Which way to go? New system, and need some help.

[Kurant]

I've been out of it for the last year or so since I got my current P4 system, and it's well behind the times just in a year compared to what is around now. The information I find now is a bit overwhelming to take it all in at times.

I'm going to be building a system, used primarly for gaming, but also used for a good amount of video editing. I'm really not sure which way to go.

I've researched, and you find alot of mixed things, but I'm mostly.. confused at this stage.

I was looking at Intel, but I find AMD is better for gaming. Also, PCIE is a must.

Just not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[locaj]

budget?complete build?/you gona use any of your allready have parts?

 

[Kurant]

I had planned on using everything in my current system except the chip/board and video card.

2GM PDP Ram (2/3/2/5 - PC3200)
SB Audigy
Linksys NIC
300GB Maxtor SATA
DVD Burner/CD ROM
520W PSU

Those are the things I'm looking to keep,

All I'm looking to replace is the motherboard, video card, and processor. Everything else I have is new or almost new.

 

[dropadrop]

Get a dualcore procesor if you are going to do alot of videoprocessing. All modern processors are fine for gaming (videocard will make the most differance), but the dualcore will really make a differance for rendering. Then you can even play games while rendering

 

[Kurant]

Which processor's would you recommend with dualcore?

 

[Shelnutt2]

Right now I'd get a 820...but that would meen you would have to replace your ram with DDr2. Personal if I could get by I would wait another 6-9 months till the 9xx come out.

 

[Kurant]

Yeah, I noticed that about the DDR2 on the Pentium D boards also, mainly the Abit AW8.

My question now is how much performence increase will I actully see going from a 2.8C with a IC7-G to a D or even I was looking at the Pentium 541? I would imagine it will be very minimal in games, but could be considerable for video?

I'm just lookign to upgrade as I've had contiuning trouble with the IC7 and the SATA port, and my IDE ports were dead about 3 months ago. I thought about just ordering a new board, but I just decided if I'm ordering, I'm going to upgrade. Being so busy with a new baby, and working so much, I haven't even though about keeping up with hardware and the latest stuff.

Just to add to that and out of curiousity, strictly for gaming purposes, would you recommend AMD?

 

[ronaldo]

A64 X2 will be better in gamming and video editing..but it cost 100usd more than Pentium D...(if you go with Intel you will need to replace the ram..)

 

[3DFlyer]

Since you are already familair with Intel the 820 would be the better choice. You're not gonna notice that much difference in gaming between it and AMD's top offering which righ now is the X2. Like was stated earlier, the video card will make more of a difference.

For rendering the 820D is without a doubt the better choice. As you are already aware. Intel systems are much easier to setup and OC. They run smoother, with fewer bugs. When you are doing video editing the last thing you need is a system reboot or freeze.

The top Dual Core bpoard out there right now is the ASUS P5WD2 Premium, and I'm an Abit fan myself, but the Asus is the better board right now. Yes, it takes DD2, but if you want a new system, you're gonna want it to perform better, and bringing over old RAM will only cause a bottleneck in these new systems. It's really no different than it used to be. Replace the mobo, CPU, ram, and graphics card.

With the 820 or 830 on that board and good RAM you will will get great all around performance and will have no issues doing anything at all you want to do, and belive me nothing will be lacking...well, except for instability, becasue you won't be seeing any of that.

These 820's, 830's and 840's are great OC'ers. It is very easy to 4.5GHz on air with one, and 5GHz (2.5/core) is not unheard of.

If you want to step down in price a litle a 6xx CPU is also a great OC'er that has shown absolute stability, and gets high marks.

There are also new CPU's coming out from Intel in the first quarter and second quarter of '06 that are pretty much gonna make everything else look like legacy hardware. If you are wanting to wait a bit and study up on these I would highly recommened gving them a good strong look. I buitl a 478 system about 5-6 months ago now, and have been waiting on these. I have seen many good CPU's and have been tempted to build another one, but these new CPU's are going to be so good, and are goijg to be so much more advanced that they could turn a 2000 dollar system into a 200 dollar one the day they come out.

There are many great choices to choose from as you can see.

 

[rseven]

I honestly don't care whether you buy an AMD or an Intel. They will both do a good job for you. Just don't be taken in by fear mongering that your AMD rig could lock up. (Any rig can lock up and an AMD is no more likely to do so than an Intel)The X2's are better than anything Intel makes right now. Maybe it will be different next year and maybe it won't. Nothing anyone brings out is going to turn a $2000 rig into a $200 one overnight. That is an unfounded statement. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Yuriman]

An Athlon64 compares to a Pentium 4 with HT in nearly everything (even encoding), so wouldn't dual Athlon64's outperform the Pentium-D, which has no HT?

