upgrade my system / comparison P4 vs Athlon

[Guest]

Hello friends, I just wondering if it will increase my FPS, actually I have an P4 1.8GHZ, Board Intel, 256MB, Geforce3 128mb and WinXP, my FS2002 run very well, but I need more with no cost, so Im changing to Athlon XP2000+ and 512MB, without changing the video card, HD and operational system. I heard and read, that athlon processor is faster than pentium, off course considering the same level (e.g P4 1.5GHZ and Athlon XP1500 1,33GHZ. Bruno

[Guest]

If you think this "my FS2002 run very well", then why bother with the upgrade?

[Guest]

Stay with the chip for now and get better ram If you want to go with Amd then its a great chip intels are great too just read some reviews online, one thing about amd it has a good price i would go with amd but then again i have one myself hehe.Best Ram !! http://www.corsairmicro.com/

[Guest SD Sim]

"I have an P4 1.8GHZ, Board Intel, 256MB, Geforce3 128mb and WinXP, my FS2002 run very well, but I need more with no cost, so Im changing to Athlon XP2000+ and 512MB, without changing the video card, HD and operational system."I'm going to assume that your P4 CPU is the earlier 400 MHz FSB with 256K L2 cache (newer "B" Northwoods are 533 FSB/512K L2 cache). Strictly speaking, upgrading to the XP2000+ will only give you an increase in the FSB (they run at 266, which is the same as the quad pump 533 for the P4), and the equivalent of 200 MHz of additional CPU power. All of that at the cost of a new mainboard, since you will need to switch to socket A. This hardly seems worth it to me. I would think that you would be better off upgrading to a faster P4. For $180 you can get yourself into a P4 2.4 GHz Northwood - not much more than it will cost for a new XP2000+ ($70) and mainboard (~$80 at the cheapest)."I heard and read, that athlon processor is faster than pentium, off course considering the same level (e.g P4 1.5GHZ and Athlon XP1500 1,33GHZ."Yes - because of the internal architecture of the CPU, an AMD running at 1.33 GHz can compete favorably with a 1.5 GHz P4 (hence the name XP1500). But don't forget that the AMDs won't switch to a 512K L2 cache until the Barton series is released (which should be any day now). The current AMDs do however have a faster FSB, running at 166 as opposed to 133 for Intel. I was a big fan of AMD processors, but I switched to Intel because the AMD CPUs simply run too hot, even with good cooling solutions. In most places this is not a big problem, but in sunny and warm San Diego, I had a lot of heat related crashes during the summer months. Now with all Intel P4s installed, things are much cooler (and a whole lot quieter). Running two computers with Thermaltake Volcano fans spinning at 6K rpm made my office sound like I was "actually" flying a jet. Just food for thought if you don't like a lot of noise.

[Guest]

Good choice on the processor and RAM. P4's seem to be mostly for office type applications, such as searching the web, etc. Athlons are do better in gaming situations as indicated by various benchmarks. 512MB of RAM is plenty for most computers.When upgrading or changing processors, it is also important to consider what motherboard one should get. I recomend getting one with an nVida nForce2 chipset without integrated graphics. If one without integrated graphics cannot be found, there is always the option of turning it off through the BIOS.And remember, the Athlon die is small and fragile, so be careful when installing that heatsink.-JD Power

[Guest teetee]

Ram RAm, RAm...i have a first hand experience now. new machine, asus 7v8x, amd1800xp[1.53] 266fsb, winxp[home]19