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Intel Pentium vs. AMD Athlon

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Mar. ~ 2005 May: All Things Technical: The Help Desk (ARCHIVES): Intel Pentium vs. AMD Athlon users admin

Author Message
Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 3:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm looking for a new PC, and have been focusing on Intel P4 systems. A couple of sales people have really pushed the AMD Athlons, telling me they are faster and better for video editing.

I am looking for a media center, to do lots of video editing, DVD burning. My current PC is 4 years old and can do these things, just v e r y s l o w l y.

My brother's experience with Athlon was that it ran hotter than expected and he burned out two fans in a year. This happened a couple of years ago so I am not sure if that's still a problem.

Any recommendations???

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 3:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I know nothing techie and can't really give any advice except to say that I have AMD Athlon. My PC stalls once in awhile for about 10-20 seconds then starts up again. I have been told this is normal with AMD athlon so you might want to check into that (my computer is also several years old)

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 5:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The AMD 64 bit chips are great if you're a hard core gamer. Other than that, both AMD and Intel chips peform pretty similarily. AMD chips do tend to run a bit hotter than Pentium chips. AMD chips allow for more up-clocking compared to Intel chips as well.

As far as a media center, most pre-built systems are built around the Intel platform. I think part of the reason for that is the fact it doesn't run as hot and can be put into a variety of cases from towers to pizza box designs.

Both are fine and it's usually a matter of preference. I prefer Intel systems myself.

Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 9:55 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Cathie... AMD chipas are practically made with media in mind. I have a desktop and a loptop. The desktop has an AMD athlon 1.0 ghz. The laptop has a 1.3 Ghz Intel chipset.

I do dvd decrypting and such....

To do a full disk on my desktop take 20-30 minutes...

on the laptop...it takes 1 hour LONGER!

BIG difference... so the choice is up to you, but if you are doing serious gaming and or multimedia applications, go AMD... Oh... and my dh has an AMD 64... and it totally blows Intel away!

Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 10:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Faery, I think that is what I needed to hear.

Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 12:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm a "proof is in the pudding" person. And when doing multimedia I know that my "slower" AMD chip can do the job faster than the Intel...

So I know what you mean... glad I could help!

Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 1:54 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
It's nice to know the salespeople were correct about the Athlon being better for video stuff. I am usually a trusting person, but I have learned that most of the employees at the tech stores know less than I do about things, with some trying to bluff their way, leading you in the wrong direction rather than admit they don't know the answer.

I am anxious to go shopping now! It currently takes anywhere from 2-8 hours to "render" a video project to burn to DVD, depending on the source material. I am soooooo looking forward to a smooth quick process!

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 1:56 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Comparing a desktop AMD to a Pentium laptop isn't a fair comparison. In general, laptops have slower components, from video to hard drives, compared to desktop machines.

For instance, laptop hard drives routinely spin at 4200 rpm while desktop hard drives spin at 7200 rpm. That alone will cause the laptop to decrypt slower than a desktop; the hard drive doesn't move as fast. Further, laptops routinely have integrated graphics. As a result, they utilize CPU usage where as desktop machines with seperate video cards have no need to utilize the CPU.

One cannot compare a desktop machine to a laptop machine because of the difference in components and the speeds at which they run. A lot of factors contribute to the reasons why a slower AMD desktop will run faster than a faster Pentium laptop.

Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Tuesday, March 08, 2005 - 3:14 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'm going to have to second Wendo on this. The notebook to desktop comparison is an apples and oranges comparison.

My info may be a bit out of date now, but the last I looked into it. The AMD (my cpu of choice for the last decade or so (because I was a gamer, cheapo, and now recovered overclocker) is not all else being equal the champ when it comes specifically to video encoding. The P4 was the champ at that specific task last time I looked into it, but beaten at nearly all else.

Having said that, all else will not be equal, and you will probably be happy with either. Enjoy!

Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 8:20 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I would give you all that except that the components I was comparing it to were before the upgrade.

Laptop has 64 mg Video, 4200 rpm hdd, onborad audio... etc... standard HIGH END "made for multimedia" Sony Vaio

The desktop at the time was running a very old hdd, PCI video 64 mg... etc...

So yes.. apples and oranges, but the laptop was still a WAY better machine on paper... but the AMD still kicks it's butt.

Since then I have upgraded the desktop to AGP video card, faster and bigger hdd and have taken to decrypting on the hdd before encoding. Goes so much faster! I can really tell the difference in the hdd speed! (Hdd was upgraded just last month when mine died)

So yes, apples and oranges, but I was giving a fair comparison as I was comparing it to the machine before I upgraded all the components. (it's just too expensive to do it all at once for me).

Cathie... trust me dearheart... let me just tell you that I am a DVD/Video freak... and I will not buy Intel vs. the AMD.

Oh and for the record... I never overclock!

Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Cathy: Why don't you find a couple of systems in your price range that appear to have all the components you want/need and then post the model numbers or the specs for them?

It will be easier to give advice on specific (and current) systems. There are variations between different AMD processors, as well as between different Intel P4's. Motherboard, FSB, L2 cache, memory speed/timing all play an equal (if not greater) part in system performance.

What are the specs of the computer you are currently using?
What OS are you currently running?


Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 11:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Faerygdds, specs on a laptop can exceed a desktop machine and yet still be slower because of the nature of how a laptop is constructed and runs. As I pointed out, there are many differences, more so than hard drive speed and video card. For instance, laptops typically have slower bus speeds, slower RAM, etc.

Any technician will tell you that one can not compare a laptop to a desktop machine irregardless of the specs. They're completely different machines in how they work and operate.

Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 8:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I am currently looking at two systems at Sam's Club, the HP m1295c-b (AMD) and the HP m1297c-b (Intel)

This link shound show both of these, along with a couple of others I am not considering. I do have a concern on both systems that the sound appears to be a chip on the motherboard and not a sound card. I would have thought that a "media center" would want to have the best sound. Am I wrong to quibble over this?

TinyURL Link

Yikes--sorry, I didn't know the link was so long it would stretch the page!

Crossfire
Member

08-07-2001

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 10:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Cathy, sorry to be slow in responding. Bob had a good idea, and thank you for taking him up with the link...but it has expired on the samsclub end, and we cannot see the candidates.

Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 3:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks, Crossfire. I went to the Sam's site and they no longer have the Pentium one listed. The Athlon I was looking at is still there, though. If you want to go to the Samsclub.com site, then on the left side of the page under Personal Needs click Computers and Peripherals. On the page that opens I clicked Brands under the desktops and then HP as the brand. It lists 4 HP desktops, the first one listed is (currently) the m1295c Athlon that I mentioned above. The only Pentium 4 media center they have now is the m1195c, which has less RAM and hard drive than the one I had previously listed.

Bob2112
Member

06-12-2002

Saturday, March 12, 2005 - 8:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I like that HP AMD Athlon™ 64 3400 Media Center PC. It should handle everything you talked about doing and then some. The Intel model listed does come with a 19 inch flat screen instead of the 17 inch, but you would want to add another 512MB of RAM and it is already $200 more. A 17 inch flat screen is a good size, unless you are used to a larger screen already.

The LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system sounds cool, but a quick search for compatible media came up with disks costing 65 to 70 cents a piece. Hard to beat the rebate specials for CD-R costing anywhere from free to 5 cents a piece. The drive will burn data to all media, but you have to buy the special media to use the label feature. Still, it would be nice to burn custom labels for some special disks.

I would not be too concerned about the on-board sound. In the AMD system I built last year, the motherboard I used had on-board 5.1 sound and it sounds great with a low to middle of the road 5.1 speaker system. You can always turn off the on-board sound and add a sound card if you wanted to upgrade to a sound card. Your 5.1 speakers would work with a new card.

If this is in your price range, I don't think you would be disappointed with the AMD system. It has enough expandability in case you find it is lacking in some area.


Cathie
Member

08-16-2000

Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 7:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Well, about the time I decided to buy an AMD Athlon 64 Media Center PC they suddenly became scarce (and have remained scarce for the past 6 weeks.) HP no longer lets you configure them on their web site, and I can't find any AMDs at all on the Sony site.

My present PC is acting a little sicker so I have started looking for Intel P4 systems that match all of my desires. HP doesn't offer the right upgrades that I want, and Sony is too expensive ($2700 for what I would pay under $2000 for at HP if they still had them.)

Through my job I can order a Dell 8400 system with all the bells and whistles I want for around $2100, but I searched the web for reviews and found some really negative ones regarding both Dell and the earlier models of the 8400.

I am trying to hang in there until the system of my dreams becomes available, but it's getting depressing w a i t i n g so long.

Any Dell stories (good or bad) out there?????

Jimmer
Member

08-30-2000

Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 7:51 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I've heard a lot of mixed views about Dell. Very different experiences depending on who you talk to.

My recommendation would be to try to find a local shop that builds PCs. There are some local guys in our area who have been in business for years and you simply can't do better for price, quality and service. If you do go locally, go to someone who is legit and provides you with the manuals for every component of your PC.

What if they go out of business? Well as long as you have the manuals, and they use non-proprietary components, it's easy to take it anywhere for service.

This approach isn't for everyone though - it helps if you know something about the components.

Landi
Member

07-29-2002

Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 10:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
i have had a wonderful experience with my dell. and now have a brand new toshiba laptop. dell has always been very helpful with any questions that i needed answered.

Faerygdds
Member

08-29-2000

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:23 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I used to work for Dell both in their Dimension (desktop) and Latitude (laptop) divisions. I did tech support... tier 2.

There are ups and downs to every system. When the Dells work they work beautifully... when they don't... you call tech support. What happens from there depends on the tech.

Jimmer
Member

08-30-2000

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 7:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The upside of Dell is that they are a big company.

The downside is that they use a lot of proprietary components and any way you look at it, they are a long way away. It's not like a half-hour drive to get your PC fixed or upgraded locally.

For example, if I needed another or bigger hard drive, I just call up my local guys and let them know I'm coming in to see them. Then I go over, and stand there and watch them install the new drive and I'm out of there in half an hour.

The other problem with Dell is that they tend to use small good-looking cases for their PCs. The downside is that in order to make the components fit, they have to be a specific proprietary design. Unless you are really short for space and place a large emphasis on looks, it's better to have a larger case. It's much easier to fit additional components in, it's more flexible and because it's bigger it will stay cooler inside.

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 3:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
That's why I'm not fond of Dells either Jimmer. The propriety components and the proprietary motherboard/case design make upgrading the machine virtually impossible.

As to Sony and Dell, they do not use AMD chips in their systems. AMD keeps trying to get into Dell, actually, but they continue to turn their proposals down.

Cathie, a cursory look at websites (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Micro Center) for media center PC's yields a price range from $899 to over $2000. I don't know what your price range is, but I haven't seen cheaper media center PC's for below $899 unless they were refurbs or closeout models. I did note, though, that none of the systems available offered AMD processors. Pentium processors will be fine though. For your needs, either processor works.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 8:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Check on Mysimon or ZDNet. I did see a review of Media Center PC's this week in a ZDNet newsletter, and one or two of the machines reviewed had the AMD 64 chips in it.