I'd say go with an Athlon64 X2. My AMD system has had no problems since I built it, the only time it has ever crashed or randomly rebooted was when I was testing out my max overclock. With that, I suggest pairing it with a DFI nForce4 Ultra-D, or an Asus AN8 SLI Premium (a lot more expensive).

 

[3DFlyer]

Here is a list of issues reported in threads by uses of both types of CPU's. They were taken from the just the first page of both forums.

On the Intel Forum...
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=410443

On the AMD Forum...
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=411587
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=410586
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=411023
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=411339
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=410267

Some of us must be seeing different things, but the forum tends to clarify those things a little more. That's the great thing about this forum!

 

[dropadrop]

For rendering the 820D is without a doubt the better choice. As you are already aware. Intel systems are much easier to setup and OC. They run smoother, with fewer bugs. When you are doing video editing the last thing you need is a system reboot or freeze.

Yeah, we all saw how much better Intel dualcore systems run during Toms Hardware's last stability test...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=8

There's some videorelated benchmarks with the X2 3800+ vs. the Intel 830.

 

[3DFlyer]

Yeah, we all saw how much better Intel dualcore systems run during Toms Hardware's last stability test...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2484&p=8

There's some videorelated benchmarks with the X2 3800+ vs. the Intel 830.

Toms? hahahahaha What a joke. Anyone who is serious knows better than to believe anything that is written on that site.

 

[rseven]

Kurant, has asked for some help here picking out some new parts for a new upgrade. As I said before both Intel and AMD make some good products that will work well for him. If someone posts reviews then he can read them and make an intelligent choice. Bashing Tom's Hardware does not negate their review, nor does it negate that AnandTech came to the same conclusion about the clear superiority of the X2. As for sighting problems noted in the forum, well that's one of the primary objectives of the forum is for problem solving. There is nothing scientific or objective in scanning one page of threads and no valid conclusions can be reached from such a survey.
Now Kurant can review the choices and make a decision.

 

[Mustanley]

At this point in time, an X2/Nforce4 system is the best choice. That is the conclusion of every hardware review site that I have read where the X2 and Dual Core P4 were compared.

Having worked with many P4s, A64s and now an X2, I can say that none of them are particulary complicated to set up, tweak and make into a stable system.

 

[hUMANbEATbOX]

These 820's, 830's and 840's are great OC'ers. It is very easy to 4.5GHz on air with one, and 5GHz (2.5/core) is not unheard of.

i'm sorry, but you seem to be a bit confused. there is nothing "easy" about hitting 4.5ghz on air, and if someone DOES accomplish this easily, there is a word used to describe that. its called luck. a golden chip. there is no way that on average pentium d's are doing 4.5ghz on air PER CORE.

and that, by the way is how they measure the "speed" of these dual core chips. it is not the combined speed of the 2 cores. the slowest Intel dual core is 2.8ghz, per core, so by your way of measuring, that's 5.6ghz stock.

 

[macklin01]

Tone down the AMD vs. Intel war here, folks. Just give your opinions with your reasoning. Nobody needs to refute anybody else here. Give the best advise you can with clear reasoning and leave it at that. -- macklin01

In non-moderator voice, I'm also interested in the differing points of view on what a good move is on a new CPU. I haven't really don't much since the P4 3.0C in my sig.

Kurant, do you have a particular price point you're hoping to hit? I think the best way to phrase this sort of question is, "What's the best system I can build for $X that meets my needs?" Another good question to ask yourself is just how much overclocking you plan to do. If you forsee a 5-20% overclock, you'll get spend less on RAM and more on a video card, for instance. If you're planning on a higher overclock, more of your budget will go towards more memory.

For example, let's suppose you want to build a system for $600 or less, primarily for gaming but also for video editing. Required components:

1) Motherboard
2) CPU
3) CPU cooling
4) Memory
5) Video Card
6) PSU (probably)

What's the best combination out there for $600? What's the best option for $800? What's the best combination for $500, allowing for one major upgrade in 6 months? (i.e., what's a good, upgradable "place-holder" system to get the job started?)

Lastly, I'd personally like to say that to a certainly degree, an Intel CPU compared against a comparable AMD CPU will probably perform within 5-10% of one another, given the same video card, and changing the video card will probably make a greater impact on your gaming performance than changing your CPU branding. -- Paul

 

[Kurant]

I Was hoping to spend about 600-700 bucks. Right now, being an Intel user for a long I've got a D 830 with 2gigs of OCZ in my cart on newegg. Still researching boards. If someone can come up with a better solution, including at least a 6800 GT or an X800, let me know.

It looks like I'll be spending more for then 600-700 at the current time with whats in my cart, but.. I'm open to other solutions.

BTW, how much performence loss do you think I will get from not going with a D and with a 6xx or 5xx?

 

[CarRamrod]

Since you will be most likely sticking with DDR memory I would suggest going with an AMD set up. Otherwise you will be dishing out more cash for DDR2.