Pentium 4, baby. Yeah!

I sure wish the 3GHz P4 wasn't so much money. I doubt the manufacturing cost justifies the several hundred dollar increase over the 2.8.

Wait a bit. Buy an AMD clawhammer (on an nForce chipset motherboard), or take advantage of the price drop in other processors when the hammer chips finally appear.

 

Or buy the 64-bit chip that Intel "don't have" *cough cough*.

 

Anyway, what on earth do you need a 3Ghz P4 for at the moment?

If you want more power than 3 gigs, then you could get a dual processor machine from Alienware. They work great. Their only downside is that they require these huge fans to cool them. They sound somewhere between a blow dryer and a vacuum cleaner when in use.

 

2.8 gigs is just fine. Why would you possibly spend huge money for .2 more gigs? Actually, Dell has some good deals.

 

Dude, get a Dell.:cool2:

Hey, lets just get Athlon XPs and Radeon 9700 pros.

 

 

You never know, it may work.

Originally posted by mister_me

Dude, get a Dell.:cool2:

 

If by 'good deal' you mean 'bad deal'?

 

Orwellian doublethink ahoy

athlons are far better... Pentium < *

I've been considering either a P4 2.66GHz or an Athlon XP 2700+ in my new computer if i'm unable to resolve my current hardware problems. Besides the obvious differences in cost, which will perform better for high-end gaming, graphic design, and mathematics-intense applications?

Athlons are better for gaming, especially if you get a motherboard with nVidia's nForce chipset. With a top end graphics card like the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, it's a wizzy little number.

Originally posted by fafalone

I've been considering either a P4 2.66GHz or an Athlon XP 2700+ in my new computer if i'm unable to resolve my current hardware problems. Besides the obvious differences in cost, which will perform better for high-end gaming, graphic design, and mathematics-intense applications?

The Athlon, especially if your motherboard supports the absurdly high bus speed. Such motherboards are more future-proof anyway.

 

No game needs such hardware anyway, the limiting factor is usually graphics card/bus speed/hard disc speed, depending on what you are doing.

 

If you're doing lots of rendering and/or mathematics stuff you could get a dual athlon system.

 

If you're doing such things and you have the money then you should wait for the 64-bit clawhammer/ opteron, as such things will support it eventually.

If money wasn't an object I'd just get a 64 processor array with a 5PB storage system. Unfortunately as a college student, money is quite a significant factor.

If things are tight, waiting for a little while will cause the price of high-end athlons and associated bits an pieces to drop when the clawhammer appears (which is what i was planning to do).

 

Having a motherboard thats supports PC2700 DDR-RAM, ATA-133/150, a 200Mhz FSB and AGP 8x is the main thing atm.

Unfortunately as a college student, money is quite a significant factor.

 

Debt is a part of life as a college student

Especially at a private college. :dunno: