I am looking into buying a custom computer and I have heard some things that don’t sound right compared to my admittedly limited knowledge of computers. I have not gotten a straight answer about comparing the speeds of AMD vs. Intel processors. Intel is pretty straight forward… P4 3.2 and so on. I was told that AMD is compared to Intel in such a way that a AMD 3200+ chip is comparable to a P4 3.2, and a 3400+ is comparable to a P4 3.4, and so on, following the same pattern. Is this correct, and if not, how does one make a good comparison?
Regarding hard drives, I was told that I would not be able to buy a 200G hard drive and have it be my boot drive? Is this true, and if so why? Any answers would be greatly appreciated.
!) Processor speed - that comparison is close enough for government work. That is why AMD labels them that way. A full comparison would take all kinds of benchmarks on different types of tasks. There are plenty of those out there but usually isn’t that important for most people.
AMD makes a great processor. Then again, so does Intel. The geek crowd seems to be drawn to Athlon 64s these days though.
- Hard drive size limit - not true. That isn’t even that large for hard drives these days. I think that is referring to an older limit that has been addressed.
I should add that you can partition a large hard drive so that the computer sees and uses it as multiple drive letters. This is very common and can be used to establish one drive as a boot drive (say 50 GB) and the rest for applications and media. It segregates things and has several moderate advantages.
That would be 48-bit LBA.
Your Windows XP disc must have SP1 or SP2 on it to allow you to format a drive larger than 137GB during installation. See here.
Thanks a lot. I did plan on partitioning the drive, I just had not heard of the issue that was mentioned. It was a local mom and pop computer store and when I asked for a general quote involving a 200G drive the gentleman said I would have to buy a smaller one as well for my boot drive. Thought it sounded funny, so I thought I would ask people who knew.
The processor “equivelance” rating AMD gives is because AMD CPUs are more efficient per-clock and can handle more instructions in every clock cycle. A “3200+” might be a 2 ghz processor, and if they labelled it that way people would say “wow, Intel is faster!” when the reality is that it does, on average, 1.6 instructions per clock as compared to the 3.2ghz pentium.
Of course, it’s more complicated than that, with different types of processing having different performance and results, but it’s roughly accurate.
You don’t have to, but I would suggest it. In case of a problem that hoses the OS, you don’t have to worry about accidentally wiping the other data, even if you have already partitioned it. In no case should you keep your OS and your data on the same partition.
Thanks SenorBeef. Thats the best basic explanation I have heard. I was confused exactly because of the 2.2 rating next to the 3200+.
For an idea on Intel vs AMD, hop over to www.tomshardware.com and look up some of the side-by-side tests. Some CPU’s will kick ass doing one job while not so well doing another.
This is a great resource when shopping for a CPU because you can get an idea on the best price point vs performance vs what you plan on doing with the computer.
I always check their site before buying.
I will say I’ve been quite impressed with the Althon 64 CPU’s. A good price point and a nice collection of motherboards to stick it on. I’ve got a couple 64’s at the office and my next home machine will be one.
Thanks neutron star a friend asked me about his SATA drive that he couldn’t partition above 137GB when he did his XP install. I didn’t realize that it was a problem with SATA drives also. I never ran into it because I use a SP1 disk to do my installs. Now I can answer his question, and look like I know everything.
As to the original OP. I use AMD and have been happy with them. The 3000+ markings on AMDs are basically AMDs way of saying “This processor will on average run as well as an Intel processor of that speed” It isn’t the real speed it is running.
-Otanx
You an integrate a service pack into a windows installer by slipstreaming
Yeah, I recommend slipstreaming too… AutoStreamer makes it especially easy to do.