New PC

i hate u if i want it playable i gotta goto my laptop

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Dumass i dont race anymore, i just hotlap, why because my computer stumbles along with 22 cars on a grid!

soon though soon i will be getting my dream PC :D

@Fongu

I maybe biased but I have to say after reading many posts here that P4 owners seem to get higher fps in GP4. I looked at both systems when I went to gamedude in Brisbane, Australia to purchase components to build my own system. Overall the Athlon was not cheaper as I had expected as the mobo and Orb fans worked out more expensive and I find Athlon systems to be noiser.....I love my P4 2.53 and it easily o/c to 2.85 plus it runs every game I have old and new no problems, and it's cool.

.... but that's just one man's opinion others would heartily disagree..

and I have always owned Nvidia cards starting with my ol' TNT then TNT2 Ultra then GF2mx then GF4ti4200 (disappointing!) and I then got a GF4mx which ran GP4 on my P3@868mhz with 35fps. I still have that system.

But I opted for an ATI Radeon 9500pro Excalibur and it is a blast with the Omega drivers.

You choose !



P4 2.85gig Albatron mobo 512mb Corsair3200LL Ram 19"Auriga Mon. SBLive! + 4point surround spkrs. Thrustmaster F1 FF Wheel. Radeon9500pro Cat3.4 drivers. GP4 55fps 1024*768 - No VideoWalls/HeatHaze - Mirrors On.

With this configuration:

Athlon XP 2600+ 400Mhz FSB
512 RAM DDR
GeForce MX440-SE 128 MB

Will i be able to run GP4 with all the graphics options set to their maximum with a good FPS? (I´m in Brazil and here an P4 at the same clock costs about $300 more than the AMD)

Just to make the comparison more clear to you:

Atlhon XP 2400 Mhz $357
PENTIUM 4 2.4 Ghz $745

Sorry to dissapoint you but an XP2400+ is not as fast as a Pentium4 2.4

The Athlon XP3200+ is the closest running at 2.2Ghz

When it's written this way you see the difference in price is actually the other way round. Still, I'd buy (and indeed just have bought) an Athlon 2500+ because they have a better core (Barton) than the Thoroughbred core that the 2600+ have. They are also a lot cheaper than the P4 2.4C, about half price or less. (Plus I have my 2500+ running at 3200+ speeds [2.2Ghz] because I have a motherboard with an Nforce2 400 North Bridge. This supports the higher fsb of the 3200+ so the motherboard can cope with the overclock just fine, and that's not even close to the limits. It's 100% stable, or has been)

Baz

Bazza:
The 2500+ you are mentioning i never saw here in Brazil and probably not will. As far as know the XP2600+ starts in 2.130Mhz frequency, is that correct? It´s worth to buy an P4 2.4Ghz, even with that price diference in the processor, meanwhile the P4 motherboard (ASUS P4s 8XX) is only about $15-20 more than the AMD (ASUS A78XX)?
(I have an personal opinion that the cost-benefit what you get with AMD is much better than with Pentium).

its is so much cheaper to build a pc youself, and they are really easy.

Amd are having big big probs with their xp3000 chips. For a start no progs are around to use it and their performace is well below what it should be.

We have just had some compaq pcs at work that cost £600 and they have a p4 2.4.

Its all depends on what mother board u get, u can have the fastest cpu in the world but if the board is crap it will be slow. I had an ecs board for my xp2000+ and got an fps of 24, then got an asus board and got an fps of 40.

The VIA chip sets are crap total crap get a board with the nvida set and its great

"The Athlon XP3200+ is the closest running at 2.2Ghz

When it's written this way you see the difference in price is actually the other way round. Still, I'd buy (and indeed just have bought) an Athlon 2500+ because they have a better core (Barton) than the Thoroughbred core that the 2600+ have. They are also a lot cheaper than the P4 2.4C, about half price or less. (Plus I have my 2500+ running at 3200+ speeds [2.2Ghz] because I have a motherboard with an Nforce2 400 North Bridge. This supports the higher fsb of the 3200+ so the motherboard can cope with the overclock just fine, and that's not even close to the limits. It's 100% stable, or has been)"

Must just be you then mate, because set up correctly, a 2400+ can run as fast as a P4 2.4

My 2400+ is only running a whisker off the speed of a 3.06GHz P4 in most test I've compared...

You just need to know your stuff, what parts to buy, and what the optimal way to put them together is...

Marcl:

How much better (in % for example) is the Nforce better than the VIA?

I feel so let down.....

855Mhz Athlon
128Mb Something RAM
TNT2 Pro 16Mb
20 Gig hdd

And its still the best F1sim I've played.

@ Gav

I was talking to my friend about the potential to overclock the athlons and how the 2500 could be overclocked alot. So i thought about getting a 2700 or a 2800 and i thought there might be the same potential am i wrong?

Im still slightly in favour of the athlons coz they're slightly better for performance/cost thing so that i can put a bit more into the graphics card. Captain almost persuaded me to get a pentium, im just ocnfused now. I get paid on thursday so i have till then to decide before i go away saturday

I think both systems are great and not having been an Athlon/AMD owner there is no way I can criticize it good or bad.....

I do know for a fact they run Hotter and need better cooling and I do know that the Intel P4 runs very nicely and cool without any fancy Cooling as mine just has the stock fan on it. I do not overclock to severe speeds though as some people do.

It comes down to price and I guess what you use it for so just go with your instincts and get what makes you happy. Either way you will have a good system I think....

... and do give the ATI Radeon a look in as they are awesome cards !!!

cheers and good luck !

vik
: - )



P4 2.85gig Albatron mobo 512mb Corsair3200LL Ram 19"Auriga Mon. SBLive! + 4point surround spkrs. Thrustmaster F1 FF Wheel. Radeon9500pro Cat3.4 drivers. GP4 55fps 1024*768 - No VideoWalls/HeatHaze - Mirrors On.

@ Bernie

Thats really similar to what i got..... what sorta frames are you getting from it??

Yeha i lke the radeons..... i dont know whether to spend an extra £30 on the 9800 or stay with the 9700...... i just keep on getting the feeling that the day after i order my comp the prices will drop! Guess its gonna heppen anyways!