AMD vs Pentium (1 Viewer)

Neil Joseph · Oct 23, 2003

I just got an AMD XP2500+ the other day but today I visited a store and decided to ask the guy there which was better and why. He said "The Pentium is better"

no red flag so far but then he proceeded to tell me that the life of an AMD was 1-2 years, after that they die because they run hot. A red flag went up. BTW, I only saw Pentium processor in that store.

So what's the deal here with the AMD. Any truth to his claims? To answer the original question which do you think is better and why?

Rob Gillespie · Oct 23, 2003

They both run hot, but AMD tend to be a bit hotter. As long as you use a good heatsink/fan it'll last ages.

The big difference is price - you wont be able to get a P4 for anywhere near what you paid for the 2500+ and it wont necessarily be any faster.

DeepakJR · Oct 24, 2003

By the looks of the thread title I thought a war was gonna break out, rofl. Benchmarks from Toms' Hardware and minimal personal experience pretty much say go with AMD with a low budget. But P4's do have a slight advantage at higher speeds and when using newer games and or some software(HL2, hint, hint

). If youre not going to be playing HL2 or any other DX9 games then you should stick with the 2500+. I currently use a 2200+ and runs great, but I know a P4 is my future in the next 6 months or so.

L8rz,
Deepak Jr.

John_Bonner · Oct 24, 2003

he proceeded to tell me that the life of an AMD was 1-2 years

Hogwash. As long as it's properly cooled and you don't overclock it, it'll work fine for years.

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AjayM · Oct 24, 2003

Has AMD put any protection in place for overheating yet? Intel has something that will start slowing the processor down when it starts to overheat, Toms did a piece on it awhile ago, basically yanking the HSF off both Intel and AMD processors to see what would happen, the Intel's survived, the AMD's fried both the CPU and the motherboard IIRC.

So in a technical sense what the guy told you is correct, although the timeframe is way off. Because the AMD runs hotter it will fail sooner. However, let's enter the real world, an AMD processor will last probably longer than you want to keep it around, meaning years upon years. You're more likely to have a small surge or current dip blow out the CPU than it dying from heat, etc.

If you want the best bang for your buck and can live with the extra heat, then AMD is the choice. If you want a rock solid stable processor (like in a server or high end workstation) than Intel is the better choice.

Andrew

Jassen M. West · Oct 24, 2003

Did you get the 2500 with Barton core/ 333FSB? Last months Maximum PC said thats the one to go with in their Lean Machine write up. They also said the heatsink fan provided with the chip is more than enough to handle quite a bit of overclocking and stay rock solid.

--
jay

Gerald LaFrance · Oct 24, 2003

The big difference is price - you wont be able to get a P4 for anywhere near what you paid for the 2500+ and it wont necessarily be any faster.

You could get a Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz for $56, which I think is a better comparison,(prices found on PRICE WATCH.com) as there basically the same Ghz but, the FSB is a lil lower on the AMD. and the Celeron is in fact cheaper!!

With the P4 you get a higher cache and FSB up to 800 and this is why they cost more your paying for Better performence. I dont put much faith in benchmarks but my setup which is in the sig.. and most people with AMD's score lower FPS in Falcon 4.0 SP3 ( F-16 military flight sim), than my P4 then there AMD's, even tho they have Better vid cards, as F4 is a CPU intensive program. P4 all the way for me!! I have a G4 MX 420 vid card!!

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brentl · Oct 24, 2003

A 1.8 Celeron VS and 2.2xp(at1.8gig) that would be a big win for the XP.

B

Scott L · Oct 24, 2003

Gerald don't let your love for Pentiums blind you.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/200...4_3200-08.html

The AMD he's looking at costs $85 compared to the $150 p2.4b. They perform pretty much the same.

I love Pentiums too but I have to admit AMD offers much more performance for the dollar. He could take that $150 to buy an AMD 2800+ instead and smoke both of our Pentiums.

I say stick with the 2500+ and OC it, unless you plan on playing Half Life 2. I think half of the HTF gamers plan on upgrading once this is released. :b

Robert Dunnill · Oct 24, 2003

no red flag so far but then he proceeded to tell me that the life of an AMD was 1-2 years

I've been running an AMD T-Bird 1.1Ghz for 2.5 years now, and it works fine. It did start overheating when the CPU fan clogged up with lint, but that was easy to fix.

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Adam Bluhm · Oct 25, 2003

While many don't let "AMD's false speed" be overlooked, we shouldn't let Intels fsb be overlooked. I've read that AMD board's 400mhz fsb is faster than Intel's 800mhz fsb.

It's all about how they advertise it and represent it. Neil, the AMD Barton 2500+ is about the best bang: buck: performance chip on the market. You did in fact make a very wise purchase.

There is extra L2 cache on the Barton cores making them all the faster.

If you pair that cpu up with an Nforce2 mobo chipset you'll have a screaming machine.

Travis Olson · Oct 25, 2003

If you want good performance that won't break the bank go AMD. If you need the absolute best get the fastest P4. I have an AMD 2500 myself overclocked to 3200 speeds with a good HSF and the temp runs at about 45c under load. At that temp I'm not worried about the chip's life span. I will continue to buy AMD products as long as the price is right. I got my current chip for $90 vs. $200+ for an Intel chip with the same performance.

Mark Paquette · Oct 26, 2003

I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a AMD 2500 or 2800. Can anyone recommend a good nForce2 mobo to pair it with?

Rob Gillespie · Oct 26, 2003

Asus A7N8X.

Get some paired DDR to run in dual mode and enjoy

Travis Olson · Oct 26, 2003

ABIT NF7-S

Best nForce 2 mobo IMO. And there's no need to get a 2800 because you can OC the 2500 to that speed with stock cooling, unless you want to spend another $60.

Adam Bluhm · Oct 26, 2003

Another good mobo is the MSI K7N2 Delta. It's the mobo I use and it works spectacularly. Like others said, be sure to pair it up with to identical sticks of either pc2700 or pc3200 (if you want headroom for upgrades). That'll utilize the dual channel memory of Nforce2 boards and increase performance.

Scott L · Oct 26, 2003

I have 2 identical sticks of pc2700. Can you overclock it to 3200 speed with no problems? Just wondering if I ever upgrade to a dual channel mobo.

JamesHl · Oct 26, 2003

I like the gigabyte 7N series for nforce 2 pro.

Neil Joseph · Oct 26, 2003

Sorry, I have an ASUS A7V8X mobo and I have not yet overclocked the 2500+ cpu. Probably won't.

Travis Olson · Oct 26, 2003

I have 2 identical sticks of pc2700. Can you overclock it to 3200 speed with no problems? Just wondering if I ever upgrade to a dual channel mobo.

It depends on the stepping of the chip you get. There's always a risk of instablity when you OC, but Google it to find out what other people have gotten. Personally, I have had no problems at all with mine. It's actually running at 2.25Ghz with a 333mhz FSB since I only have PC2700. But I did set it to 2.2Ghz with a 400mhz FSB, a 3200 clock, and it was rock stable there also.

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