Putting my new PC together tonight

[jwfgeol]

I build a new computer about every three years. I try to be as cost efficient as possible while still being able to get good performance (read: not top of the line). These are the specs for my newest machine.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ $74
Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 $115
OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 RAM $58
Biostar NF520-A2 Motherboard $49
Hitachi 400GB Serial ATA HD $90

Total cost not including tax and shipping: $386

I also am getting $45 back in rebates which more than covers the cost of tax and shipping. Maybe I won't be able to play Crysis at full rez, but it's a step up from my 2200+ with 1GB of RAM. After I pay this off, I'm hoping to buy the LG combo blu-ray/HD-DVD drive. Until then I've got my old DVD-RW drive to tide me over.

 

[mkatts]

I have always been a diehard Intel fan. Mainly because I know the way they work.
Besides price, in you opinion, what are the advantages and disadvatages of going with AMD. I have been kicking around the idea of using an AMD next time I build, but have been a bit imtimidated, worrying how linux and windblows would deal with an AMD vs an Intel. I have a wife to contend with for Windows.

 

[JAG72]

I have always been a diehard Intel fan. Mainly because I know the way they work.
Besides price, in you opinion, what are the advantages and disadvatages of going with AMD. I have been kicking around the idea of using an AMD next time I build, but have been a bit imtimidated, worrying how linux and windblows would deal with an AMD vs an Intel. I have a wife to contend with for Windows.

The main advantage of AMD is their direct memory access. The memory controller is within the CPU compared to Intel's being a separate chip. Now Intel has the benefit of more CPU cache.

 

[jwfgeol]

I started building rigs with AMD about three or four years ago. At the time, some benchmarks had Athlons outperforming P4s, and with the added savings, I went ahead and jumped in. I also was able to get a mobile athlon with an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

Intel definitely seems to have retaken the lead with the Core 2 Duo, but if you look at the price of the E6300 on newegg right now, it's sitting at $175, that's $100 more than I paid for the 4200+. Staying with AMD seemed like a cost-effective way to get into the dual core market (plus it was a 65nm manufacturing tech). For my needs, the cost savings were enough to justify the purchase.

 

[mkatts]

Thanks for the info.
Have you ever used an AMD for video capture and video rendering?

 

[jwfgeol]

Thanks for the info.
Have you ever used an AMD for video capture and video rendering?

I used my old rig with a kworld tv tuner and BeyondTV software without any problems, but nothing more intensive than that. There is a great tool at Tom's Hardware that compares a ton of CPUs using all kinds of benchmarks that you may want to check out. Link below.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html

 

[JAG72]

Thanks for the info.
Have you ever used an AMD for video capture and video rendering?

Yes. I have an X2 3800+ and it does just fine on capturing and rendering. I know that if I upgrade I might get a few seconds faster on the rendering but my AMD works just fine.

 

[mkatts]

good info, thanks!
congrats on the new rig by the way.

 

[jwfgeol]

good info, thanks!
congrats on the new rig by the way.

Thanks
It kind of feels like Christmas all over again.

 

[Hall]

I have been kicking around the idea of using an AMD next time I build, but have been a bit imtimidated, worrying how linux and windblows would deal with an AMD vs an Intel. I have a wife to contend with for Windows.

I haven't heard of any CPU-compatibility issue with non-Intel CPUs in over 10 years and even back then, it was questionable if the CPU was to blame or not.

FWIW, AMD CPUs are "approved" by Microsoft. Also, I think ALL of the major vendors, i.e. Dell, Gateway, HP, and so on, have AMD machines. Linux will be no trouble on an AMD either. I believe my 1st experience with Linux was RedHat 5.0 on an AMD 486DX-100 machine !!!

 

[mkatts]

Yea, I always figured it would be fine. Old habits die hard, ya know? I think it is more so me being intimidated and going outside my comfort zone.

 

[jwfgeol]

Do you ever just feel like an idiot? After a week or so of waiting to get everything to finally put the rig together (I had to order a new PSU), I tried for two days to get Windows to install. Every time it would run the setup, then when the computer would restart to finish the installation, I would either get the bsod or the comp would completely shutdown. I ended up slipstreaming SP2 (to read the 400gig hard drive) as well as the video card drivers (sometimes the bsod would read a video card failure) but still the comp would shutdown during install. I finally decided heat must be an issue and took the heatsink off the cpu to add some arctic silver. When I removed the heatsink, I realized I had left the plastic cover on the bottom of the fan So, after two days of trying, I removed the plastic, and everything has been running perfectly since. I felt like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy ("IDIOT"!!!)

 

[mike123abc]

Well at least AMD has fixed their thermal issues... A couple of years back the CPU would have caught fire. With thermal safegaurds in place at least you can make mistakes and not fry your system.

 

[jwfgeol]

Well at least AMD has fixed their thermal issues... A couple of years back the CPU would have caught fire. With thermal safegaurds in place at least you can make mistakes and not fry your system.

Amen to that. I'm glad I didn't do anymore damage.