New system: Socket 478 vs AMD64?

[Salguod Trebla]

Hello everyone, long time reader, first time poster.

I've been running a decently fast and quiet system for a while, an Athlon XP 2500+ @ 3200+on the Nforce 2 platform, but I've been wanting to upgrade to a system wtih a bit more muscle for game playing and some casual video editing. I'm basically going to be building a whole new system, and since I'm doing that I'd like it to be quiet, efficient, and be relatively conducive for upgrades.

In my possession are a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard and an engineering sample Pentium 4 3.06GHz w/HT @533FSB. The chip should overclock pretty well, with people hitting 3.6 easily with the engineering samples. My system doesn't need to be silent (I have a HEPA filter running for my allergies that overshadows all other noise for the most part), but my problems with using this setup arise from heat dissipation problems, and the use of a platform that I think is less flexible than the alternatives.

Despite the unique nature of the CPU, I think I might be able to sell the CPU & board combo to a friend for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-500, which I'd prefer to use towards getting an AMD64 system, as recommendations seem to point towards that being a better platform for quiet performance.

My question is that, other things being equal, which route would provide me with a better system path overall? I've come to this community for help, since in my experience, it's one of the most informative and knowledgeable ones around.

Thanks in advance.

[~El~Jefe~]

seems is not the word. it has been 3 years since intel has bested AMD for power usage to performance ratio. That was tualatin, short lived at that.

a simple Venice E6 stepping 2.0ghz chip is a great option. this is the 3200 Rev E core with e6 as the latest revision date. I actually do not know if you can get e6 right now. it really has almost no difference so i wouldnt sweat it. just I thought id tell you the newest version. anything Revision E is great though.

you can get a board and chip for ultra cheap.

190 dollars you the boxed version. 160 dollars the OEM version (which are being cut out by amd because amd doesnt want their chips to crap out on its customers)

a board, well I have a great suggestion:
Asrock dualsata2 939 board, it has a uli 1695 (the newest most versatile chipset). It has a split northbridge and southbridge, making it run cool and passive instead of lumping it all together in one unstable furnace known as nforce 4 by invidia. Yes, many may get on me for this, but I assure you it is only because they have bought the nforce4....

you wont ever use dual video cards. so dont bother with SLI setups. it will just limit your pci slots anyways. always 1 new card beats out a 2nd matching old one in terms of price and performance (and reality), and of course, heat output as well.

dont get the 1.8ghz bottom speed 3000 Revision E (venice is the series by the way). It CAN be overclocked higher, but the 2.0ghz starting point ensures a more stable platform.

The uli board can overclock well without raising voltage. It has minimal headroom for voltage increase, but it doesnt need. it's an odd board in that respect. it also takes both agp and pci-e at full speed. only board made that does that. has Sata-II on board, etc.

just needs a firewire port. For me, I like to get 1394b, the 800 speed version anyways, and that is only standard on a Gigabyte board.

If you want a feature rich board, I suggest you look at nforce 4 and Gigabyte. I know it goes against what I said about nforce4, but really, gigabyte doesnt use the new Uli chipset, so thats not an option.

that asrock board is 1/2 the cost of the gigabyte. it is 75 dollars at most.

so for 230 dollars you can get a new computer system.

OH and about dual-core, if you go this get the base one, the 3800, and put it on that board. One of the only boards out that is already configured for dual core. (gigabyte, abit, asus and epox all said that they do not recommend buying dualcore without flashing to modern bios).

IF you want cheapest overclockable and voltage increasing board, I would go Epox. It is less pretty in features of a Gigabyte, but it keeps pace with boards that are double its price, namely the DFI lanparty (waste of money in my opinion for almost anyone's uses)

I still woud go the Uli/asrock board. it just is easy to upgrade and cheap and neat.

[wainwra]

OH and about dual-core, if you go this get the base one, the 3800, and put it on that board. One of the only boards out that is already configured for dual core. (gigabyte, abit, asus and epox all said that they do not recommend buying dualcore without flashing to modern bios).

This is a concern for me - I am planning to buy an ASUS A8N SLI Premium and an X2 3800+... I'm not upgrading, this is a new system (and I don't own any other 939 format chips).

Does anyone here have any direct experience? My question is whether putting an X2 in this ASUS board will allow me to get as far as flashing the BIOS.

[mg1394]

wainwra, you will be just fine. You should to to the ASUS site and read the changelog for the BIOS, but the differences between 1006 (on most boards this year) and the newly realeased 1009 are minor, and mostly have to do with control functions related to Win XP64, and some stuff with the Sil raid chip.

[~El~Jefe~]

OH and about dual-core, if you go this get the base one, the 3800, and put it on that board. One of the only boards out that is already configured for dual core. (gigabyte, abit, asus and epox all said that they do not recommend buying dualcore without flashing to modern bios).

This is a concern for me - I am planning to buy an ASUS A8N SLI Premium and an X2 3800+... I'm not upgrading, this is a new system (and I don't own any other 939 format chips).

Does anyone here have any direct experience? My question is whether putting an X2 in this ASUS board will allow me to get as far as flashing the BIOS.

if the x2 bios isnt installed, it has a 50 :50 shot. according to asus!

i would call asus about this concern first on monday.