2 Mock Builds, AMD & Intel

[Pooh Bear]

AMD build vs. Intel build in total system design.

This isn’t a thread for flame wars, rather it’s a thread to help me figure out which way I’m going to go with my computer. The problem first came up when I started MOCKING up my computer. So rather then just decided then and there on what would be my Processor of choice I chose to MOCK up two different computers. One with an AMD processor and the other with an INTEL.

The goal of this is to build a budget PC just under 1000 USD. The PC needs to Perform outstanding, able to RUN doom3, Halo2, CS:source/HL2 nearly flawlessly, Highly upgradeable for the future, and ’very’ able systems for Over clocking .

The main focus on this build is the Video card and the performance I’m able to get out of it. Another thing that I tried to work around was the time frame. Neither of the two systems will be purchased in till as early as December 10th but no later then Christmas day. With this extended time period in between the prices now and the prices than it is reasonable to assume that because of the SPEEDY computer market that the prices of both computers will fall. But which will fall quicker?

First System:

AMD build for Project Tinker

Processor - AMD Athlon 64, 3000+ 939 socket

I chose this processor over the 3500+ for a couple of good reasons. (1) 3000 and 3500 are both 2.2ghz. (2) 3000 Is able to overclock 50% so about a FX-55 (2.6ghz) (3) 3000 OEM costs 80 USD less then 3500 OEM.

Heat Sink - Thermalright XP-90

Heat Sink Fan - Vantec "Tornado" Cooling Fan. 92x92x38mm

AKA big Bawls! *Toolman Grunt*

Mobo - ASUS A8V Deluxe

Video Card - eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB GDDR, 256-bit

Memory - Corsair (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200

Hard Drive - 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive

IDE Cables x2 - UNINCOM ROUND, 12-Inch, True ATA133/100/66/33

Case - Aspire X-Dreamer II

Controller - Vantec Nexus Fan controller Panel

PSU Replacement - Thermaltake Silent PurePower, 420W

Fans01 x2 - Vantec "Tornado" 80mm

Fans02 x2 - CoolerMaster Blue 80mm Neon LED Fan

AMD: Project Tinker
Total Cost - 1068.54 USD (Shipping not Included)
Estimated to fall below 1000 USD budget by December.

Second System:

INTEL Build for Project Tinker

Processor - Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 3.0Ghz


Mobo - GIGABYTE "GA-8I915P Duo-A"

Video Card - [http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...actory=BROWSE] eVGA Nvidia GeForce 6800 Video Card[/URL]

Memory - Corsair (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200

Hard Drive - 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive

IDE Cables x2 - UNINCOM ROUND, 12-Inch, True ATA133/100/66/33

CASE - A-Top Xblade Blue/Silver

Fan Controller - Super Flower Fan Master

PSU Replacement - Thermaltake Silent PurePower, 420W ATX

Fans x2 - Thermaltake Thunderblade 120 (Blue) LED fans

Fans x1 - ZALMAN 80mm Slim Fan/Fan Grill

Gender Changer - 3 pin Gender Changer
(So the 4pin 120mm Fans can plug into the 3pin Fan Controller)

INTEL: Project Tinker
Total Cost - 967.70 USD (Shipping not Included)
Already under Budget.

So there you have it! Two ‘Decked’ out systems in my opinion. They share a few of the same parts, but only because of the great deals offered on them.

I chose to stick with the 9800 rather then move up to the GT or even Ultra. Further inspection into the system showed that there wasn’t much of a different in FPS between the GT and 6800. In Doom 3 set to High Quality settings and with all other features activated (except FSAA), while 8x anisotropic filtering is activated by default in this setting. ( Graphs ) It’s clear that there is only a 3-4 FPS difference between Ultra, GT and 6800. I didn’t feel that spending an extra 100+ USD was worth that 3-4 FPS.

I felt most comfortable with the Thermaltake Thunderblade PSU system. It offers a nice amount of power and is known to be a very ‘reliable’ and ‘good’ product. I understand this is one of the most important parts of the computer and is capable of wiping out the whole system in one clean ’bitch-slap’. So I did my best to find a suitable PSU unit for both setups. I have faith that this one will serve me well.

Memory is just Good memory at a bargain price for 1gig of 2x512mb sticks. It was recommend to my numerous amounts of times and seems to have a large amount of good reviews.

Budget wise both systems don’t phase me one bit. From where I am standing I would love to have either of the systems, but I can’t have both. I need just one. That’s where you all come in. Please provide your input on the two systems. Do you think they fit the ‘criteria’ for what I wanted out of them very well? Which of the two systems is overall the best system. In the simplest words possible, “Who’s the bitch and Who’s the daddy.” Well Maybe not that extreme….

So what are you thoughts? System 1 or System 2?

Once again, lets not have a flaming thread please.


Thanks for All the help you guys! From designing, teaching, and warning me about nurmous things. I'm better off having come here and 'asked' then I would be trying to figure it all out on my own. PLUS I learned... which is rare. So Thanks.
Pooh Bear!


*EDITTED* THanks for pointing out the link PROBLEM with the AMD processor. I had decided to switch form 3500 to 3000 well writing this and must have forgotten to put the new links in!

[Freefall]

So, on the AMD build....are you going with the 3000+ or 3500+? In your description you make it sound as if you're going with the 3000, but you linked to 3500?

[ric449]

TheAthlon 64 build would be the better build. This is because of two reasons that stand out to me:

1) The Athlon 64's perform better than the P4's in games, simple fact.

