Which computer to choose?

[Zanthadar]

Hi there,

My folks aren't very computer literate. My dad just won a new computer, and they said that I could either have that computer, or the current computer that they are using. Since I like to game and all they really use is email, it doesn't matter which computer they take as long as they can do all the stuff they want on it.

I really have no idea which computer is better.

The current computer I am using is a Pentium 4 2.8ghz computer, asus p4p800 motherboard, 1 gig of ddr ram. The new computer is an Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2ghz with a generic "cisnet" motherboard, 1 gig of ddr ram.

Because I'm in to gaming I bought a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb video card that they'll let me swap into whichever computer I wish to use...so the onboard video on the Athlon is a null point. The Pentium is about 1 1/2 years old now, but I have a feeling the new computer isn't quite top of the line...I may be wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I hope I gave you guys enough information to offer advice.

Sean

 

[paparazi]

Zanthadar
I would like to know more about this "CISNET" motherboard but based on the limited info I would say the newer Athlon64 is likely going to be the better gaming machine as long as it has an AGP slot (not PCI-e) based.
An Athlon64 3200 is definately faster especially at gaming when compared to a P4 2.8 but as I say much depends on the A64's motherboard and it's supported chipset (just a bit unsure of A64 supported integrated chipsets) if it's a Via K8T800/890/Pro or Nforce3/4 based mainboard it's likely a better bet for gaming but not if the motherboard supports slower ALi or SIS chipsets.
Please post more details
Martin

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[sundust1]

Zanthadar,
It seems you Athlon 64 is the better of the tw0. As, long as the chipset is suppoted. Especialy for gaming I don't think you will have any trouble with your Radeon card if it is supported by your motherboard.

 

[Zanthadar]

Hi there, sorry I just found the documentation for my A64. From what you've mentioned it looks like the new A64 is my best bet..

Most of this doesn't make much sense to me so I'm just going to write all of the info here:

Features

• 9.44 in.(L) x 7.68 in.(W); Micro- ATX
• 2 DIMMs w/ DDR 400 upto 2 GB
• 1 AGP 8X; 3 PCI; 8 USB
• 6 Ch. Audio; 10/100 LAN; RAID; SATA; ATA133
• S3 Graphics UniChrome™ 2D/3D Graphics with motion compensation assign upto 64MB of video Memory
• Live Update; Fuzzy Logic; PC Alert


Specifications



MSI K8MM-V MATX K8M800-CE Athlon 64 Motherboard

CPU

• Supports 64-bit AMD® Athlon™ 64 processor (Socket 754)
• Supports 2800+, 3000+, 3200+, 3400+, 3700+
• Supports Sempron 2600+, 2800+, 3000+, 3100+, 3300+


Chipset

• VIA® K8M800-CE Chipset
- HyperTransport connection to AMD Next Generation of CPU
- 8 or 16 bit control/ address. data transfer both directions
- 800/600/400/200MHz "Double Data Rate" operation both direction
- AGP v3.0 compliant with 8X transfer mode
- On-board Graphic shared up to 64MB

• VIA® VT8237R Chipset
- Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode EIDE controller
- Integrated dual channel native Serial ATA/RAID controller that will supply 150MB/s and support RAID 0, RAID 1
- ACPI & PC2001 compliant enhanced power management
- Supports 8 USB2.0 ports. (Rear x4/ Front x4)

Main Memory

• Supports two 184-pin DDR SDRAMs up to 2GB memory size
• Supports DDR400*/DDR333/DDR266 DDR SDRAM (*Refer to MSI recommended modules)
• Note: PC3200 (DDR400) maximum 4 banks (2 double-sided) only

Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability.
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR500 PC4000 operates at 2.65V, 3-4-4-8, CL=3.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.

Slots

• One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 1.5V 4x/8x slot
• Three PCI 32-bit Master PCI Bus slots. (support 3.3v / 5v PCI bus interface)

BIOS

• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.

On-Board IDE

• An IDE controller on the VT8237R chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 operation modes. It can connect 4 Ultra ATA drives.
• Serial ATA/150 controller integrated in VT8237R
- Up to 150MB/s transfer speed
- Can connect up to 2 Serial ATA drives
- Support RAID 0, RAID 1

Audio

• 6 Channel software audio codec VIA VT1617A
• Compliance with AC97' v2.3 Spec
• Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement

LAN

• VIA VT6103L 10/100 Mb/s PHY
• Supports 10/100 Mb/s auto-negotiation operation.
• Compliant with PCI v2.2 and PC99 standard .
• Compliance with ACPI Power Management

On-Board Peripherals

- 1 floppy port supports 1 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
- 1 serial ports COM1
- 1 VGA port
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
- 8 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 4)
- 3 audio ports in vertical (Line-out, Line-in, MIC)
- 1 RJ-45 jack
- 1 IrDA connector for SIR/ASKIR/HPSIR

Dimension
9.44in.(L) x 7.68in.(W) Micro-ATX Form Factor

Mounting
6 mounting holes


-Sean

 

[Frank4d]

Put your ATI Radeon 9800 Pro in the Athlon 64 3200+ machine and let your computer illiterate folks keep the "faster" 2.8ghz machine.

 

[paparazi]

Zanthadar
In many ways the full sized Asus P4P800SE ATX Intel 865PE chipset motherboard is superior to the newer Athlon64 system's Mini ATX motherboard based on the Via K8M800 integrated IGP chipset
I guess it's slightly slower CPU on better motherboard versa's
The slower mini ATX motherboard but with marginally faster CPU.

Obviously this newer machine is a low budget build socket 754 Athlon64 (single channel) mini ATX board with integrated unichrome graphics where as your older machine has a half decent GENUINE INTEL 865PE chipset on a FULL SIZED ATX mainboard with the P4 2.8ghz.

Close call!
I would go for the Intel system for general number crunching/DVD encoding etc
And the AMD64 for the gaming
As I said, the lesser board on the Athlon64 system makes it a very close call.

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800se/overview.htm

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=647

Martin

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Participate and help others.