- Joined
- Sep 17, 2001
- Location
- Orange County
Upon begining my search for parts to build a computer for my girlfriend, I believe I have found myself more lost than I have ever been in my life when it comes to building a computer.
There's socket A and socket 478 of course. But now there's socket 939, socket 940, socket lga775, and socket 754.
I've got a choice between a Barton, an Opteron, and an Athlon64 on the AMD side. On the intel side, I can get a p4 or a Prescott based system on a completely different socket with a completely different naming scheme.
Then there's the choice between memory. That one is at least a little more simple. There's pc3200 and DDR2 pc4000, which I am still completely stupid when it comes to what exactly DDR2 is.
I haven't even started looking at things such as PCI express either. I'm not even sure if it's offered yet.
* * *
Anyways, I'm in need of all sorts of advice now. My girlfriends dual p3 800Mhz is now just a bit too slow to use any more. She's a graphic designer and an occasional gamer. I'd say the main applications to be used on this system is Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and whatever is her favorite game at the time (currently City of Heroes).
I asked her if she would prefer to go AMD or Intel and she said she'd prefer to pay a bit more for Intel. Upon hearing "pay a bit more," it made me think that perhaps a 64 bit AMD solution may be a good idea.
So here I am with my questions.
CPU:
Exactly how much performance boost do you get when you shell out the money for a 64 bit processor? When will we be expecting 64 bit applications to make it worth purchasing a 64 bit processor? What difference is there between the P4 processors and the newer Intel processors that use names seemingly unrelated to clock speed? What is the difference between an Athlon64, an FX processor, and an Opteron? What's the difference between socket 478 and socket lga775? What is the difference between socket 754, socket 939, and socket 940?
motherboard and stuff:
Aside from clock speed, what's the difference between pc3200 and DDR2 pc4000? What processors require the DDR2 stuff? Are pc3200 and pc4000 interchangeable? What about PCI Express? I currently have a gf4ti4200 that will work wonderfully but if I purhcase a motherboard with pci express instead of AGP, will I need to purchase a PCI express video card?
And most importantly, what do you all recommend for a system that will be doing Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and some games? This last system worked wonderfully for a good 4 years before needing an upgrade. I would like to purchase a system that doesn't wind up being outdated simply because someone decided to phase out socket939 and only offer socket940 processors. Keep in mind that we are not rich here. So a dual Opteron model 850 with 4 gigs of ram and dual pci express x800xt video cards is most certainly not an option. Neither is anything else exceeding the area of about $1000 for that matter.
There's socket A and socket 478 of course. But now there's socket 939, socket 940, socket lga775, and socket 754.
I've got a choice between a Barton, an Opteron, and an Athlon64 on the AMD side. On the intel side, I can get a p4 or a Prescott based system on a completely different socket with a completely different naming scheme.
Then there's the choice between memory. That one is at least a little more simple. There's pc3200 and DDR2 pc4000, which I am still completely stupid when it comes to what exactly DDR2 is.
I haven't even started looking at things such as PCI express either. I'm not even sure if it's offered yet.
* * *
Anyways, I'm in need of all sorts of advice now. My girlfriends dual p3 800Mhz is now just a bit too slow to use any more. She's a graphic designer and an occasional gamer. I'd say the main applications to be used on this system is Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and whatever is her favorite game at the time (currently City of Heroes).
I asked her if she would prefer to go AMD or Intel and she said she'd prefer to pay a bit more for Intel. Upon hearing "pay a bit more," it made me think that perhaps a 64 bit AMD solution may be a good idea.
So here I am with my questions.
CPU:
Exactly how much performance boost do you get when you shell out the money for a 64 bit processor? When will we be expecting 64 bit applications to make it worth purchasing a 64 bit processor? What difference is there between the P4 processors and the newer Intel processors that use names seemingly unrelated to clock speed? What is the difference between an Athlon64, an FX processor, and an Opteron? What's the difference between socket 478 and socket lga775? What is the difference between socket 754, socket 939, and socket 940?
motherboard and stuff:
Aside from clock speed, what's the difference between pc3200 and DDR2 pc4000? What processors require the DDR2 stuff? Are pc3200 and pc4000 interchangeable? What about PCI Express? I currently have a gf4ti4200 that will work wonderfully but if I purhcase a motherboard with pci express instead of AGP, will I need to purchase a PCI express video card?
And most importantly, what do you all recommend for a system that will be doing Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and some games? This last system worked wonderfully for a good 4 years before needing an upgrade. I would like to purchase a system that doesn't wind up being outdated simply because someone decided to phase out socket939 and only offer socket940 processors. Keep in mind that we are not rich here. So a dual Opteron model 850 with 4 gigs of ram and dual pci express x800xt video cards is most certainly not an option. Neither is anything else exceeding the area of about $1000 for that matter.
