I'm thinking of upgrading my Pentium III 450, motherboard and RAM. I'm not the biggest computer freak and would like to hear any of your suggestions.

I'm thinking of either going Pentium 4 or AMD. I've heard good things about both but I hear the AMD is clocked a bit faster than the Pentium and quite a bit cheaper. I use my home PC for general use (internet, spreadsheets, photoshop, etc.) It seems like I can get a decent motherboard, cpu, and 256 megs of RAM for roughly around $400 or less.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Brandon

 

I haven't owned an Intel CPU since my 286, so that should tell you where I stand on the issue. The Athlon is a great processor and cheaper than the Intel equivalent. Don't know where you're planning on purchasing the stuff from but in case you're not aware make sure you check out the computer fairs in the LA area. Take a look at

http://www.lacomputerfair.com/

Where you're at the Pomona show, which is the largest, shouldn't be too far.

 

I would prefer AMD.

 

AMD = Gaming
Pentium = Office Applications

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cloudnine
[B]AMD = Gaming
Pentium = Office Applications

 

I'm an AMD guy myself. But like OS's, its a matter of personal taste.

I do alot of video processing and the AMD's work beautifully.

You can compare prices for entire kits (MB, CPU and RAM) here:
http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/DEPTBUNCPU.H...=DEPTBUNCPU.HMX?

I've purchased 4 motherboard/CPU bundles from these guys. I recommend them highly


Also, checkout http://www.tomshardware.com for CPU and motherboard reviews.

 

Wow! Thanks so much guys.

Looks like I'll be going AMD.

I appreciate all the help. Your comments have been very helpful.

Brandon

 

Yes, AMD is the better choice. You can make the P4 perform better by using RDRAM at the full 400Mhz FSB rate but that's huge money. Most P4 systems are still running 133Mhz and using SDRAM. I recommend an AMD with lots of DDR SDRAM. Make sure your new board supports DDR (double data rate) SDRAM. My AMD 1Ghz screams even today. Also I would recommend getting a board with built in RAID. They usually come that way now. I have the highpoint IDE ATA100 RAID chip and run 2 40GB IBM drives in a mirror. It's wicked fast and safe because you are mirroring your data. I recommend IBM DeskStar drives, the 7500RPM ATA100 (75GXP I think). They are incredably fast.

Also, compatablity is a non-issue. Windows is designed to work with both chips and works the same on both.

 

AMD Athalon XP is cheaper and faster for most tasks than the Pentium 4. It's not quite as advanced when it comes to thermal management, however. Be very, very careful about installing your heatsink/fan on the CPU. Get some good quality thermal paste like Arctic Silver and make sure everything is seated properly.

I'm extremely pleased with my Athalon XP 1900+. It's even faster than a 2.2GHz P4 on some benchmarks. Just an XP 1600+ would be a tremendous improvement over your PIII 450, and the cost would be miniscule. The CPU should be only $115 or so.

 

Love my AMD 1900+, Soyo SY-K7V Dragon plus motherboard, 512K RAM, Raedon 8500 setup. Screams for games, photoshop, etc.
Dragon + motherboard comes with an extra two USB ports to install in an open drive bay in the front of the machine. It also has on board Dolby 5.1 audio with optical digital in/out. I installed a DVDROM so I can watch movies while I'm working in an application.

Try this site for the best pricing.

http://www.pricewatch.com/