Computer Building Question.

[Shia Kyosuka]

Ok, so I've been hired for a fast food job.

[spoiler="Personal Life stuff."]Whoopie. Yeah.

Awesome workmates, awesome customers, and blah blah blah, but it cuts majorly into my game-time, leaving me in a... sort of confusing mood. it's a mix between "Awesome! I have money" and "I'm bored. Need to play games. @_@"[/spoiler]

anyway, on to the question.

With the money that I earn from my job, I get around 250 every two weeks.

On top of that, I'm selling my old one to my brother for $140. (much less than it's worth, but still)

I'm looking to build a super-high-end computer with 3 paychecks (and the money from selling my older one.). I get my first one on the 1st of Sept. I plan on building this before Wii comes out. At that point, I'll have to work on building my Gaming Library (both Wii and PC games).

So, I've got everything written down except for one thing.

The CPU.

I want something around 3.0 ghz, but the prices on Intel are ridiculous, so I've decided to go the AMD route. (again)

What's an "Athlon 3500" good for, clocked at 2.2 ghz?

I hear that AMD cpu's are very effecient. So much, that an Athlon64 3500 can run as fast as a 3.5ghz Intel CPU.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

(Depending on the Wii's release date, I might be able to push for at least one more paycheck, but my main focus is to finish this computer as quickly as possible.)

EDIT:

If I take off one hard drive, and halve the RAM, I might be able to afford a Motherboard + CPU combo.

It has a motherboard that will support the PCI-E x1900 video card I have my eye on, and has an AMD athlonx2 4200 to go with it.

EDIT (again):

in fact, I just wrote down the cost of the second set up (with the CPU/motherboard combo) down. Which would you choose?

Each can be upgraded later, of course.

(uploading txt file.)

[blkmage]

From what I've heard, Intel's new Core 2 Duo (Conroe) is the cool kid on the block now with the best performance to price ratio. You'll find that the new thing in CPUs is dual-cores, and with that, a clockspeed number means very little. For instance, Intel's top CPU now, the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme is clocked at around 3.0 GHz, and from what I've read at Anandtech, it beats the best that AMD has to offer at the moment. I also hear that the cheaper editions (that is not Extreme) are well priced.

[Shia Kyosuka]

What I'm trying to build is a gaming machine, built to play all games at the highest graphics settings, with very high FPS.

About this Conroe... The only one that seems to be in my price range (at least with only 3 paychecks) is the 1.8 GHz one.

A double core CPU at 1.8... sounds sort of slow for something like that.

or is it?

[blkmage]

The Anandtech article is here: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795

Looking at the tests, it looks like the E6300 (1.86 GHz), consistently beats all but the most top-end dual core AMDs. It's definitely faster than the Athlon 64 3500 in your first setup and is around the performance of the X2 4200 (which is clocked at 2.2 GHz) in your second setup.

Also, on your second setup, I would recommend getting at least 1 gig of RAM, or you're going to feel the pain.

[KumoriJinsoku]

From what I've heard, Intel's new Core 2 Duo (Conroe) is the cool kid on the block now with the best performance to price ratio. You'll find that the new thing in CPUs is dual-cores, and with that, a clockspeed number means very little. For instance, Intel's top CPU now, the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme is clocked at around 3.0 GHz, and from what I've read at Anandtech, it beats the best that AMD has to offer at the moment. I also hear that the cheaper editions (that is not Extreme) are well priced.

Sure, it beats AMDs clock speed. It severely bottlenecks though when it comes to Front Side Bus though. AMD KILLS Intel when it comes to that.

In my opinion, Intel's Core Duo is designed for faster business applications. It also took them this long to make something of this calibur. AMD probably still has an ace up its sleeve and pull out something with a better chipset beating Intel with clock speed and FSB.

I would stay with AMD. Intel is just trying to be cool. [FAILURE]

EDIT: My friend who works at Best Buy gave me specs on them. Clocked at 2.8; ALMOST there, not quite

[Seppuku]

yes amd is teh awesome, its more stable than than intel as well.

[blkmage]

Notice that I said that clock speed alone isn't a reliable indicator of performance. The comparison I was trying to draw was that for AMD, they say that their model numbers reflect the equivalent performance, such that a 5000+ would be "equivalent" to a 5 GHz CPU, while the X6800 is rated at around 3 GHz (actually, it's 2.93).

As for AMD's future plans, the only thing I've heard about was that 4X4 thing, which is two dual core CPUs and two GPUs. I imagine that's going to be quite pricey. The Core 2 Duo is not like the Pentium 4, where it consumed power like crazy; it's efficient. Also, the Core 2 Duo is much better for gaming than the Athlon 64. That's the general consensus around the Internet.

I'm not an Intel fanboy by any measure, especially since AMD's been owning them for the past few years. All I'm saying is that Intel has won this round and that going blindly for AMD when there's a better choice is not the smartest thing to do.

[Shinja]

im a big AMD fan and would also suggest thier use, but the big question when building a gaming machine will be are you building it for now, or the next gen releases of 07, becuase if its for games coming out you might want to wait a few months to see what you'll need. plus prices may drop and AMD is coming out with new duel core opteron's if im not mistaken in the fist qauter of 07. and if you intend to run windows Vista you might just want to wait till it comes out. plus your second biggest decision is on the video card, CPU isnt everything.

[creed4]

I'd look at newegg.com for the motherboard processor and memory. I find stores like bestbuy ect will sell harddrives cheaper some have rebate. I'd defintily take AMD over intel. I've ran a AMD 3200 athalon for over a year it been fine. But I would put as many fans in your case as you can, and make sure you don't let dust built up. I had the processor over heat because too much dust got on the heat sink. Second I would suggest an Asus board They have many priced around 50 dallar, I would go with a gig of memory. I'd get an Nivida video card. Most board come with built in sound which does a good job. I bought some creative speakers a few years ago for 20 dallars and they still work great. I wouldn't go for a processor motherboard combo. You want to get a retail chip and not an OEM. A OEM chip only has a thrity day warnenty. A retail has a longer warnenty and comes with a fan.