Need help choosing an AMD

[crevis]

Currently I have an intel 956perl mainboard with agp and 478, I originally was just going to buy a prescott 3.0E ghz to replace my POS northwood 2.8 but all you amd freaks have just about converted me, along with the fact my mom has the P4 model I want and we just spent alot of money on cooling for it and it still overheats - and it would be 5 X worse in mine because my X850XT makes a huge amount of heat, and the 478s apparently overheat more.

So I'm going to sell the mainboard, the graphics card and the cpu and buy amd mainboard and cpu and a PCIE graphicss card but I have no idea about amd, the sockets, the models etc.

This is what I need it for,

Games,

Photoshop / Illustrator (this is where the northwood really sh*ts itself and dies, even with an X850XT to help it out)

Upgradable in the future (This is where I need help with the sockets)

And it cant overheat to much.

Thanks for any help.

[jemsite]

forget anything p4

get a dual core x2 without a doubt... i believe it's the AM2 socket. awesome performer even if w/o overclocking.... crushes any 478 socket or P4... glen

[crevis]

I have had no expierience with dual cores yet...

Would a single core w ith a 1mb L2 have any benifits over a dual core with 2 512kb or 640kb L2s ? or did I have too many buckets last night.

[jemsite]

forget everything except dual core. amd or intel, either is ok to be honest.

trust me on that... glen

[crevis]

Is it worth getting a Pentium D, the price seems to good for the specs.

[jemsite]

no.

(unless prices are totally out of whack over there)

around here you can get bargain-basement level dual-core PC/notebooks... glen

[crevis]

Well for reference, a D 820 is half as much as an duo E6400.

[jemsite]

what is the cost of

* intel D820
* AMD 64 X2 3800+

...glen

[crevis]

D820 = $150 AU

X2 3800+ = $200 AU

[Petrucci]

intel core 2 duo's absolutely crushes their AMD counterparts by more than 40% in every app. Forget about X2's, buy a Core 2 Duo. Look at the benchmarks on internet

[crevis]

D820 = $150 AU

X2 3800+ = $200 AU

duo E6300 = $270 AU

I could definately justify buying the amd over the D but I dont think this ..
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2014654,00.asp
equates to 70 big ones.

[jemsite]

Originally Posted by Petrucci

intel core 2 duo's absolutely crushes their AMD counterparts by more than 40% in every app. Forget about X2's, buy a Core 2 Duo. Look at the benchmarks on internet

false.

the core 2 is alot costlier at a small performance gain.

still, either is better than a Pentium D. $50 more for the X2 is $$$ well spent.. glen

[Dee]

Originally Posted by jemsite

forget anything p4

get a dual core x2 without a doubt... i believe it's the AM2 socket. awesome performer even if w/o overclocking.... crushes any 478 socket or P4... glen

Seconded. Even socket 939 is still good, and there are some bargains to be had. Just make sure it's a dual core, the fastest one you can afford. I'm keen on DFI motherboards, but then I'm an overclocker and you might not care about the kind of BIOS options they offer.

[Dee]

Originally Posted by crevis

Would a single core w ith a 1mb L2 have any benifits over a dual core with 2 512kb or 640kb L2s ?

It depends on the application / if the software you're using is dependent on L2 cache or clock speed. Go for the larger cache wherever possible but don't let it get in the way of a bargain. In terms of performance, on a single core, 1MB L2 cache is about as good as 200 Mhz in clock speed. Go for a dual core processor with 1MB cache per core if possible. Don't bother with single core at all.

[crevis]

Thanks for the help, I did a finance calculation and realized I had more to spend than I thought so Ill go with a intel duo E6300, either an MSI 945 or asus 965 (over clockable) mainboard and ill spend the rest on a graphics card, that should get me a 7600GS.