Slashdot Mirror
Is it a Good Time to Get an Athlon64?
City_Idiot asks: "I'm looking to upgrade my current P4 2.4Ghz and i'm giving serious thought to a Athlon64 3200+. The tests look good, and it gives a 3Ghz P4 a good run for its money but is the technology ready for end users?"
Yes, it's a good time, as a fool and his money are soon parted. WTF are you doing that a 2.4 GHz machine won't keep up? A little extra info, please? OS, apps, etc.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Wow, you're considering upgrading from your 2.4 P4. I just upgraded TO a 2.4 P4. *sigh*
Anyways, my question is, what do you do that requires THAT much horsepower? If you're web surfing, writing emails and writing letters in Word, then I'd recommend that you not upgrade to anything and that your P4 should be more than adequate. Details are important here. For instance, you want to work on porting XXXXXXX to run natively at 64 bits. Then of course its a good time to upgrade, and it probably makes sense for what you're doing. Or perhaps you want to frag some people when HL2 comes out. Then I'd say "probably not worth it" or ask "What kind of video card do you have?"
We can't give you a recommendation off the top of our head without any details.
Here's a simple analysis to determine if now is the time:
Figure that between now and summer, the price of an Athlon64 system with a given set of specs (RAM, HD, video card, etc.) will go down about US$500.
So, ask yourself this - is $500 over the next six months worth it?
If you are making money with this machine - you are a consultant, or do freelance work that earns money, will the roughly 40% speed improvement make you back that $500 in six months?
If you are a hobbist, will the "fun" of being one of the first people on the block with an Athlon64 be worth $500 over the next six months?
Me, I am looking at the Atlon 2000+ I'm typing this on, with the Radeon 7500, and saying "I'll wait". But that's me.
www.eFax.com are spammers
You think that Intel chips will be running 5 to 7ghz 9 months to a year from now? Look at their roadmaps...
Personally, I'd go with AMD over Intel any day.
Performance/price ratio is almost 2:1 in favor of AMD EXCEPT at the very top of the line where it gets closer (with AMD still winning by a nice margin).
Intel is only better if you have a really fat wallet.
Yeah, I know; websites tend to compared a Athlon 3200+ with a Pentium 4 3.2ghz and conclude that the P4 is better.
But they get the CPUs for free! If you actually compared, say, an Athlon 2800+ from AMD with something SIMILARLY priced from Intel you'll see that AMD is clearly the winner.
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!