Which = this amd or this intel

[Marley]

Abit IC7 "Canterwood" (Socket 478) Motherboard with a Intel Pentium 4 'Northwood' 3.0CGHz (800FSB)

or

Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 with an AMD Athlon "Thoroughbred" XP 2600+ 333FSB

[SecretFire]

The above system will probably have better performance, but not necessarily by a really big margin (in terms of real world applications)

I assume that the AMD system is cheaper? Depending on how much so, it might be a better idea to go with the AMD system and save a bit of cash.

[glock19owner]

A better NF2 board though...like a NF7-S rev 2.0...for the simple fact...no vdd mod and not core voltage mod and no memory mod...if you plan on overclocking past 200FSB...odds are you will have to do 1 or all 3 mods to achieve this on the Asus board...

[Marley]

money isnt really an issue nor overclocking..simply for performance

[glock19owner]

You will still get better performance over the Asus using the Abit...better BIOS options...

[Marley]

I fail to see the relevance of better bios options if i dont plan to overclock...as the asus is a better motherboard (side by side)

[glock19owner]

Better BIOS option means more options to ensure better performance...like memory timings...better memory options means better memory timings...for example..the Abit board has the option to change the command rate to 1T...on the Asus board...it runs at 2T all the time...no option to change it...that can make for better memory bandwidth...which in turn will equal better performance...this is just one example...

[Marley]

well the ASUS does beat it by a few FPS...
here are some scores ...

Quake 3:
NF7-S - 270FPS
A7N8X - 278FPS

3DMark 2001SE:
NF7-S - 14787
A7N8X - 14800

"the Asus A7N8X out performed our board pretty much across the board at stock speeds as well as handled 200MHz synchronous "FSB and Memory speeds without a hitch."

that is the conclusion from the NF7-S review

[glock19owner]

one out of how many out there, sounds like a reviews form Toms Hardware...but if you have your heart set on a MB for stability and performance without OCing...the go with a ECS KT333 board...

[Marley]

it outperformed the NF7-S accross the board, and i have chosen the Asus A7N8X Deluxe.... so back to the question

[glock19owner]

Well since you believe what you read instead of people that have owned those boards...that is your choice...and if that is the case...go with Intel...you wont like AMD running default compaired to the Canterwood...

[Marley]

You talk about it as if the reviewer has never even seen it before and made it all up..i am reading what you write the same as i read what other reviewers write, the only difference is normally they have more experience

[glock19owner]

reviewing and actually runnign a MB for a few months is a big difference...and most reviewers don't run the MB's for a few weeks or months before reviewing them...they run them for a few test and have their review...I know because I used to be a reviewer...and most reviewers do no have 20+ yrs of experince working on computers...

And point taken about reading my post ;)...

But when it comes down to what you are wanting and no price is a problem...the canterwood will still outpreform the non OCed AMD setup that you listed and will be more stable...

[Marley]

k, thanks...so if someone was to choose it would be that?

[glock19owner]

Between those two and not OCing...yes I would go with the canterwood over the AMD setup...and I have been running AMD's for a few years now...so this is not from a Intel die hard...That abit IC7 motherboard is nice and pretty fast on default...

[gahdzila]

just to throw a monkey wrench into the discussion, I've been running the Asus A7N8X Deluxe for about 2 months, and I have been VERY pleased.

That said...

I'm an AMD guy most of the time, so I would choose the AMD platform personally. Mainly because of price. The AMD platform will almost certainly be less expensive (although I havent checked).

But...you said:
money isnt really an issue nor overclocking..simply for performance

In that case, the Intel platform you chose will almost certainly outperform the AMD platform you chose. Perhaps not by much...but it will definately be the better of the two for performance and stability, if overclocking and price are not at all an issue.

[Apilot21]

I say the Intel. I got the same processor, but I have a IC7-G. I like it very much, even more though when I get my radeon 9800 256.