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Building a new computer this weekend (1 Viewer)

Max Leung

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Yep that's right...AMD CPUs tend to run hot, and are very sensitive to heatsink mounting because of the chip's packaging (one little square raised above the rest of the chip compared to intel where the entire chip makes contact with the heatsink).
AMD is great for keeping costs down...you can build a very fast gaming rig for a few hundred dollars cheaper than an equivalent P4 rig. But you need to be careful putting it together!
If I were building a dedicated server machine, I'd go Intel for the robustness. The game machine will have AMD and have the short life-span. :)
 

JJR512

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Dec 11, 1999
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Justin J. Rebbert
It's not that the entire chip (of the P4) make contact with the heatsink; what makes contact with the heatsink isn't actually the chip at all, but a heat spreader. That little raised square on the AMD chip is the chip itself. The heat spreader is part of what keeps the P4 cooler (the other part is that it uses less electricity).

I also don't agree with your generalization that the game machine will have a short life span just because it has an AMD CPU. If assembled with caution, which you should be using no matter which CPU you're using, and if adequately cooled, which should be done no matter which CPU you're using, then the AMD-powered computer will last just as long.
 

Dustin B

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I don't think Max was refering to a failure life span. More that games' requirements progress so quickly that the system you build now will be minimum requirements for games 1-2 years from now. So although your game system will still work fine, you'll want a new one anyways. And the couple hundred you safed on the AMD is now available to you to spend on the new system.

Where as a server, power wise (well depending on what it's being used for), will be plenty viable for a lot longer than that.
 

Max Leung

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Yep that's right. Although, you would be shortening the lifespan of the CPU by overclocking it, to squeeze that extra 4 FPS out of that game. :wink:

The heat spreader on the P4 also makes it much harder to crush the CPU. It is all too easy to crush the AMD CPU, which is why AMD CPU "shims" are very popular in the build-it-yourself crowd, but they can introduce even more problems if the shim is of low quality or is slightly bent.

The lack of on-board thermal protection is also a disappointment. Fortunately, I hear that AMD will be designing this into CPUs in the future.
 

Robert_Gaither

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Mar 12, 2002
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Another thing I noticed not pointed out directly is that the cost difference between the two is such that one can buy a better tower, bigger power supply, and quieter/more fans if the same budget is used. Only reason I own a Pentium is that the local dealer had a motherboard/processor special that I couldn't touch for an AMD. Because you can buy more fans you should be able to overclock this pup no problem without any heat issues what so ever (I have a friend who has over-clocked his AMD for over a year with no problems 1.3 being clocked to 2 something).
Another option if you haven't already commited is to buy a new processor as a P3 1800 (assuming your board is a 370 pin but you can also buy a slot 1 to 370 pin bridge and flash your bios as well) can be had for about $124 shipped (or less) from various online dealers (www.accessmicro.com sent me an email about this for a friend).
 

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