I'm leaving AMD for an Intel. I need advice on this rig idea

Howdy Guys,

I have been a long time lover of AMD for the value you get from them and just what is possible for not a lot of cash. Recently I have been having second thoughts. After seeing the INSANE overclocks with the 2.6C I almost wet myself. I could never get 293 FSB with an AMD and I certianly couldn't match the memory bandwidth. All I could think about was "Damn...I think I see my new project." Given that I will be finishing up my last year of college, A new gaming rig would be just the thing to help me thru it .

Here is my current plan. I want to use as many of my existing parts as possible to keep costs low. Obviously some stuff needs to be tossed but lets just see what happens.

Proposed rig: (Prices via Newegg.com)

CPU: Intel P4 2.6C $214
RAM: OCZ 512 MB DDR3700 (2 x 256mb) Dual channel Gold Series $215
MoBo: ABIT IC-7 $137 <--Don't care about SATA or on board Nic, so no loss to me.
PSU: Antec True 480 Watt $99.99 with shipping
Case: Chieftec Full tower $30 shipped (<--Newegg refurb)

Total cost: $695.99

I have a feeling I will need to replace my really old Hard drives but I dont know what to get. My GF3 TI200 will be just fine and so will all the rest of my current components. I want all flames, suggestions or comments. Please help me figure this Intel system out. If I am taking the dive into an Intel from an AMD...I want the deep end.

What are you actually using this system for? Just to get an overclock?

What makes me say this is your video card - if you were gaming or something, a video card would help much more.

But hell - this is overclockers.com forums, so if you want to up and spend $ 700 for a marginal increase in overall system performance, by all means do so. I can't help thinking that another strategy other than CPU speed would help more.

Anyway, the only thing i'd change is the RAM if you're worried about price - waaaaaaaaay too expensive for what you're getting. (Only 512MB? Pah)

EDIT: I'm not trying to convince you to stay with AMD. </disclaimer>

Good choice of components and from someone that has the OCZ memory your going to purchase, testimony that I am very satisfied customer!

But still... come on - for the price of that memory you can get a good 2GB of Samsung PC3200 and still be able to run it at 200Mhz (i have mine at 210Mhz right now).

I agree that it depends on what you want to do with the PC whether this upgrade makes sense, but regardless; I'd be careful with OCZ. Their modules are of mediocre origin and while they get some decent speed out of them, this is only so when you swallow a 'brick wall' latency penalty. Check out this review that I found very revealing:

http://www.lostcircuits.com/memory/ocz3700/

Whats with everyone jumping on the intel bandwagon???... to be honest im starting to rethink whether the amount i paid for my Intel system was worth it. The risk is too high with getting a bad CPU to overclock because of the price you pay for it. I Thought i would at least be guaranteed with a great overclock with this CPU.
Maybe its just me or maybe there are others out there in the same boat who paid top dollar for a 2.6c to get at least 3.4+ghz
Either way, you'll still outperform an AMD if u can hit at least 3.2+
Point is, its just a big gamble with the price you pay for an intel. The scary thing is there are some that can't even hit 3ghz on a 2.6c

At the time when i decided to get an Intel.. Many people were getting crazy overclocks with the "c" processors. The numbers were impressive and i too drooled like you. Now overtime im starting to see bad overclocks appear not just on this forum but on other forums. To make it worse, you get people saying all Intel die's are made in the one place, but yet people are achieveing better overclocks from ones packaged in Malaysia. Then we hear about how Philippines is bad and so are ones from Costa Rica and even some from Malaysia again. Then on the other hand there are those who have gotten great overclocks from CPU's packaged in those countries supposedly bad. Sound Confusing? definitely, thats my point. I feel the gamble is too high right now, and there isn't a certain great stepping to look for. At least with an AMD you can look for a certain stepping and be assured a great overclock if not the loss is only like $60-$80 (i'm estimating here in us dollars as im not from the U.S )

The only stepping i can think of that everyone seems to be getting great overclocks is the week 10-11 Malay, but how many would be left around? and how hard would that be to find?

Not trying to start and AMD vs Intel debate.... its just a thought.

