"Socket A" vs "Socket 478" (Amd vs Intel)

Just wanna know, i'm thinking of buying a new pc, but i wanna make it
last in time, so:

Which of these two sockets have a longer life expectance? i mean, i want
a motherboard wich will allow me in two years to give a "second youth" to my
system by upgrading the processor to it's best option (i mean, many
motherboards say, for example: "supported processors: intel IV 3.2 Ghz AND
ABOVE"; that "and above" sounds really confusing, as i don't know for how
long will socket 478 or socket A be running).

And another question: where i live, the pentium IV 2.8 Ghz almost
duplicates in cost the celeron 2.6 Ghz, and of course, as i'm not keen on
throwing money away, i wanna know if the celeron 2.6 Ghz could be used on a
Socket 478 motherboard (so i could save money and upgrade later when pentium
IV prices lowered).

Thanks in advance.

"Minstro" wrote in message
...

Which of these two sockets have a longer life expectance?


Socket A to last at least till end of 2005:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...18_608,00.html

3.4GHz P4 may be the last of socket 478. Socket 775 to follow together with
new BTX form factor.

By the time you try to upgrade the CPU in a couple of years, the BIOS on the
board may not support the new CPU, even if the socket was still the same.
Also, since they keep lowering the voltage requirements for the CPUs, the
voltage regulator on your motherboard probably won't handle the new CPU.
What you could get is a faster CPU that is currently at a premium price
because it is the top of the line, but by then it probably won't be enough
faster to justify the expense. Just put the money toward a newer board and
CPU and you'll probably be happier.

--
Wayne Morgan

Minstro wrote:
Just wanna know, i'm thinking of buying a new pc, but i wanna
make it last in time, so:

Which of these two sockets have a longer life expectance? i mean,
i want a motherboard wich will allow me in two years to give a
"second youth" to my system by upgrading the processor to it's best
option (i mean, many motherboards say, for example: "supported
processors: intel IV 3.2 Ghz AND ABOVE"; that "and above" sounds
really confusing, as i don't know for how long will socket 478 or
socket A be running).

And another question: where i live, the pentium IV 2.8 Ghz almost
duplicates in cost the celeron 2.6 Ghz, and of course, as i'm not
keen on throwing money away, i wanna know if the celeron 2.6 Ghz
could be used on a Socket 478 motherboard (so i could save money and
upgrade later when pentium IV prices lowered).


As Alien Zord points out, both Socket A and Socket 478 are nearing the end
of their lifespans. Purchasing a good motherboard and model 2600+ Barton
core Athlon XP is a very cost effective solution. If you prefer Intel,
choose a P4 over the Celeron, even if the P4 is slower. The Celeron is a
neutered P4 which Intel really should drop from production.

The processors made by Intel almost all work on the P4 Socket 478.
There were not many of the other Socket 423 P4's made. You probably
would have a hard time finding any.

Celerons designed for the P4 should do fine on any P4 Socket 478
motherboard. I would not buy any of the celerons myself. An AMD
1.6Gig Duron is faster than a 2.6Gig celeron when playing games.
Before I would buy a Celeron I definitely would suggest using an AMD
Athlon.

If you are willing to spend over $150 for a processor, an 800Mhz P4
processor is probably a good buy. I wouldnt buy anything too
expensive much over $200 for a processor is probably too much. I
would not suggest spending $300 or $400 for a processor. The Prescott
will soon go to the next socket, and soon the Athlon 64s will be
dropping down to about the $120 level.

2 years from now I would expect a 4 Gig processor of some kind. Who
knows what will be available then.



Just wanna know, i'm thinking of buying a new pc, but i wanna make it
last in time, so:

Which of these two sockets have a longer life expectance? i mean, i want
a motherboard wich will allow me in two years to give a "second youth" to my
system by upgrading the processor to it's best option (i mean, many
motherboards say, for example: "supported processors: intel IV 3.2 Ghz AND
ABOVE"; that "and above" sounds really confusing, as i don't know for how
long will socket 478 or socket A be running).

