Author: Aaron Gordon
Date: 08:04:51 04/09/03
Go up one level in this thread
On April 09, 2003 at 09:24:01, Charles Worthington wrote: >On April 09, 2003 at 00:46:15, Charles Worthington wrote: > >>On April 09, 2003 at 00:34:10, Pavel Blokhine wrote: >> >>>On April 09, 2003 at 00:17:16, Charles Worthington wrote: >>> >>>>On April 08, 2003 at 23:53:06, Charles Worthington wrote: >>>> >>>>>On April 08, 2003 at 23:41:44, Pavel Blokhine wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>I am looking to buy a new computer. I will be using it for many things, but >>>>>>mostly for computer video games and chess online. So what computer would be >>>>>>best? TheMicro Express MicroFlex 27A Powered by AMD's 2.17-GHz Athlon XP 2700+ >>>>>>processor and 512MB of DDR400 SDRAM, the MicroFlex 27A earned a blistering score >>>>>>of 130 on PC WorldBench 4 tests, for $2254 or a Dell Dimension 8250• 3.06-GHz >>>>>>Pentium 4 processor• 200GB hard drive• 18-inch LCD monitor• 128MB ATI Radeon >>>>>>9700 Pro graphics• 16X DVD-ROM drive, DVD+RW/+R drive at $3158? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>If video games and chess are your main uses for the machine I would think the >>>>>AMD would be the better choice...especially for the money....I own a dimension >>>>>8250 and while it surely performs well it was hardly worth the additional cost >>>>>were i to only use it for chess. But in the end it really is just a question of >>>>>personal preference. If both companies offer comparable service and support then >>>>>its really a toss of the coin. >>>>>Charles >>>> >>>> >>>>P.S. The decision will also depend on what you plan for the machine in the >>>>future. If you want to upgrade to a faster cpu later on or overclock your >>>>current one then the AMD is the only option for you. Dell boards do not support >>>>overclocking and Intel is notorious for often changing the socket on their cpus. >>>>So you can pretty much rule out upgrading the Dell at all without >>>>some_major_expense. Speed wise you are not going to see a huge world of >>>>differece between the two machines. Assuming no overclocking you will get close >>>>to 1200 kNs running fritz 8 on either. The hyperthreading will give you a 10 to >>>>12% boost with the intel running Deep Fritz 7 but the strength difference is >>>>negligible. >>>> >>>>Charles >>> >>> >>>Thanks. But how do i overclock an AMD and is it safe? >> >> >> >> >>Well, I am not an expert in overclocking but for mild overclocking, where no >>additional cooling is required, i think you can just bump the cpu clock speed up >>in bios say 10% or so safely (my figure may be inaccuarate). You may have >>configure a jumper or two on the system board as well I am not certain about the >>design of these boards. Aaron Gordon would be the one to pose this question to >>as he has extensive knowledge of these boards and overclocking techniques. Sorry >>I couldn't be more help. >> >>Charles > > > >The same also applies to the dual 3.06 xeon system you emailed me the specs to >as we have already discussed above. The xeon systems have decreased in price a >bit though. For chess I would recommend a minimum of 1GB of RAM and 2 would be >even better but like all things related to the computer it is a matter of what >you can afford to sink into one. Dell's business machines are more flexible as >far as upgradability than their residential machines however they still cannot >be clocked up. My machine is automatically upgraded each time a newer or faster >part comes out as per my contract with Dell. The day after the part is released >a technician comes to install it. This contract includes motherboards, cpu's, >and memory only. As far as overclocking goes there is little need to overclock a >high end AMD or Xeon dual. They are both quite fast as it is and with the upper >end cpu's if you try anything more than mild overclocking you will need >additional cooling because these cpu's are already clocked close to the upper >end of what the engineers say is the limit of the part. Taking a 2 GHZ part to >2.5 GHz is much simpler than taking a 3GHz part to 3.5GHz. Like I said earlier >though, these are questions best left to Aaron Gordon or one of the guys here >who specialize in overclocking. Personally, with the current advances in cpu >technology i think overclocking the high end parts is a bit silly when there are >faster and faster cpu's coming to market constantly. Why take the risk when it >isn't needed? Most overclocking is done on the lower end chips to bring them up >to where the higher end chips are without putting out the expense for the high >end one. I think Aaron would agree that overclocking a high end chip past it's >safety margin would be unwise. > >Sincerely, Charles Overclocking a high-end chip is fine as long as you know what you're doing. Also as long as you run stability tests to ensure whatever cpu you're overclocking is completely stable it doesn't matter if you're overclocking an AthlonXP 3000+ or a 386SX-16MHz. Stable is stable.
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