In the AMD vs Intel Debate They are both good processor makers.... one having no big advantage over the other .... EXCEPT that AMD is the best overall value. IF money isn't an opject then newer AMD 64 processors or P4's in the 3.0 + Ghz range are really nice... but overkill if you ask me. If you are an average desktop user you are not really goign to need much more then a 1.0 - 2.0 Ghz processor anyway.
AMD processors are given names which correspond to how well they perform vs an Intel processor of the same class.... i.e. An AMD XP 2400+ performs as well as or better then a P4 running at 2.4 Ghz.
ALL PROCESSORS in the multiple Ghz Range run hot, so its not just AMD processors that do this.
You also have to consider that if you get new hardware you are going to need at least a new Mobo, new Ram and a new processor; this is assuming you get a Mobo That has built in sound and ethernet, and possibly GFX if you dont already have a decent GFX card... or you might need a new GFX card too.
The cheapest best bang for the buck system from scratch you can make right now would probally involve an Athlon 2400+ Mobile XP chip and Speez 80 mm Fan HS(77$ + 9$ for HS fan
www.newegg.com),an NForce2 based motherboard (or anohther comparable motherboard with built in sound, ethernet, and possibly GFX.....~80-100$), and 256 -512 MB of 3200 DDR RAM ( 35$ ..for 256 MB , 70$ for 512 MB). If you need to get a GFX card Geforce 440 MX's are cheap and do the job and come in at about 30 - 40$ (
www.newegg.com again).
The Beauty of this is that the Mobile Athlon series of chips was designed to run at a much lower voltage....(less heat for notebook computing) But is IDENTICAL to a XP desktop processor. This means that it fits into a desktop Motherboard but needs less voltage to run. Most of these right out of the box can be EAISLY overclocked to run faster then the HIGHEST end XP processors (currently mine runs at a speed that wouild make it a 3400+ processor... which does not exist, but the 3200+ processors cost 160 dollars.... for 86 dollars... mine runs better
).
The best place to find deals on components for compouters and deals on everything are:
www.fatwallet.com --- Check the forums section under "hot deals"
www.slickdeals.net -- front page AND forums under "hot deals"
www.newegg.com -- GREAT Customer service and some of the CHEAPEST prices on everything... sometimes it might cost a few more dollars then the cheapest price somewhere else... but its well worth it to deal with newegg
www.anandtech.net -- once again forums section under "hot deals", great review information and good technical info slices through most BS
www.tomshardware.com - The holy grail of computer info on the net IMHO... great reviews and NO BS about buzzwords
www.ocforums.com -- Overclockers forums.... great place for info about which processors overclock eaisly giving you more bang for the buck value from your processor decent for technical info.
NOw if you dont want to build your own system you might wanna buy a DELL. Why you ask? the performance? the realibility? the GREAT 24 hour a day customer serive?.... NO becuase they are CHEAP and you can find GREAT deals on them!
My friend got a Dell poweredge server (remember a server is just like any other computer... sometimes it just has certian extras which make it more stable.... DELL Poweredge servers really dont... they are almost IDENTICAL to their desktops) for 300 shipped. The computer came with a 2.8 P4 w Hyper Threading technology, 256 MB of RAM, 40 GB Hard drive, and a decent PCI graphics card (although the computer did have an AGP slot for upgrading the GFX),a mouse and keyboard!
One quick note on Hyper threading: Lots of people have been really ignorent about what hyperthreading does and people claim that its really improtant or does lots of things it does not do. Hyper Threading ONLY increases the speed of the processor by about 30% in IDEAL conditions... most of the time it does almost nothing. For a Quick explanation of what it does we need to think of the perfect example.... PLINKO on the "Price is Right". I know your thinking WTF does PLINKO have to do with a computer .... but its the best way to explain it to anyone who dosent necessarily know how CPU arcitechture works.
In Plinko The player stands at the top of the board with those big discs and they let them go... they slide down the board randomly bouncing off of pins that stnad in their way untill they land in a catcher at the bottom which tells Bob Barker how much money the contestant just won. The contestants drop the Plinko chips ONE at a time and wait untill it gets to the bottom and Bob either gets excited and announces that they won alot of money ... or acts like he is sorry becuase they got nothing. What if the contestant waitewd untill the first plinko chip was far enough down that another Plinko chip could be dropped safely. that way instead of waiting the ENTTIRE time between chips ... you only had to wait half as long? Processors with Hyper Threading work alot in the same way as Plinko but instead of plinko chips they have work units.
At the start of the cycle the Work unit is dropped in the processor.. and through a proces of sorting the value comes out the other end(i.e. 2 + 2 goes in... 4 comes out). Now just like in plinko, the work units are fed in one at a time.... with a pause between each unit. But in The same way that a player could drop more then one chip (as long as they waited enough time after dropping the first chip), Hyperthreading processors do the same with work units. Instead of processing on work unite per amount of time... They put in the first one... wait untill its half way through the processor (kinda) and they release another work unit. In theroy its a Great Idea... but if anyone tells you you NEED IT or its IMPORTANT..... They really do not know what its doing becuase a 0 - 30% gain in speed really is not that great when the processor costs you almost 2 times as much.
NOW for Intel Centrino Technology this is nothing that great either....just another attention grabbing buzz word (like "HYPER THREADING") . Intel Centrino technology is a fancy way of saying "Wireless netwroking standard by Intel" in essence its just like having a ether net card... except there is no wire ... everything is transmitted by a radio wave. The Current standards for wireless netowrking include : the widely avaible and more public 802.11b(g and some other letters... but never the less 802.11"some letter"), Airport and Airport EXTREEME (802.11b but a little differnet and for the mac basically), and Intel Centrino (802.11b but a little differnet made by intel). So you can buy a laptop with any kind of processor in it... and SMACK in a wireless networking card and you basically have "Centrino" or "AIRPORT EXTREEME" on your notebook.
SO in conclusion if you want to buy a new computer AVIOD buzzwords since they are not worth the extra monney, and check out thoe websites I listed... those are some of the best places on the net to get info about cheap computers or technical info (trust technical jinfo from the ones I listed as technical info... NOT FROM fatwallet or the bargin sites... technical info there is littered with hear-say and BS).
all my posts end up being really freakin long..... hah
