New PC: Intel P4 6xx or Athlon 64?

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  1. #1

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    New PC: Intel P4 6xx or Athlon 64?

    So DIY experts, which is better (let's exclude Macs for now):

    Intel 925X/ATX/socket 775 mobo + Intel Pentium 4 630 or 640 cpu with Hyperthreading 800 FSB (enough expansion slots?)

    or

    nForce 4 SLI/ATX mobo + Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ ?
    and is socket 939 better or socket 754?
    any recommended brand for mobo (asustek of Taiwan?)?

    Wish to hook up WLAN (g) with two older computers at home enabling broadband and sharing of devices, WinXP, at least 1MB RAM, some multimedia (DVDRW, separate sound and video cards, maybe more later on), moderate gaming (nothing extreme), and regular home PC use. Have some concern about future scalability of usage/options and longevity because in time you always end up wanting to do more than you imagine at first. Price variation of a couple of grand (HKD) is fine. Thanks.


  2. #2

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    Athlon's for sure.

    By the way, unless you're building to high end specs (which you're not... according to what you've put as your wishlist), I'd just go out and order a DELL ... on my 3rd Dell and have been extremely happy with them.

    For a more consumer oriented machine.. Sony Vaio Desktops offer awesome value (first floor shop in Wanchai computer center).


  3. #3

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    So you favour Athlon? But Dell doesn't do it. I don't think with the mobo they use, that Dell can fit the bill as to the last part of my requirements (there'll be barely any expansion slot left after they finish with the 8400 made to my spec - as their sales guy admitted when I put it to him straight).

    Will check out WCC and the Vaio dt's, though my inclination is to get it made to order at WCC or MCC because I can have some say re the mobo.


  4. #4

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    Been looking at this recently and from several sites such as Toms and Anandtech they seem to think the following is pretty good.

    AMD Athlon 64 ADA3200-BP/939 CPU (BOX) HK$ 1,738.00
    MSI MS-K8N NEO4 PLATINUM nForce4 Ultra M/B HK$ 1,150.00
    MSI NX6600GT-TD128E 6600GT PCI-E 128MB HK$ 1,440.00

    Prices are from Jumbo
    in Mong Kok. You will of course need ram, harddisks and a good case


  5. #5

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    Who can honestly say that they demand the power and performance of x64 ? Is anyone actually going to spec machines with greater than 4GB of RAM and be running applications which can utilise the chip properly ?


  6. #6

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    >> Is anyone actually going to spec machines with greater than 4GB of RAM and be running applications which can utilise the chip properly ?

    No.. but then I cant go around telling people that my CPU is bigger than theirs.


  7. #7

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    Thanks, Kevin. Very good links too. Are you going in for those?