Minnesota Joe Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Im going to be purchacing a new computer from here: www.vcstore.com They have two computers that are almost exactly the same, but have different proccessors. One has an advanced Athlon where as the other has a "Genuine" Pentium III. I need input from people who have either of these to help me in making my decision. Thank You. ------------------ Ah scheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tailz Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 PIII... but I'm biased, I have one. Depends on which games you play the most. Video card is probably a more important factor. I believe Athlons have had probs with the GeForces... anyone know more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesota Joe Posted September 20, 2000 Author Share Posted September 20, 2000 They both come with a 16MB TNT card already installed. I'll probably upgrade, though. ------------------ Ah scheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamstersss Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Joe, Pound for pound the PIII is a better processor so if the mhz ratings are the same, go Pentium. Try to get one of the chips with a 133mhz bus (These used to require RAMBUS memory but now there are chipsets that support 133mhz), it's not that big a deal but it helps. Don't settle for anything less than a GeForce Lite (I can't remember what their actual name is) or an equivelent ATi. Baseline should be something like this: ~800Mhz Processor 32MB+ Vid Card (I recommend GeForce, GeForce2 if you have the cash) 256MB RAM (You can start with 128MB and upgrade later but 256 is best) The rest, to me, is personal preference. ------------------ Did someone compare this to the Ealing comedies? I've shot people for less. -David Edelstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesota Joe Posted September 20, 2000 Author Share Posted September 20, 2000 RAM is relatively cheap, so I'm not worried about getting 128 Mb. As for the Enhanced Athlon, I was watching a commercial for the same company I'm buying my system from. It showed how in the future, a superior Athlon chip could be easily installed and replace the former, slowere chip. I don't think that you could do this with a Pentium, but I'm not sure. ------------------ Ah scheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rookie Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Joe, I would go with the Athlon, But I am biased Seriously,Its all a matter of preference. I have a Atlon Thunderbird at 1ghz and it has no problem with a Geforce 2 GTS at all. Some of the early motherboards had problems but anything coming out now motherboard wise is compatible. That and I hate Intel... ------------------ -Rookie Cactus Air Force Homepage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamstersss Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Joe, The Athlons with the Thunderbird core are going to be around a while, so yes you could upgrade to a 1.3ghz some time. However, you will need to upgrade your RAM and motherboard if the chip is based on a 133mhz bus. With a PIII, you can grab one now with the 133mhz bus and upgrade well into Q4 2001. I must say, though, I don't look into hardware with upgradability in mind. Generally when you upgrade, one thing leads to another and you end up pulling the M/B, the RAM, etc. when all you wanted to do was up the processor. One other caveat, the Athlon processors are significantly cheaper than the Pentium processors. Go to www.sharkyextreme.com and you can see price lists, performance tests, and buyer guides, they're not bad. ------------------ Did someone compare this to the Ealing comedies? I've shot people for less. -David Edelstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Smith Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Joe The Athlon supports AGP x4 the P3 is still x2 AGP. The P3 is easier to overclock but the Athlon has a better floating point (if you play graphic intensive games that use 3D - Q3, UT and to a lesser extent CM) then this is a better buy. I suggest you have a look at http://www.tomshardware.com/ to get a more technical spec and overview than we can give you here. For my money I'd go the Athlon but really the P3 is a good chip as well (baring those Intel recalled due to error's in the fp). Regards Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slapdragon Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 I am in the process of switching from A Dell Optiplex to a Macintosh as my personal computer. always used Macs in video production and graphics multimedia -- and as my primary secure server (running WebTen), but I always used PC in my home for SPSS. So, I am setting up my new Macintosh and right off playing CM -- while CM on my Dell worked well it began a major headache of up and down grading DirectX files to make CM and Steel Panthers run. Well, I am a refugee from Wintel now and it is a great feeling. It is not for everyone.. I am taking a lot of heat from my friends, but I have like twice the time to play CM since I switched -- I am not spending it messing around with Windows (which is why I had a Mac server in the first place. Don't ask me why I bought the Dell -- brainwashed I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrapGame Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Minnesota Joe - Post this question in the tech support forum as well. Make it to the attention of a chap by the monicker of Schrullenhaft. He is often found lurking in there. He's a very knowledgeable computer guy and might be able to answer specific tech questions that you may have. He's helped a ton of CM players already. ------------------ CrapGame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Most of the suggestions already made here are quite helpful. Comparing just the Athlon to the Pentium III - clock for clock the Athlon is a tad faster in both floating point (where it is significantly faster) and interger calculations (where it is a small percentage faster). The multimedia extensions in the Pentiums (SSE) are better than AMD's 3DNow!, however I don't believe CM makes use of either set (and AMD will be licensing SSE in the future I believe). However CPUs are just part of the equation when it comes to performance of the PC (though an important factor). The external clock for most of the Athlons out there is going to be 100Mhz (to the memory; 133Mhz is probably coming up) while some of the Intels have up to 133Mhz. This is probably the biggest difference between these two boxes that you're considering. If you're looking at upgrades to the CPU, then the Athlon is probably going to be your best bet. The AMD CPUs are less expensive than their equivalent Intel counterparts and they'll probably make faster ones that will still work with the board that is in that Everex. The Intels on the other hand may not even make it to 1.1Ghz since that chip has had some bugs due to the optimizations Intel had to engineer to get it to that speed. The Pentium 4s are coming out and they are the future CPUs Intel is going to push for speed (though there are tradeoffs involved with those higher clock speeds) and they probably won't work in the Everex Intel box (which will most likely max out with a 1Ghz or 1.1Ghz Pentium III). One performance consideration is the chipset that is on the motherboard. The Intel CPUs have a greater selection of chipsets, while the Athlons only have AMD and VIA. While neither AMD or VIA is a great performance champ, neither are the latest Intel designs (especially the 810 & 820 series - the 815 "Solano" is the only good one lately). If you want further details on the chipset comparisions some of the sites mentioned above can give them to you. As for GeForce problems - this was primarily with the older AMD chipsets (I'm not sure what's in the Everex, possibly a VIA chipset). The latest GeForce drivers fixed an incompatibility with the VIA KT133 chipset. So GeForce compatibility issues shouldn't be too much of a problem now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supertanker Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Really, either chip is not going to be the bottleneck, it is going to be the video card. A 16MB TNT Vanta? That card is a couple generations old now, is a stripper model (the Vanta), and should cost about $40 new (I did a quick check on Pricewatch). There are a couple of other things that strike me as cheesy as well. For instance, the 85 software titles (either outdated or free - they list Internet Explorer & Outlook Express for God's sake), the financing rates (up to 28%!), and the mail-in rebate requirement (instead of a straight discount). The lack of meaningful specs on the hardware tells me they are cheaping it, too. I haven't bought a factory PC in a while, but have you considered any other vendors? I bought my last factory PC from Cybermax(www.cybermaxpc.com), and it was a good machine for a good price. I had some monitor problems, and they sent me two new ones at no cost to me, including paid return shipping. You probably will get more machine for your $1500 there - have a look at the Enthusiast 2. I also always recommend the Dell outlet (www.dell.com/outlet). These are the refurbished return machines, so the inventory constantly changes, and there can be massive bargains. Several of my friends have purchased from there, and the machines continue to run well. $1500 plus shipping gets you about a PIII/733, 128MB, GeForce (1 or 2), SBLive, a CDR or DVD, and a 17" monitor (you have to buy the monitor separately, and a 17" is about $200 on average, so find a system around $1300). Good luck with the shopping/purchase. ------------------ I'm only interested in hamsters. - Madmatt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrapGame Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 Be wary of Cybermax. Their parent company is in or is nearing Bankruptcy. There are reports in some of the PC magazines of PC's not shipping, etc. I was going to buy one myself (the Enthusiast 2 seemed a good value)until I saw the article. Also, their Athlons (as of 6 weeks ago) are not the Thunderbirds, they are the old style Athlons. ------------------ CrapGame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Oberst Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 I want to second Elijah's reference to www.sharkyextreme.com. There used to be bones about them not speaking well of anyone but Intel. But their reporting has balanced out in the last 6-8 months or so. They routinely do CPU comparisons, a pricewatch, video cards, etc. I haven't bought a stock PC for 10 years for myself, and instead build from parts. Currently I run a dual Celeron 500's, 256 RAM, nVidia TNT video (dual CPU because of workload on the machine). If I were building a game machine today, I personally would go with an Abit motherboard w/ 133 MHz bus (for the future), 256 MB RAM, a minimum 750MHz processor, and look for the speediest video I could afford, probably based on the nVidia chip. But this is all personal preference, based on experience with other parts from the same vendors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Heidman Posted September 20, 2000 Share Posted September 20, 2000 When it comes to vendors, I would consider two options: 1. Dell Refurbished. Great if you want the complete system. Great prices, good quality, and they have the standard Dell warranty and service. 2. Build it yourself. Not as hard as it sounds, and YOU get to make the decisions about what trade-offs are worthwhile. As far as Athlon or Pentium, at this point it is not a critical issue. Performance wise there is no real difference. Clock for clock the Athlons tend to be a little less expensive, since you are not paying for the Intel perceived superiority. Note: Some of what has been claimed in this thread is not exactly correct. Both Pentium and Athlon based motherboards support 4x AGP. The Athlon bus is 100MHz, but it is a DDR bus, so its effective throughput in most situations is actually 200 MHz. No advantge to Pentiums and there 133MHz bus. Further, the KT133 motherboards will run the memory at 133MHz while leaving the bus at 100MHz, so that is not an issue either. Whatever you do, spend as much money as you possibly can on the video card. It will be the likely bottleneck in whatever system you decide to purchase. And finally, do not get suckered into buying from the dirt cheap PC builders. There is a reason they are so inexpensive, and its because their components are garbage. Find out what you are buying, and make sure it is not some no-brand junk. Jeff Heidman [This message has been edited by Jeff Heidman (edited 09-20-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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