Pent 4's ... are they worth it??

[Musashi]

I saw where Intel is cutting the prices on their P4's dramatically. But are they worth it? I am looking at building a new system and wanted something 1gig or faster that would hold up for gaming over the next year or so. Going to put in a GeForce2 Ultra because can't afford the GeF3 http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

btw here is the link to the price cut story.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20010807/tc/intel_aims_to_make_amd_eat_dust_1.html

[hiredgoonz]

Personally, I don't think the P4 is worth it...it is more expensive than the Athlon and doesn't necessarily perform any better, even when the chip is clocked hundreds of Mhz faster...

Add to this the fact that any P4 system you buy now will be pretty much not upgradeable as far as the cpu goes (due to the fact that Intel will be introducing a new form factor soon)...

Even with the new SDRAM chipsets for the P4, the situation doesn't get any better...what little performance benefit you might derive from the P4 w/RDRAM will be gone with the relatively lowbandwidth memory...

Once the new "Northwood" P4 comes out, the situation might be different, but for now, it just doesn't seem like a very good deal...



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When all else fails, read the instructions.

[Musashi]

Ok my next question....

I am looking to upgrade my computer from a p2 400.

I have been looking at the AMD Athalon 1.2 and 1.4 processors.
My question is this.. Will I notice a difference in a 1.2 processor with 256meg of 133 ram from a system with a 1.4 processor and 256k of 266 DDR pc2100?

I mainly game. why am I upgrading? I figure why not?

[mjc]

Oh, I'd say we are looking at a definite maybe, here. There are a few other factors to consider here, the video card you choose is going to play as much as if not more of a role than the DDR memory, but at the same time you need to look at the upgrade path, Sdram is about at the end of its life cycle. There is going to be a difference that will show up in benchmarks but will it be noticible? Probably not when you are actually looking at the monitor.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[hiredgoonz]

Yeah, you're probably not going to "see" any performance difference going from 1.2 w/SDRAM to 1.4 w/DDR, although, as mjc points out, the vid card will make a big difference...

Since you will use it for gaming, have you considered going with a slower Athlon with DDR and applying the price difference to a Geforce3? Going with a 1.2 instead of a 1.4 will save you almost $50 (not enough to pay for the price diff. but enough to offset it a little)...

Just remember that you pay a huge price for having the fastest cpu on the market even when one 200mhz slower will perform just as well...

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When all else fails, read the instructions.