Which CPU
 

i have no idea which CPU to get. within my budget i could get a P4 3GHz or AMD Athlon64 3200

i pretty much do everything. encoding, games, office apps. I also want to make a home theatre PC out of it. i'll also be getting a HDTV tuner card. and lastly i use MATLAB a lot, so simply i need it to do mathematical calculations quickly.

another thing, i'd prolly won't upgrade for prolly another 4-5 yrs. which will still be better suited for futre applications 5 years later?

It's not for nothing that AMD is cheaper... let's say they tend to melt more easely

I voted for AMD.. cheaper, good performance and my XP1700+, with a couple extra vents it never melted in the past years :D

yea i know the future question was hard to answer coz computers move so quickly. but i had to ask coz i'm not a real expert

well if i was going to get AMD, the motherboard i was going to get was ASUS K8V SE Deluxe. the reviews said it was good compared to Gigabyte.

http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf this shop only has the two brands and this place is really really really cheap

furthermore, 1024MB Ram from Samsung and seagate 200gb SATA

AMD - as TT said its cheaper and good performance. If you compare a P4 of the same value, AMD will almost always be better, especially for games and graphic orientated stuff. Thats the reason i bought mine, a XP1500+ and had it for a few years, never let me down so far, no problems with over heating at all.

Get the AMD 64

Pal AMD is the way to go....me use an AMD Athlon XP 2600 its damn cool. Pentiums of the same specs r much too expensive n also do not perform as well as an equivalent AMD.....also as frm what i have readand seen, AMDs are more comaptible with any kind of motherboards than Pentiums.
Buy an AMD 64....the latest 1

I have always had intel, and Ive never had anything go wrong with it..the only reason I would say Intel over the AMD is because I have read that the Intel is much better with mulit-tasking because of H/T technology

Definitely the AMD, they rock in ScienceMark! For number crunching, AMD is much better than P4. The only reason to go with P4 is if you're a hardcore gamer with unlimited budget ;)

Personally, I prefer to split the budget into 2 and just buy 2 "new" PCs during the 4-5yrs period. That way you get 2 relatively fast PCs for the same amount of money. Not to mention you get a spare one for some other use (like HTPC).

Yup true, the P4 is (was) the better Processor by miles for Video encoding but with the release of the new AMD 64 chip it's equals now.

hmm...Go with AMD. I have a 2400+ and a 2800+ super fast and hasnt given me any problems what so ever. Also, I tested my AMD XP 2400+ which is 1.99 ghz btw way...it totally out performs my dads Intel 2.66 ghz. hmm...AMD 64 bit processors I dont recommend yet due to that fact that its not capable which much things right now. But since you said you dont wanna upgrade for another 4-5 years. You could get it since by that time 64 bit would pretty much be out and about.

AmD , simply cuz they are more value for money , they are even faster than the Intel and cost less

n00b :roll:



stracing I can tell you after having 2 very similar systems (a64 3200+ and p4 3.2 northwood) that the amd will give the p4 a spanking in almost everything you can throw at it, and as thamar says if you go that route be sure to get nf3 motherboard not the via shit ;)

Enough said so far. AMD owns. I dont think I will ever go intel...other than for a lap top.

thanx guys
ok i'll go with the AMD :)

so from this pricelist http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf which MB shall i get?

don't want to spend more than $200. this place is the cheapest in sydney and i don't want to go anywhere else