Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 09:14:37 04/09/03
Go up one level in this thread
On April 09, 2003 at 11:04:51, Aaron Gordon wrote: >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. _IF_ it is verified. This is not easy. It means you have to run a program that specifically tests "edge conditions" by running sliding 1 patterns thru every instruction, to see if there is any unexpected cross-talk at higher frequencies, etc. Just because it runs some application correctly, does _not_ mean it will run _all_ applications correctly.
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