2) As far as I know, The G.E.A.R slot on the P4 motherboard sucks. It looks like an AGP port, but it is in fact tied to the PCI bus (at least thats what I heard). This means you can use an AGP card, but it will only have the bandwidth of the PCI bus. Bad move.

3) The GEAR slot also reduces your AGP cards life:

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewstory.php?t=37532

[roomwithamoose]

In my opinion, if you're looking for gaming, and Athlon 64 is the only way to go. That's a pretty durn good AMD setup, so I think that's the best.

[fedz]

Hold on, this is a 3000+ guys. I'd go Intel in that case.
Get a 6600GT, it pretty much rivals a 6800 (and beats it in some cases)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2196&p=3

(6800 vs 6600GT)
Aquamark3 1024*768: 54.5 vs 54.4
Doom3 1024*768 (no AA): 80.1 vs 79.0
Doom3 1024*768 (4x AA): 52.0 vs 41.9
Farcry 1600*1200 (no AA): 59.3 vs 39.2
Farcry 1600*1200 (4x AA): 17.8 vs 22.4
Halo 1280*1024 (no AA): 46.8 vs 49.2
Halo 1600*1200 (no AA): 35.1 vs 35.7
UT 2K4 1600*1200 (no AA): 47.5 vs 42.8
UT 2K4 1600*1200 (4x AA): 19.4 vs 22.6


fedz

[fedz]

It's funny, the 6600GT does better with the eye candy turned on, even with the 128bit memory. Maybe it's because it has GDDR3, not DDR like the 6800.

fedz

[Uber_Gamer]

Well it's not a fair comparison because you have $100 more dollars allocated to the AMD build.

[timbit]

both builds are decent, both will perform well. having said that, i recommend the amd for several reasons.

the sckt 939 3000+ is 90 nano. it runs cooler than the rest of the a64 procs, and uses less power. therefore, it also runs much cooler and uses much less power than the prescott (intel), especially at load. it is also a great overclocker for these reasons.
the a64's have proven themselves to be far better in games than the existing prescott cpu's over and over. esp in newer games like doom3.

one thing though: since you seem mildly bent on overclocking, there are a couple of things you should know...
(following quotes from an Anandtech article found here)

Originally Posted by Anandtech Based on our experience, we would recommend a quality 500 watt+ power supply if you plan to seriously overclock memory on the Socket 939 platform. The difference in performance is substantial, with higher overclocks possible with the larger quality power supply. For that reason, we have updated the specifications of our A64 memory test bed to the 520W OCZ PowerStream.... As surprising as it will seem to some, that should include the highest quality power supply that you can find at 500 watts or more. We found that replacing a well-respected 465 watt PS with a 520 watt PowerStream allowed even higher memory overclocks. This was true with both the power-hungry nVidia 6800 Ultra as well as the more mainstream ATI 9800 PRO. If top memory overclocks on the Athlon 64 is your goal, don't skimp on the power supply. Putting the best PS that you can find in your system will pay off in higher memory overclocks with greater stability.

also:

Originally Posted by Anandtech All six memories tested here performed very well in our Athlon 64 tests. They all outstripped our expectations when we first set up the Athlon 64 test bed. However, a couple of memories do stand out. The OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev. 2 was fastest at both DDR400 and it also achieved the highest 1T speed that we found in our tests... As we saw in our 2-2-2 roundup, the Crucial Ballistix also stood out for the incredibly fast timings that the Micron-based Ballistix achieved in the DDR433 to DDR533 speed range. The Ballistix was faster through much of the tested range, and the OCZ was best at the top and bottom. This should not take anything away from the excellent and consistent performance of the G. Skill TCCD and Geil 3200 Ultra X. Both exhibited a very wide range of memory speeds and they were both competitive at every speed.

the short form of all of this is that to really oc on the amd platform, you need good ram, and you need a really good psu.... unfortunately, the prices for these parts are probably prohibitive... something to think about though.

EDIT: one last thing (again, lol). i think you said that you were waiting till christmas??? if so, don't buy the mobo or the vid card yet.... and i hate to say this, because "wait! better tech coming!" is a never ending thing. there's always something better coming.... but i think it's worth it in this case. nvidia's nforce4 chipset has been released as of a couple days ago or something, and it includes support for pci-e as well as sli, which would allow you to stick two vid cards in one mobo. so, you could buy a 6600gt now, and when you need to upgrade the graphics, you could buy another 6600gt and make them work together. early tests indicate that this setup would result in about an 85% increase in speed (and for significantly cheaper than buying a new high end vid card). i believe that motherboards with this chipset should be available around christmas-early new year time...

[Uber_Gamer]

Great article... I'd suggest you get the ANTEC 550 W Truepower PSU. Great quality and the highest amperage ratings around.

[kram 2.0]

I'm guessing this is a type of thread soliciting mainly "which do you prefer" more than which do you think is better...I would like to clarify that playing "better" on games is extremely ambiguous..."better" is generally measured in terms of graphics cards where even the precise numbers given by a software that benchmarks their performance is useless. Tests never play games - you do. Benchmarks don't play games...you do.

kram

[ric449]

I'm still recommending the 3000+. Even though it is supposed to compete with the 3GHz P4, it usually overtake, and as everyone says, mostly in games. Its the architecture of the new processors, they are just great. Onboard memory controllers, hypertransport, it all adds up.

As for 90nm, I don't really see what the big deal is. Its debateable that they run cooler. I remember seeing that they match their 130nm counterparts when it comes to heat, but when you start to overclock they are in fact hotter than their equivalent 130nm parts. This might be why AMD have only introduced them at low speeds.

*EDIT* Ubergamer, I'm not a mod, but that sig is too big. Just telling you before a mod does.