Intel or AMD?!? Help Plz!

[Slappi]

I would like some input from you tech intheknows about what to buy. I am building a new system and would like some help on a few things.

First off I have a budget of $800 for a new cpu, MB, and memory.

Now I would like to overclock and I want the latest tech and the fastest tech which will be used for gaming and basic Word, Excel, Photoshop use and with the possiblity of some DVD burning, ripping ....etc.

I don't have any bias towards Intel or AMD so whatever is the best I would go for.

Also I am not in a great hurry but would like to have it finished by the end of the year ... so I can wait for a few things if they will definitely be out before 2003.

You guys seem to know everything about the latest and greatest so I thought I would ask here to get the best and most accurate info.

TIA!!!

 

[Anaxagoras1986]

If your on ANY SORT OF A BUDGET, AMD is the way to go. Even with a large budget, they still usually offer SO much more bang for the buck from what I have seen and expierenced. Although I have heard that the P4s are a bit mor stable. Also, the P4s do run alot cooler than the AMD machines.

 

[Slappi]

A Help Me Bump

Bump

 

[The Coolest]

You gotta give the guys here some more time to reply b4 bumping just like that in less than an hour.
And I'm not sure on what to suggest you do right now, getting AMD will most certainly fit in ur budget and will allow you to get either better RAM, video card or both. I would wait for a bit if I were you. The nForce2 motherboards from EPoX and Abit are supposed to be out in 2-3 weeks and the new Barton w/ 333FSB and 512KB L2 cache supposed to be out by end of the year or the beggining of 2003, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I think it's worth the wait, I'd get an nForce2 motherboard, 2 sticks of GOOD RAM, I don't think that if used in the dual ddr mode anything more than 2 good sticks of PC2700 would be requiered anyway, and either wait for the Barton, or get a cheapo XP1600+ ($52) which will serve as a backup chip, and will last you till you're able to get the Barton.

 

[Slappi]

Is the Barton really coming out that soon? If it is that is good news and the 1600XP would make sense. The NForce2 boards do look sweet ....


thx

 

[Deus]

well, if you were to buy stuff right now, and spend 800 dollars on cpu+ram+mb you could get

for amd:
XP 2700+ $356
EPOX 8k9a2+ $125
512MB Corsair XMS3200 C2 $195
------
$676

for intel:
P4 2.8 $394
Asus P4T533 $171
2x256 Rambus 1066 $208
------
$773

these are both top of the line, absolutely smokin combos, both seeking TOP performance, with no considerations for money, and both still come in under 800 dollars. This sorta illustrates that 800 dollars is a whole lot to spend on just cpu+ram+mb.

On the amd side, you could wait for nforce2, and change to 2x256mb ram, it will be reasonably more expensive, but *might* be worth it. I havent been convinced that Nforce2 is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I also havent been convinced that it wont be.

If you want to start thinking about value, then swap the 2700 for a 2400+, or as was suggested above, get a cheapie xp 1600 (or maybe a 1700 tbred), and wait for barton, which is somewhat of an unknown. To save money on the intel side, switch to either a 2.26, 2.4B, 2.5, or 2.66, depending on how much you want to save, and also switch to a good DDR chipset, maybe Abit BD7II. Like the barton situation with amd, you could also get a 1.8A with intel, and wait for hyperthreading with the 3.06, but that will likely be extremely expensive at first.

For value, amd will certainly win, but intel may edge them out in top performance.

hope this helps.
Deus