to 64bit or not to 64bit. that is the question

J

jester1176

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 26, 2002
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Well, my friend's machine just burned out on him and needed a motherboard and processor replaced. I volunteered mine because i was looking to upgrade anyway. but im really confused as to what is the best bang for the buck right now.

Do I go with a 64bit processor or do i stay with a regular 32 bit. will i need to upgrade my RAM if I upgrade to a 64 bit motherboard?

Right now, my rig reads something like this:

AMD Barton 2500+
2 x Corsair CMX512-3500C2PT
Chaintech 7NIF2 Nforce 2 motherboard
ATI 9800XT Video Card
Soundblaster Audigy 2

Thanks for any tips and or advice.
 
that memory is fine. all you need is atleast DDR400 memory, preferably at low latency.

64bit can bring some healthy performance boosts, if the drivers and software are properly optimized. do you NEED it? course not. but you could still use a 486 and get by. to me, if i had the money, i'd get it in an instant over 32bit chips. but seriously, look at the 32 benchmarks, consider what applications you use, and look at how the P4 compares. I wouldn't purchase an athlon xp now, unless you're on a budget.
 
If you run a mainboard with an Nforce3 chipset (like mine) all you need is PC2100 because memory bus and fsb are independent. Your memory will run great, though. Get the A64. You NEED it! More power!
 
Well, that is the beauty of the a64.. You dont have to buy it just for 64bit. its badass in 32bit. so buy it for the performance. Added bonus is when 64bit comes around, you can migrate to that and get performance boost. Then when its time to upgrade again, you can still use it as a good second box that runs 64bit!

Concidering the performance of the A64 against its competitors and that it offers 64bit, its a hard chip to pass up.
In my opinion.

-Fre0n
 
okay, so, here's what my rig will look like when im all done. im taking the dive and not going back!

2 x Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Boxed Processor

Chaintech ZNF3-150 ZENITH nForce 3 Motherboard

2 x Corsair CMX512-3500C2PT

ATI 9800XT Video Card Built by ATI

Audigy 2 Sound Card



My friend is buying my old motherboard/processor combo and that's paying for my new mobo. The total out of pocket for this upgrade will be only $450 and that's to pay for the processor and the hard drives. Everything else on that list I already own.

I'll have everything in hand on friday and will let you all know how it goes.
 
I know you all are gonna hate me but I say 2.4C to 3Ghz+ is best bang for buck. If money isn't that big a deal get a 64 as they perform great but do cost a little more. Just wish they were somewhat more overclockable.
 
I think your memory could work very well. I have the same kind about a year old and with an athlon 64. I got it about 40mhz higher than my xp 2400+ combo. Now it runs at 240mhz in my athlon 64 3000+.
 
i've never liked overclocking my machine. it's difficult enough to get a machine running stable without throwing overclocking into the mix of things that could be causing problems. therefore, it's worth it for me if it will show me considerable gains in performance (which it seems it will.)

its good to hear that the memory i have will work on this machine, memory's expensive these days and its nice to not have to worry about it.

thanks again all
 
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