$300 price point. i want a P4!

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bjork

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i'm currently running an XP2500+ Barton on an A7N8X Deluxe with 512 of Corsair XMS3500 DDR. i'd really like to migrate the RAM to the new box and save a bit on the lump sum of getting the box up and running.

when HL2 was announced, i knew i wanted to get on the P4 bandwagon, but i've waited this long, knowing prices were only going to drop.

I think i'm ready now, though... i'm thinking of going with a 2.6 or 2.8 (800 fsb)... which motherboard is the current champ for ~$150?

back when HL was announced, it was a toss up between the Abit IC7 and the IS7... i've haven't stayed on top of mobo's since then, and OCP doesn't have a way to sort reviews based on scores... anybody willing to help me out?

just throw out some good model numbers, and i'll do the footwork...

thanks...
 
I'm really confused. Why do you want to spend $400 to go from an Athlon XP 2500+ to a Pentium 4 2.6 or 2.8?

With $400, I'd buy a $150 Athlon 64 motherboard, and an Athlon 64 3000+ ...

... oh wait I did!
 
okaaayy... so how do you like it?

does it blow P4s out of the water? i'm not really going to be doing any 256-bit encryption or whatever athlon 64s are good for... i mean, i'd have to get 64 bit XP at that point, right? and a bunch of new ram, and then i'm paying full price for brand new stuff.

the reason i waited on getting a P4 was to wait for prices to drop... how far have 64s dropped?

(plus, i just looked on pricewatch... athlon 64 motherboards = $190... with chips being $211... +RAM + windowsXP64... and my thread has the number "300" in the title...?:confused: )
 
Originally posted by bjork
okaaayy... so how do you like it?

does it blow P4s out of the water? i'm not really going to be doing any 256-bit encryption or whatever athlon 64s are good for... i mean, i'd have to get 64 bit XP at that point, right? and a bunch of new ram, and then i'm paying full price for brand new stuff.

the reason i waited on getting a P4 was to wait for prices to drop... how far have 64s dropped?

(plus, i just looked on pricewatch... athlon 64 motherboards = $190... with chips being $211... +RAM + windowsXP64... and my thread has the number "300" in the title...?:confused: )
Click to expand...


you wuldnt need to get new ram, and if u had winXP already the 64bit version will just be a patch. the A64 will also run 32bit code so its fully backwards compatible.
 
Originally posted by xxaaqq
I'm really confused. Why do you want to spend $400 to go from an Athlon XP 2500+ to a Pentium 4 2.6 or 2.8?

With $400, I'd buy a $150 Athlon 64 motherboard, and an Athlon 64 3000+ ...

... oh wait I did!
Click to expand...

I agree ... I don't believe the difference between a 2500+ and P4 2.6 is worth $300.00:eek: . maybe if you're building a system from scratch and upgrading from a 1 GHZ ... but a 2500+ should be faast enough for what ever you're doing ...
 
Bjork, my board was $167 shipped, and it is pretty damn full featured (IDE RAID, SATA RAID, Firewire 400/800, Dual BIOS, DPS, 6 channel onboard sound, Dual Lan (10/100/1000), etc). The Athlon 64 3000+ is around $210-240. There are Athlon 64 boards cheaper than mine. You just need PC3200 DDR... PC3500 would work fine. I'm using Windows XP. If you read any reviews of the Athlon 64, you'll see that the popular review sites do their tests using ordinary 32-bit Windows XP and ordinary 32-bit programs and games. Generally, the higher clocked Pentium 4 3.2Ghz is faster for media encoding, while the Athlon 64 leads in gaming... Half Life anyone?
 
I agree that the difference between a 2500+ and a 2.6C isn't enough to justify spending that much money. Your 2500+ should last you at least another 6 months, maybe until the end of the year.

I would wait until you can get a more signifcant upgrade for your money.
 
THe athlon 64 owns all imo, i would get that if you must upgrade, but u have a really good machine as it is.
 
athlon64's are great chips....now we just need some great boards to run them

I'd recommend keeping your $300 for a smidge longer ...non ecc dual channel athlon64 mobos are right around the corner as well as prescott intels ...introduction of these will get you even more for your hard earned dollar ....then you can make a little more of a justifiable upgrade in that price range than you can now
 
they both have advantages and disadvantages. seeing them is being a good consumer. but what would make you better is wait. unless you would really like to improve what you do and play now.

remember it is rumored of a price drop from intel this february. amd may follow with or not. that can make a big change in the effect of your budget for the new system
 
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