I'm looking to buy a new CPU but only from the lower ranges (single core). I'm still not sure about the amd vs intel dilemma, even after some research, but I thought I'd get a P4 531, it's the only thing that fits my budget right now, but it'd still be a considerable improvement from my current setup I think. My question is what amd cpu would equal this (same price/performance) and if it would be a better choice. Maybe the Athlon 64 Venice 3000+/3200+ s939? I'm not sure. With the amds overclocking is almost a must, how is it with the P4 processors? By the way, right now I'm on Socket A basis with a Sempron 2500+, I only want a little boost and to get the 64bit platform, nothing extremely powerful. I know that these days amds are somewhat better, but frankly, all those amd socket types are a pain in the... A year ago I stayed with Socket A because s939 were still a little overpriced and s754 was no better than Socket A with the exception of 64bit, which a year ago could not have been exploited yet. They also didn't have dual channel support, which I'd like to have. Now s939 are affordable but there's already AM2 just to support ddr2. For all these intel only has the 775, which comes in different flavours as well, but for example if I go for the Intel it would be enough to buy a new mobo when I want to go ddr2 instead of a complete overhaul. So this is why I considered Intel as an option, but if amd really performs better for the same price? Does it?
well go with amd socket am2 to be future proof. are u building it for gaming. well ill recommend you a system ebuyer.com - Components » Processors » AMD AM2 Athlon 64 / Sempron (Socket 940) » Product details £73.70 ebuyer.com - Components » Motherboards » Socket AM2 AMD Motherboards » Product details £48.65 ebuyer.com - Components » Power Supplies » Hiper » Product details £47.70 ebuyer.com - Components » Graphics Cards » nVIDIA GeForce 7 Series » Product details £35.90 ebuyer.com - Components » Hard Drives » IDE 20GB - 160GB » Product details £28.65 ebuyer.com - Components » Memory - Desktop » DDR2 MODULES - Upto 512MB » Product details £26.77 TOTAL £261.37 plus case which is your choice
I'm not building a completely new computer, just a CPU/mobo upgrade, and this is exactly the reason why I'd go with Intel; I have DDR now, but I might get DDR2 in the future; for amd that means new cpu/mobo, for intel you can get s775 mobos with support for both. I like to upgrade one step at a time and amd doesn't seem too flexible with all the different socket types. First they went 64bit from Socket A, then a few added features resulted in s939, and now am2 for ddr2 support. A new interface for every new development, I'm not sure if I can or want to keep up with that, but I'd still like to know if amds perform better compared to intel when looking at the same price range.
