming tho... i have small budget and want sumthing that will run nice...make urself known in the "buying & upgrading" part of this forum i would also consider private messaging "saphalline" hes prolly the perfect guy for first time builders dont feel dumb asking the simple questions EVERYONE, will answer ANYTHING you'll find ur biggest problem being whos opinion to go with... i usually stick with what saphalline says or a moderator but the newer guys can sometimes relate to the simple questions without getting to technical

As for your original question I chose AMD... always seemed like AMD is the cinderella cpu..lol but read reviews always works out best...and if i could save saphalline some time if ur gonna go AMD ill tell you he recommended me the amd 64 2800+ with an MSI Neo i believe it was a k8t he said but cant be sure

How do others select a cpu? What is the criteria?
Intended use and budget. That's really what it boils down to, other than if you have a preference for AMD or Intel, or even a specific CPU, like a P4 instead of a Celeron D.

For what your friend wants to do, anything will work. There's no restrictions there, other than he may want to lean towards Intel if he uses some of the more serious filters in Photoshop. But the main thing that will ultimately decide is his budget.

He will also want lots of RAM (512 minimum as ski said, 1GB if he can afford it) and a large hard drive (160GB is the sweet spot right now). Things he can cut back on are the video card (just a cheap one will do) and raw CPU speed (slower will be fine here). Overall, this sounds like a fairly cheap PC that he needs, but if he wants to throw $2000 at it, the more the merrier I say! :D

Haha, thanx for the vote of confidence, NeWbiE :-). :D

thanks all for the quick feedback...i think i will take a trip to those forums and of course have a budget in mind!

cheers
anton ;)

Hi anton muzic

I've had 2 AMD based systems, the first had a K6/111 450 Mhz CPU ( prehistoric but only 4 years ago it was state of the art for budget PCs ! ). A failing CPU fan caused the processor to overheat, the system became extremely unstable, eventually the CPU died and I lost all my data ( no CD writer for back ups in those days ).

My current system has an AMD XP2500 processor which ran fine for 18 months, and then suddenly started overheating, causing error messages, application crashes, and random reboots. All attempts to find the cause of the overheating have failed. You can follow the adventure of the red hot chip under the thread :

Windows/reboots from bugcheck......

Pentium processors are reportedly far less prone to overheating problems, as they slow themselves down if they start to get too hot, and continue undamaged once they have cooled down.

Draw your own conclusions, but next time I get a PC it will be Pentium based.......

In the example of your K6-III, you can't really blame AMD for a melted processor if it didn't have a working CPU fan!! That's like blaming your car manufacturer for having back pains after you plow your car headlong into a tree! In the example of your AthlonXP 2500+, I can't find that thread so I can't comment, but again, if it's overheating, I'm sorry to say that the blame lies on you. Intel and AMD both make processors that work just fine, as long as you properly cool them. True that most Intel CPU's will avoid meltdown if they sense they are getting too hot, but this feature also requires that your mobo supports it! I've seen a few that haven't.

I'm not saying that you don't have your own right to be biased and upset with AMD, but we like to be fair around here. Intel does indeed have some extra heat protection built into their CPU's, but if you had an overheating P4 right now, the symptoms would be the same. You aren't going to get a stable PC if your CPU keeps overheating. And as for Intel CPU's being less prone to high amounts of heat, why don't you try comparing an Athlon64 4000+ to a Pentium4 3.6GHz and tell me which is hotter...

.. And as for Intel CPU's being less prone to high amounts of heat, why don't you try comparing an Athlon64 4000+ to a Pentium4 3.6GHz and tell me which is hotter...

Bingo! I always edged towards Intel until I read this (http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041114/index.html) article. As far as I'm concerned, AMD caught up to Intel when it comes to quality and reliability. Obviously with either processor, you need a quality MB, adequate case cooling, and a solid power supply.

Hi sapphaline

The thread you should be looking for is

PC Operating Systems and Software / Windows / Reboots from bugcheck

I accept that with my previous PC I was partly to blame for the CPU overheating, as I did not have any programs installed to monitor the CPU temp and fan speed. The fan was operating, but at half speed. I was only aware of the problem when programs started to crash, and the BIOS started to beep. In those days I was less experienced and didn't know what the beeping indicated, until I contacted PCGuide. Replacing the fan brought the temps down, but the damage had already been done, and the CPU died a fortnight later.

As regards my current PC, it was perfect for 18 months. Then the overheating began very suddenly. The CPU and case fans were operating at full speed, but the temp rose to 58 C. How is that my fault ???? I fitted a more powerful heatsink/fan but the temp remained high, and I have only been able to control it ( purely as a stop-gap measure ) by using CPU Eat n Cool, which helps keep the CPU temp down, but kills the performance.

Please take a look at the above thread. The problem has defeated everyone else so far ( thanks for all the input guys ), so I'd be interested in your views. Please reply to the above thread, not to this one.

Perhaps your current CPU problem is due to the same situation that can cause one car engine out of many thousands to overheat without warning after running flawlessly for a few years -> a quality control glitch that eventually rears its ugly head, and causes a crack in either the cylinder wall or head.