Topic: What should I buy? P4 or AMD?

[PhilTheFish]

Hello all,

I'll shortly be shelling out for a new PC as my current one (celeron 766Mhz) is working like worn out clockwork!

Anyway, I am torn between two systems and and was hoping for some advice.

System 1 - P4 3Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 120Gb hard drive, DVD RW, 128Mb ATI Radeon SE graphics, Windows XP Home, 6 USB connections. £580

System 2 - AMD 3600 XP, 512Mb RAM, 120 GB hard drive, DVD Drive, 64Mb Geforce 2 Graphics, Windows XP Pro, 6 USB ports. £540

I am not really interested in the graphics, as I never play games on the PC. Basically, I want the best performing system for running multiple programs, devices etc.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Cheers
Phil

[Sandra]

Hard to say Phil  
I am biased towards Intel so I would choose that especially with a better GFX card, (64mbs is quite a poor card for a new pc today).
I am not sure what speed the AMD 3600 actualy runs at I know my XP 2100 + runs at 1733 and the Barton 2500 run at 1833 so there probably wont be much of a difference in performance purely on the CPU size.
I cant remember now but I think that the Intel has a bigger onboard cache than the AMD so that would mean better performance but it would propbably be hard to see the difference unless you were pushing either of them to their limits  

[WhiteDevil]

Im slightly more biased towards AMD as im sure Sandra knows  

My system needs to be able to do everything, and the power of the AMD chips when playing games appeals to me more. AMD XP3600+, thats gotta be quick - the 3200+ i want runs at 400MHz... [TBH, the only 3600 AMD chip ive seen is on the new 64-bit processsor] -

My advice, see if they'll whip the 64MB graphics card out of the AMD one and give you a discount. If not, have a look on ebay - one of my mates picked up an nVidia GeFORCE FX5200 (AGP 8X 128MB) for £21 a few days ago.

Extra savings!  

[Simon]

...one of my mates picked up an nVidia GeFORCE FX5200 (AGP 8X 128MB) for £21 a few days ago.

That was lucky!  I've just paid £35 for one.  

[PhilTheFish]

Just to let you know, I went for option 1 and I'm very, very happy.

Mind you, I'm comparing it against my old Celeron 766Mhz, so anything would seem fast!

Cheers

[Simon]

Great to hear that, Phil!  Come back to us when you break it!  

[Sandra]

Intels dont usually break Simon  

[Simon]