Thanks for your opinions guys. I will be using this computer for mostly gaming and school work. But I also Crunch SETI so the HT would be nice. I am slowly considering other ideas just because I have also been reading reviews about the volitility of the 2.6c's overclocking abilities. If I'm dropping two hundred dollars for just a CPU, I want to be getting one that OC's for damn sure. I'll have to see...I might just get a laptop and say to hell with my desktop system for a while. I'm still on the fence about wanting to build an Intel machine...But from what I have read so far it looks like I better wait for a while till everything appears normal.

Yes I agree, If I wanted to only run 200fsb I would of bought more samsung memory and another AMD system if I was being tight with money. I do have that setup as a server. But of course I was not after 200fsb I wantd alot higher FSB @ low memory voltage. The samsung memory I have runs @ 200fsb @ 2.5,3,3,7 with 2.85 volts which I consider to be rock stable. The same board with the OCZ runs @ 248 fsb 1:1 CPU/Memory ratio with 2,3,3,7 with only 2.75 volts. Was it worth the extra money for me? Yes.

I was in the same boat you're in now.. I saw the high fsb's and the high benchmarks the Intels were getting so I invested wisely in some parts and put together this rig.. To be quite honest it really doesn't seem to be that much better than my 8rda with the 1700@2300 at twice the cost.
Well I just put it together and have never owned Intel before so maybe with some more tweaking, and a little help from these really nice Intel folks , I might change my mind..
I'm glad I did it because my curiousity is solved.. Would I do it again,, probably not at the moment..

Actually, the IC7 does have 2 channel SATA and RAID. The IC7-G has 4 channel SATA, RAID, and Gigabit LAN.

With the 2.6C, you probably don't need the high dollar OCZ Gold RAM. High quality PC3500 will probably work fine or a cheaper PC3700. The reason is you won't be hitting 293 FSB like you mentioned in your first post. Good lord that's 3.8 gig. The average on air is more like 3.2 to 3.4 gig. Yes, there are exceptional 2.6C systems that are reaching 3.6 gig, but that's not typical. Just wanted to give you a reality check.

For you're price list, get a Fortron 530Watt instead.

It's cheaper.

I know I wouldn't hit 293 FSB anytime soon but 250 would be realistic. I have been reading up on the OCZ Gold and it just seems to be mostly marketing... If I pursue this idea any further I think I will just get some good PC3500 ram. We'll have to see. The laptop is sounding a lot more useful at this point in my life.

just a suggestion on the case... newegg has an excellent deal with a truepower 430w and gunmetal color case for 118.99+18 shipping. i got that and it is of excellent value imo.. comes with 3 fans too.

also if you have a budget it might be more realistic to pick up a 2.4C, you will get higher fsb's with greater ease then a 2.6C i think.

my2c,
max

beau_safken said:

Thanks for your opinions guys. I will be using this computer for mostly gaming and school work. But I also Crunch SETI so the HT would be nice. I am slowly considering other ideas just because I have also been reading reviews about the volitility of the 2.6c's overclocking abilities. If I'm dropping two hundred dollars for just a CPU, I want to be getting one that OC's for damn sure. I'll have to see...I might just get a laptop and say to hell with my desktop system for a while. I'm still on the fence about wanting to build an Intel machine...But from what I have read so far it looks like I better wait for a while till everything appears normal.

Click to expand...

Good idea . Don't wanna rush getting a bad CPU, you wanna definitely want to be certain of a good one not unless you find a malay wk10-11. Maybe soon a good batch will be released that will get awesome overclocks. All this talk about good and bad overclocks from the same country is making it cloudy and confusing what to look for.

OnDborder said:

I was in the same boat you're in now.. I saw the high fsb's and the high benchmarks the Intels were getting so I invested wisely in some parts and put together this rig.. To be quite honest it really doesn't seem to be that much better than my 8rda with the 1700@2300 at twice the cost.
Well I just put it together and have never owned Intel before so maybe with some more tweaking, and a little help from these really nice Intel folks , I might change my mind..
I'm glad I did it because my curiousity is solved.. Would I do it again,, probably not at the moment..

Click to expand...

try multitasking with the p4 then do it with your amd...

it will become very apparent the difference. (even non HT p4s are a huge difference)

specifically... try burning a cdr while encoding a video and surfing the web with an mp3 player spouting off some tunes. i can do all of those at the same time with no slow downs on my non HT 2.4b @ 3.6ghz.