AMD Vs Intel

[GamesBuff]

I just started building a new PC and I need a little advice. I can't make up my mind between the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and the Intel Pentium D 925 3.0GHz Duel Core, for some reason the AMD Athlon costs more but only runs at 2.2GHz per core, while the Intel Pentium D 925 runs at 3.0GHz on both cores. Can anyone tell me why the AMD duel Core costs more and which one I should buy?

[revogamer]

go get a cheap E4300, E4400 or E6550, E6320 or E2160, E2140 its alot faster than that intel cpu. and you wont regret it

[GamesBuff]

I'm trying to build a good gaming PC for a decent cost.

[revogamer]

exactly, Get one of those cpus i said, some are really cheap and are all better than the one you stated :)

[Cyco]

whats your budget and what components do you need?

[GamesBuff]

If I overclock the AMD Athlon will that improve the gaming performance?

[SoulsCollective]

No, clock speed makes no difference at all :rolleyes:

Lol, of course it will, as with any other PC component - the faster it is clocked at the faster it will run anything you ask it to :)

[GamesBuff]

Someone told me that its not just the GHz that makes games run better, so what part does the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ beat the Intel Pentium D?

[SoulsCollective]

Efficiency and instruction sets, along with heat output.

Firstly, heat - the Pentium D 925 is a hot-running Cedar Mill, rated at a 95W TDP. Presuming you're looking at a new AM2 X2, it has a TDP rated at only 65W, meaning it puts out less heat and is easier to cool, as well as potentially having a greater overclock headroom.

Secondly, efficiency and instruction sets. The X2 supports the MMX, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and NX Bit instruction sets, whereas the 925 only supports MMX, SSE, SSE2 and SSE3. This allows the X2 to perform more and more efficient operations, to do more with less. The X2 also features an on-die memory controller, which enables it to exchange data with the rest of the system much more efficiently. See Here (http://www.digital-daily.com/cpu/athlon_64_x2_am2/index03.htm) for a comparison of the X2s to the Pentium Ds, and that's actually comparing the lower-model 3800+ (so slower than the 4200+ ) to the higher model 945 (so faster than the 925).

[GamesBuff]

What kind of cooling do I need if I overclock the AMD Athlon to 3.0GHz?

[SoulsCollective]

Noone can tell you that, as there are too many individual different variables. You might get a great chip that will do the 800MHz OC on stock volts and stock cooling. You might get a really bad chip that won't even go 100MHz over stock. There's just no way to tell.

I will say, though, that to get an 800MHz OC, it's more than 90% likely you'll need at least some high-end air cooling, and possibly even watercooling. The X2 series didn't tend to have a whole lot of headroom, so don't expect it to be easy to grab a 1GHz OC like the C2D. Have a look through the Official X2 OC thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73800) to get an idea of what it took for others to OC their chip, and then work back from there.

[TouGe]

Why is this (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=138924) so hard to do?

[Sparky]

Noone can tell you that, as there are too many individual different variables. You might get a great chip that will do the 800MHz OC on stock volts and stock cooling. You might get a really bad chip that won't even go 100MHz over stock. There's just no way to tell.

I will say, though, that to get an 800MHz OC, it's more than 90% likely you'll need at least some high-end air cooling, and possibly even watercooling. The X2 series didn't tend to have a whole lot of headroom, so don't expect it to be easy to grab a 1GHz OC like the C2D. Have a look through the Official X2 OC thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=73800) to get an idea of what it took for others to OC their chip, and then work back from there.

I dunno... my opteron 165 is at a 900MHz overclock and that is being conservative, I haven't even touched volts from stock yet :D Opteron is the same architecture as the X2, just with more cache pretty much. But yeah not guaranteed to get that ;)

[Zytek_Fan]

Why do people still think stock clock makes much of a difference? I thought the gigahertz crap was buried along with Netburst when Core 2 came out...


Get an E4300. Can't go wrong with it. 9x multi, so it'll be easy to overclock.

[tux08902]

Depends on what end you're shopping at. If you want a cheap, quality chip, and you're not afraid of overclocking, then I'd recommend the X2 4000+ AM2. It costs only $69, and it's a Brisbane, so you should be able to get 2.8 to 3.0 GHz easily, although I'm not making any guarantees.

[KoolDrew]

Get an E4300. Can't go wrong with it. 9x multi, so it'll be easy to overclock.

:with:

It would definitely be a better choice, especially if you're overclocking.