AMD or INTEL for HL2?

[Volk]

Hi,
I am putting together a new PC for myself. I do not know if I should go with AMD 64 3500 (or maybe higher) or Pentium 4 3.60. I've read that the A64 is faster. However, there are no PCI-Express and DDR2 motherboards avaible for it. For Pentium 4 machine, I was thinking 3.60 LGA775 processor, 925x chipset PCI-Express enabled motherboard that supports 1GB DDR2 memory, and X800XT Graphics card. For an A64 machine I was thinking 3500 or 3800 CPU, 1GB Low Latency DDR400 RAM, and X800XT garphics card. Which one would perform better?
Also, since I am probably going to be playing CS:S for the next 2 or more years, does the Source engine take advantage of the 64-bit technology? Does it take advantage of the PCI-Express technology? Which system would HL2 perform better on?

Thank you.

 

[63]

There's a 3500? 3800?

Go with AMD

 

[snak3y3z1001]

If the full purpose of the machine is to play games then I would go AMD.

 

[ShinRa]

Amd....amd....amd...

 

[sharp]

AMD Athlon 64, go for it!

 

[lePobz]

AMD FX-53 on an nForce4 motherboard, duh!

 

[ewilson248]

i would definitely say AMD64, try to get into socket 939 rather than 754
it is a pretty big $$$ jump, but will extend the life of the upgrade by a full year.
IMO. That with 1GB memory and an X800 is pretty much the bleeding edge at this moment in time. I would not worry about PCI-E until the next time around.

 

[blackeye]

I would not worry about PCI-E until the next time around.

I agree with that. I dont understand why everyone wants to get PCI-E cards right now. The agp versions in most cases are faster when you look at the benchmarks. It would be nice to have a motherboard that support both AGP and PCI-E but if you want that you will have to go with intel. But right now AMD is a much better choice IMO.

 

[Asus]

PCI Express does nothing for performance for today.
DDR2 performs lower than DDR today.
AMD64 performs better in todays 32BIT desktop applications/games than Intel's Prescott (P4 'E") CPU.
There are a number of high-end games will release a 64BIT version in the future.
Valve has said once the 64BIT version of Windows is released that they will support it.
If you still really want PCI-Express, Nvidia (nForce4 !) and VIA will release their PCI Express boards for AMD later this year.
Do you already have a easy-bake oven and don't want another? then choose AMD.

Performance: Tomshardware and HardOCP
Note: Pentium 4 560 = 3.6GHz Prescott LGA775 platform with PCI-Express

 

[Volk]

Thank you all for your responses! Especially Asus! I'm gonna go with AMD. That's it.

Thank you.

 

[Asus]

Oops, that HardOCP link didn't come out right. ha
Link