I have $600 to spend on a cpu. I dont want to ugrade for like 3 years possibly more. I was thinking of initially getting the P4 3.6ghz 660 processor. or the AMD64 4400. If anyone could help me out in making a decision that would be great. The purpose of the computer will be general work, like MS office, autocad, burning dvds, gaming, downloading and surfing the web which can be done with the greatest of ease, performance, and time. Both these CPU's have the 64 bit. If you think I should get a different cpu let me know I dont mind buying anything even if more expensive than $600, as long as it will complete the tasks outlined with minimal problems and great performance and long as they have 64 bit capabilities for future purposes. I am trying to build the best computer today so it will last me as long as possible for future purposes. I have read that Intel is a lot of flash with there high core speed, but not worth the money spent. Any thoguths will help.

Thank You

From my own experience.....

An AMD is quieter than an intel, if that matters to you, i personally hate when my computer makes noise. haha

In terms of use, i would recommend an AMD if you are going to use the computer for gaming. I am a 3D modeller and all the computers at my school, and at home are AMD's. They seem to be better graphically. Just my 2 cents.

What kind of motherboard were you thinking of using with the Athlon, and what kind of budget did you have in mind for it?

If price is no object I would have to think about the AMD Athlon 64x2 4800+, it is exspensive... but check out this link.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050603/

On a tighter budget? How about a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nVidia mothrboard, and a AMD Athlon 64FX-53 proccessor for $899.99

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...930&CatId=1619


I have been researching for a rebuild of my own, and I have to admit that I have become biassed towad AMD Athlon proccessors, and either Asus, or MIS motherboards. The MAD Athlon has consistantly been the bigger bang for the buck. I wasn't able to find a mobo combo with the AMD64 4400 proccessor in the short time that I had to look.

You should keep in mind that the Athlon X2 4400+ will only match the performance of a much lower rated Athlon64 in standard applications use and in games. Unless the program you are running is designed to use multi-threading a dual core processor can't add benefit of the second core, and for the lower rated dual core processors the single core performance is quite low. The X2 4800+, for example, will only match the Athlon64 4000+ in single core performance.

A similar situation exists for Intel dual core processors.

Unless that AutoCAD work is rather heavy duty, I'd be picking an A64 4000+ single core processor for that rig.

I would go with one of the GA-k8n socket 939 board with an amd 64 proc. I don't know exactly which mobo you should get, because I don't know what kind of video card you have. Even the best in the line is only $150 add an amd 64 3500+ to that ($267). That's only $400!

If you really want to go all-out, and prepare for the future, get the GA-K8NXP-sli board, with a NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT. This board is sli compatible and still works with old 20 pin power connectors (no adapter needed). I've heard nothing but good things about them. The video card is $160 which should fill the gap in your $600 nicely. As far as upgradability goes. You will be compatible with the 939 socket which amd seems to plan on keeping around for a while, and you've got SLI, so a video card upgrade is cheap.

One of the big things to keep in mind is that the intel dual core proc uses a different socket than standart p4s, and apparently is "less elegant" than it's AMD counterpart because each core is totally separate (they don't share resources at all). It's exactly the same as having two separate processors, but a lot cheaper.