Has the 64 Bit Age Begun?

[sleepypost]

Apple made the first move with the G5 but I think that like all Apple machines, it will appeal to a very odd demographic. I myself am hoping that Athlon 64s are builder friendly and run cool. I also hope that they run 32 bit apps smoother than any P4 or Athlon XP could ever dream of. Not only this, but I hope that with the 64 bit age, we will see such big performance gains that one won't be forced to upgrade any time soon.

I was thinking of when I wanted to upgrade next and realized that all of this 3.0 ghz and OCing and stuff is all good and everything but when the 64 bit days start to roll in like hell on wheels will it even matter any more to me? The answer is no. Probably not, because the 64 bit processors are hopefully going to rock more than grandma's cookin'!

The Opteron is for sale, right? I still haven't read any reviews as to how it is performing or what boards will support it. I hope AMD can make the prices reasonable soon because I would love to begin saving up for another build, this time packing heat.

But still, I am growing very impatient. When will people here at PCMech begin posting threads about the Athlon 64 asking for BIOS help and such. That day can't get here soon enough! Well, maybe this can be called the first official 64 bit thread because I am not only talking about the Athlon 64, but the whole 64 bit age as well.

If anyone has interesting links or input, please feel free to share it!

[pam123]

Read this : http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/32194.html

[TwoRails]

Good post, sleepypost. I'm in the same frame of mind right now.

[sleepypost]

pam123, thanks for the info. I've noticed that nomenclature is a big part of Chip marketing! I swung by AMDs site today and read a whole bit on the naming of just the Athlon 64 part. Looks like Athlon 64 FX will be soooo confusing with the new Athlon FX coming out. I am guessing that the Athlon 64 FX is a low cache Athlon 64.

But what the heck? Aren't 64 bit processors going to be so fast that cache won't even be that big of a factor?

[pam123]

I've got no real info, and that's the problem.

[Garou]

Any word on when Will AMD release the 64 bit CPU's?

[Spyda]

so far none of the 64bit stuff has impressed me in the slightest

The only improvements ive seen is opening adobe photoshop quicker, quick get a 64bit CPU

[sleepypost]

Spyda, where'd you get that info?

Apple released a few benchmarks that showed about a %50 increase over the top P4. That's pretty big to me.

Garou, the Athlon 64 is set to release on September 23. Probably at about 600 bucks though...

[Fuze]

How do apples only appeal to "a very odd demographic" and what would that demographic be? Personally, I think many more people would be using those computers if there weren't people bashing them for no reason and swaying other peoples oppinions. And if someone says "they're expensive" I don't think that's an issue because people around here build like 2 computers a year which is expensive in itself.......

[sleepypost]

This cannot turn into an Apple debate thread. This is the 64 bit Age Thread! But I'll answer those questions to hopefully put out the fire.

1. Odd demographic meaning teachers, artists (i am one), Windows illiterate people, non-PC lovers, big spenders and other really random categories of people. I am not saying that THEY are odd, I think that most people would agree that the demographic as a whole is odd.

2. They are expensive. A G5 STARTS at 1,999, with upgrades and monitor it would bring the cost to near 3,000 dollars. I am going by price per machine. Not by wild assumptions of how many computers a person buys each year.

3. Apples are good starting computers. I and many others started with Apples and loved them. I miss those days. The fact is though, they can't compare to the fun of a PC and the PC culture.

[Fuze]

Yea, I'll agree with you on some of those points there and yea I'll keep it to the topic. I was just curious where you were comin from that's all . However, I don't like how powerful microsoft is getting although I applaud their corporate domination. Anyways...

Back to topic
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[Garou]

Originally posted by sleepypost Garou, the Athlon 64 is set to release on September 23. Probably at about 600 bucks though...

Man that CPU better be able to cook me up a good stake dinner for that kind of money.

[Cricket]

Actually, the 64 bit computing age started long ago. There have been 64 bit processors running UNIX based systems for years.

But the 64 bit desktop computing age is just beginning .

Cricket

[Fuze]

Originally posted by Garou Man that CPU better be able to cook me up a good stake dinner for that kind of money.

Wouldn't a 'stake' dinner hurt when you swallowed?

[sleepypost]

Originally posted by Cricket Actually, the 64 bit computing age started long ago. There have been 64 bit processors running UNIX based systems for years. Cricket

Why does UNIX always get the goodies first? Isn't it true that Apple has been using SCSI drives for a long time?

Also, server CPUs don't count!

[Cricket]

Originally posted by sleepypost Isn't it true that Apple has been using SCSI drives for a long time?

Yes, Apple used SCSI in almost all their earlier computers, but not anymore. The later Macs use IDE hard drives.

Also, Apple was using IEEE1394 (FireWire) for several years before it started to show up in PC's. I think Apple came up with the IEEE1394 interface and may have had something to do with the development of SCSI.

Cricket

[sleepypost]

Looks like they've gone the PC way lately. Dump component performance for CPU performance. Oh well, they claim the 64 bit G5 does what it is supposed to.