Is P4 Now a Viable Option?

[jwells11]

For the last couple of months I've been gathering product information on which to build a new PC based on the Athlon platform (waiting for the Palomino 1.5gzh). But with P4 and Rambone memory dropping in price, the 1.7 gzh P4 may now be a viable alternative to the Athlon. Furthering this possibility are the following considerations:
- I'm not a gamer
- Main interests are web-based stuff and video
- I want rock solid stability (my current computer crashes everyday and I'm real tired of it)
- I like a quiet PC (as P4 is cooler, I presume I could use a weaker fan)

Can anyone make a case either way? I don't particularly like Intel as a company as I find them condescening and I sort of feel like a traitor to AMD.

Also, what's the deal with P4 heatsinks....Directron sells a zillion for the Athlon and just a couple for the P4?

[wildone]

well I just like the price verses performance and honestly I dont have stability problems with mine , I use good memory though and I think THAT is one of the most important parts of stability , just look at the screen shot , why would you buy a processor that has to run so much faster for the same perfomance as you get with amd.
wildone

[Ferg]

Well the Athlon 4 runs about 10% cooler than the T-bird so it will be closer in temps to the P4 then it used to be. If you want quite then the Millinium Glaciator is pretty quite compared to most coolers while still cooling very well. So you should be able to get stability, better performance and lower cost with an Athlon 4 system. Although the cost wont be much different.

[Darkraist]

Good God! Why would you possibly want a P4? Athlons perform much better and as for web enhancement and whatnot, thats mostly a bunch of crap. Im not sure if they are more stable or not but i love my AMD T-Bird and wouldnt go back to intel untill they beat athlons, and by the looks of the P4 that could take a while.

[Fiz]

I have read in a couple of places that the P4 puts out just about as much heat as the Athlon does, if you look at the HSF's, they are the same size. I have seen a couple of P4's with a coolermaster on it(i think it was coolermaster), you can use a coolermaster on an Athlon and they are quiet, it just depends on if you want to get into extreme overclocking, then you will need a noisy HSF. I really haven't seen anything that justifies the higher price of the P4, the only thing I have really seen it do good on is Quake 3, but as you said, you aren't a gamer. I would really look into an Athlon. By the way, I have put together and had to deal with a few Pentium machines, and all the talk of AMD's being harder to work with is bull, I have 2 Athlons here right now, both of which run perfectly, in fact, the only machine I had trouble with was my friends P3 system. It just wouldn't take the new video card he had bought. Anuhow, that's my 2 cents.

Fiz

[FRANK]

Isn't Intel going to change the socket on the P4's shortly? Thereby limiting the upgrade paths down the road.

[Dr_Kildare]

The PIV is not a cool chip - in all senses of the word :p

PIV HSF are massive & can weigh over 500g... also with the pending socket change I would opt for an AMD system for the moment...

[hooziewhatsit]

I think the only time the P4 will become a viable option is after it gets its die shrink to .13, or when it gets the hardware put back in that intel took out. After it gets the die shrink, it gets a new chipset to sit in (socket-478 ) , and then your current P4 is outdated... un-upgradable.... a keychain.....

The only other reason to get it right now is if you are doing some video editing or something similar that needs and takes advantage of the memory bandwidth it offers.

Only then when will it become a good option.

either way, thats just my $.02

[Curious_George]

Imo the P4 will not be a viable option until the socket change(why buy something that is going to change sockets in just a few months?) and even then I would give it a wait and see attitude..

[Nagorak]

The P4 is now a "viable" option, but not a very good option.

Go with an AMD system they are cheaper and better. If you want stability just steer clear of VIA based motherboards, they are the source of most problems. AMD 761 boards are rock solid. The Ali Majik might also be a reasonable alternative (although I doubt it is stable as the AMD 761).

[supraway]

NO!

[el]

It is those stupid blue guys again! I wish AMD had adds like intel but I guess we will have to stay underground. P4 is the wrong choice. please don't get one. a tbird adn a nice 21inch monitor is the way to go and that is how much you will save!!!! at least 450bucks more for less performance!!!!

[Nagorak]

el (Jun 26, 2001 09:49 p.m.):
It is those stupid blue guys again! I wish AMD had adds like intel but I guess we will have to stay underground. P4 is the wrong choice. please don't get one. a tbird adn a nice 21inch monitor is the way to go and that is how much you will save!!!! at least 450bucks more for less performance!!!!

You can't get a 21 inch monitor for $450...at least not a decent one...

[el]

Well I mean going from a 19incher $320bucks to a 21 incher for another $450 for a total around 800bucks which I can name several great monitors you could get. the 450 is the extra you pay for mobo chip and rimms/crimms and new ps and all the crap would easily cost 450 more than a nice tbird mobo chip and ram. you can almost get a 16x9 22 incher for that much *drool*.