AMD's Athlon vs. Intel's Pentium 4

[jerjim]

I plan not only to acquire a new computer but upgrade the one I have now. I'm a developer. I use Visual Basic 6.0, Visual InterDev 6.0 and Microsoft Access 2000.

Should I get AMD's Athlon or Intel's Pentium? I have heard that AMD's Athlon generates a lot of heat and so you have to invest in a good cooling fan. Since I live and work in Metro Manila, Philippines the heat might be a critical factor?

( I have also posted this query in the VB and VInterdev forums to get more responses. )

Thanks in advance for any tips and advice.

 

[kelsen]

With respect to upgrading, it would depend on what kind of processor you have on your current motherboard; if you plan to replace the motherboard as well, you should look seriously at replacing the entire machine rather than upgrading.

As for a new machine, AMD currently provides more 'bang for the buck' than any Pentium offering. The only real drawback I know of is that if you have a cooling system failure (i.e. the fan on the CPU stops running for any reason) you will probably lose the AMD processor; the Intel will shut down.

AMD has done some work lately in addressing this issue. I recommend Tom's Hardware (

http://www.tomshardware.com)

for more opinions and up-to-date information.

RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen.
--
Does the name Quasimodo ring a bell?

 

[loacadmin]

I run a 1.4ghz athlon at home with a fan the same size as what is in your standard power supply. When I first got it, it was running at about 57 degrees celcius when idle (durning winter) and about 64 Degrees celcius after playing games for a few hours. We are now in our summer here (which is in Tasmania, Australia) and it averages about 60 degrees celcius when sitting idle. I also have a Chassis Fan.

Given that our top temperture is during summer wouldn't hit 40 Degrees Celcius you would defintally want a few extra fans to combat the heat.

Having said that, IT'S A GREAT CHIP and much cheaper to buy and just as good if not better that Intel chips for what I'm doing. (Internet, Games etc).