And another question: where i live, the pentium IV 2.8 Ghz almost
duplicates in cost the celeron 2.6 Ghz, and of course, as i'm not keen on
throwing money away, i wanna know if the celeron 2.6 Ghz could be used on a
Socket 478 motherboard (so i could save money and upgrade later when pentium
IV prices lowered).

Thanks in advance.

Must confess i'm a bit confused; sure i think i'll take the Athlon XP
2600+ option, but, how many cores are available besides Barton for that
model? why should i take Barton core? which are it's advantages? (up to now,
i hadn't worried about cores; mean don't know nothing about them).

Thanks for all the answers, they've been of great help.


"S.Heenan" escribió en el mensaje
news:GcP8c.6000$li5.159@pd7tw3no...

As Alien Zord points out, both Socket A and Socket 478 are nearing the end
of their lifespans. Purchasing a good motherboard and model 2600+ Barton
core Athlon XP is a very cost effective solution. If you prefer Intel,
choose a P4 over the Celeron, even if the P4 is slower. The Celeron is a
neutered P4 which Intel really should drop from production.

Minstro wrote:
Must confess i'm a bit confused; sure i think i'll take the
Athlon XP 2600+ option, but, how many cores are available besides
Barton for that model? why should i take Barton core? which are it's
advantages? (up to now, i hadn't worried about cores; mean don't know
nothing about them).


The Barton Model 10 core Athlon XP has 512KB of L2 cache, which is twice the
L2 cache of the Thoroughbred core Model 8. To the end user, this means
better performance in some, but not all tasks.

AMD document #26237 gives all of the Barton specs:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...4_3748,00.html

I suggested the 2600+ retail model in the interest of economy. A motherboard
using the Nforce2 Ultra400 chipset will maximize performance. Abit, Asus,
and Gigabyte all make fine boards.

What about QDI Kudoz 7X series for a motherboard?

AMD nForce2 ULTRA AN7 (uGuru) costs ................. 120 euros.
AMD VIAKT400A KUDOZ 7X/400A-6AL costs ...... 66 euros.
AMD VIAKT400A KUDOZ 7X/600A-6AL costs ...... 69 euros.

Is it worth paying the double?


"S.Heenan" escribió en el mensaje
news:3SV8c.11355$R27.9118@pd7tw2no...
I suggested the 2600+ retail model in the interest of economy. A
motherboard
using the Nforce2 Ultra400 chipset will maximize performance. Abit, Asus,
and Gigabyte all make fine boards.

Minstro wrote:
What about QDI Kudoz 7X series for a motherboard?

AMD nForce2 ULTRA AN7 (uGuru) costs ................. 120 euros.
AMD VIAKT400A KUDOZ 7X/400A-6AL costs ...... 66 euros.
AMD VIAKT600A KUDOZ 7X/600A-6AL costs ...... 69 euros.

Is it worth paying the double?


For my needs and wants, yes. That's a question you will have to answer for
yourself. The VIA KT400/KT600 boards will certainly support the AMD Barton.
The KUDOZ 7X/600A-6AL is the better of the two QDI boards.

What kind of needs? i plan buying it for games and video mainly, running
multiple tasks simultaneously (i.e. running a game while listening winamp
music and using P2P sofware), and some video compression processing;
situations where the system gets stressed the most; if it can handle this, i
suppose it will anything else.

I've been searching the web, and what i found is that "AMD nForce2
ULTRA AN7 (uGuru)" supports dual channel DRR memory (just couldn't find out
if KUDOZ can). Besides that, didn't find anything significant, though of
course, i'm not an expert. What are its advantages?

On the other hand, dual channel DDR memory is still quite expensive, so
i would buy nomal memory and upgrade in the future, in case i chose nForce2
ULTRA.


"S.Heenan" escribió en el mensaje
news:xhX8c.12192$QO2.4186@pd7tw1no...
For my needs and wants, yes. That's a question you will have to answer for
yourself. The VIA KT400/KT600 boards will certainly support the AMD
Barton.
The KUDOZ 7X/600A-6AL is the better of the two QDI boards.