Help me buy a new CPU

Ok so I been toying with idea of getting an A64 2800+ or 3000+ with that new nforce 250 board and overclocking, but that board is not out yet http://www.hexus.net/content/review...dmlld19JRD03NTE If this comes out soon I would be willing to wait, anybody know the ETA

To make things worse I would rather buy the new 939 cpus when they come out but who knows when that will be so I have been exploring other options.

Been taking a hard look at the AMD mobile 2400+ 2500+ and 2600+ and overclocking it. Reading the reviews at Newegg it seems as though the 2600+ OCs better even though people claim they are the same CPU. I was going to put a ZALMAN CNPS3100-Plus Copper on it and hope that is good enough. I would hope to hit atleast 2500 mhz

Another option is the 2.4a Intel Prescott. These seem to be getting up to around 3.3 ghz or so with stock cooling.

I find it hard to make a decisions because it not clear to me how fast overclclocked CPUs are because I don't ususally see benchmarks that compare overclocked intels vs overclocked mobile AMDs. Making it worse are differances in FSB speeds and what not. I am not even sure what is faster, an AMD 3200+ at stock speeds or a mobile AMD OCd to 3200+ clock speeds just using the multiplier?

BTW I am not interested in any fancy water cooling solution or anything like that. I don't care if the CPU runs hot, as long as it is stable.

Also I do a lot of gaming and 3d modeling, but not so much rendering or video encoding. Price is not a huge deal, but I want to be smart with my money. I would have to buy a new Motherboard and RAM regardless of the brand of CPU I go with.

thanks for any advice in advance!

ETA for the NF3 250's is late next month same as the release of 939 pin cpus. If you are a gamer then the Athlon 64 is the way to go. BTW welcome to the forums!

Don't forget the PCI locked VIA K8T800 Pro (not K8T800) chipset.

PCI locked nForce3 250 (not 150) hasn't really be tested agains the upcoming VIA PCI locked chipset. I hope they do it soon and I hope VIA includes it's quality onboard sound since nForce3 250 will not...

Apparently NVidia dropped the soundstorm because they thought users were not interested in onboard sound in terms of making a purchasing decision when purchasing motherboards and because they were progressing the "single chip" solution for A64's. The NF3 150's dont have soundstorm either.

I hope VIA releases some version of their VIA Envy24HT chip which has good audio.

As for nVidia, next year's nVidia board:

c627627 said:

get this: After everyone starts complaining about crappy sound of nForce3 250, toward the end of 2004 nVidia will release CK8-04 with High-Definition 24-bit 96kHz 7.1 audio plus...

NVIDIA’s core-logic code-named CK8-04/Pro designed for
AMD’s Socket 939 processors will sport
1000MHz HyperTransport bus,
4 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID,
2 Parallel ATA-33/66/100/133 channels with RAID,
Gigabit Ethernet,
10 USB 2.0 ports,
4 PCI slots,
High-Definition 24-bit 96kHz 7.1 audio
as well as something NVIDIA calls PCI Express x20.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipsets/display/20040405142953.html

Click to expand...

I thought the world was going to move towards Intel's new audio chip. I kinda felt that was the reason Nvidia dropped soundstorm.

cack01 said:

I thought the world was going to move towards Intel's new audio chip. I kinda felt that was the reason Nvidia dropped soundstorm.

Click to expand...

Not according to Nvidia themselves - besides why would they drop their own chip in favour of Intels?
Question 8 of interview.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/_preview.php?articleID=368&28890
The Nvidia site itself makes a lot of reference to its single chip solution for the NF3 and the perceived benefits.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nf3.html