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**Praetor** · 05-15-2005, 03:28 AM

Section 3 - Recomendations
Naturally it's important to preface this section by suggesting that (1) these are only suggestions rather than absolute rules and (2) given market fluctuations and price variances, by the time anyone reads these suggestions, they will be horribly obsolete

With that being said let's tackle some issues. If you are looking for specific model suggestions, have a look at a short list here ... for more generic (and thus, less obsolecent-prone) suggestions, read on.

Single vs Multi-Core

If you didnt read above where I commented about dual and multi core configurations, now would be a good time to do so. Regardless, if you are trying to decide between say an Athlon64 FX series processor and a Athlon64 X2 series processor, you will probably benifit most from selecting the Athlon64 X2 because
- Some games nowadays are multithreaded. In the future, it's reasonable assumption to make that games will be almost universally multithreaded so a dual-core processor will easily prove it's worth. Between say, the Athlon64 FX57 and the Athlon64 X2 4800 processor for instance, even though the FX57 does better on single threaded games -- at say 150fps (compared to say 135fps on the X2), you're not going to notice the difference
- If you're the type to do multitasking and stuff and/or the type of person who enjoys the benifits of HyperThreading, consider a dualcore processor to be a Hyperthreading-on-steroids processor. Instead of just being able to multitask, now you can get work done in those background threads. People that play around in multimedia, animation and image processing will benifit a lot from this as will those who do lots of statistical analysis and other heavy-math applications
Similar comparisons exist for Intel [dual-core] processors however since Intel has divided their platform up a bit more, it's worth dealing with directly. There are three platforms to consider, the Intel Pentium 4 5xx/6xx single-core lineup, the Pentium D 8xx dual-core lineup and the Pentium Extreme Edition 8xx lineup
- Of the three, the Pentium Extreme Edition 8xx lineup is the most superior and carries the a very big price tag to boot. What makes it so fancy and special is that, in addition to having two physical cores (and thus be able to deal with two threads simultaneously), each physical core has a HyperThreading unit enabled which means it can effectively handle four threads concurrently. This is quite benificial for multimedia and image processing type tasks.
- The Pentium D 8xx series is in all respects like it's big brother the Pentium Extreme Edition series however Hyoerthreading is not available and as such the Pentium D processors can only deal with two threads simultaneously. Again, being a dual-core processor carries the same benifits towards multimedia, animation and image processing applications as other dual-core processors
- The Pentium 4 5xx and 6xx series are single core processors which have HyperThreading enabled on them and as such they can handle two threads simultaneously (although not as effectively as similarly clocked Pentium D processors). Now it is important to note the distinction about being 'similarly clocked'. For the price of any given dual-core Pentium D processor, you can potentially get a single-cored 5xx or 6xx with a 600Mhz clock advantage. Now since the single-cored processors have HyperThreading enabled, being single-cored is not as much of a penalty [as expected] and even a moderate clock advantage of 400MHz (for a given price) is nothing to shy from. As such, I think the best advice I can give here is ... if the clock-difference (for similar prices) between single and dual-core processors is 200MHz, go for the dual-core setup. If the difference is more than 200MHz then it's worth considering how far in advance you intend to build this system for (i.e., when is the next time you plan to upgrade) and what kind of heavy multithreaded applications you will be running.
Lastly, for dual-core oriented readers, there is a question of Athlon64 X2 or Pentium D/EE, a few comments
- Again, if your budget can support it, the Pentium Extreme Edition is superior to the Pentium D
- For gaming, the Athlon64 X2 will clearly give you better performance
- If you plan on firing up lots of threads within a single application (say Photoshop, Lightwave, 3D SMAX etc), the Athlon64 X2 is the premier processor to get. If you plan on firing up lots of threads across several applications (say Photoshop and Lightwave simultaneously), the Pentium EE is the processor to get
- Performance-wise there isnt much reason to consider the Pentium D however it should not be ruled out entirely since it has the very nice characteristic of being a somewhat affordable dual-core processor

So the bottom line I suppose is, for AMD buyers, if your budget can support a dual-core rig... go for it as it is generally superior and the cases where its not superior the deficiency isnt really an issue. For intel buyers, if the Pentium Extreme Edition is in the budget, thats the route to go but more tha likely the decision will be between the 5xx/6xx and the Pentium D ... and again, if the clock difference for a price bracket is <=200Mhz, go for the dual-core configuration. If not, then you need to do an evaluation of how heavy you multithread

Core Selection

For single-core Socket939 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are
1. San Diego (1MB)
2. Venice (512K)
3. Winchester (512K)
4. SledgeHammer/Clawhammer (1MB)
5. Newcastle (512K)
6. Newcastle256 (256K)
For single-core Socket754 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are
1. Winchester (512K)
2. Clawhammer (1MB)
3. Newcastle (512K)
4. Paris/Palermo (256K) (Winchester based)
5. Palermo (128K) (Winchester based)
6. Paris (128K) (Newcastle based)
For single-core Socket775 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are
1. Prescott (2MB)
2. Prescott (1MB)
3. Gallatin (512K+2MB)
For dual-core Socket939 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are
1. Toledo (2x1MB)
2. Manchester (2x512K)
For dual-core Socket775 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are
1. Smithfield (2x1MB)

64Bit CPUs
What is a 64bit CPU?

Well the "64bit" in "64bit CPU" means the same thing as the "32bit" in "32bit CPU". Specifically it means that communication occuring between the CPU and "external data" occurs with 64bits of precision. Now by "external data" I essentially mean 'RAM' and through that, the rest of the system.
In simple terms this means that a 64bit machine is capable of addressing up two 2^64 bits of memory (thats 16TB of RAM) while a 32bit machine is only able to access 2^32 bits of memory (thats 4GB of RAM).
It is important to note that, for consumer systems, you wont be able to install more than 4GB of RAM anyways due to limitations in the chipset. This does not mean your system (if configured) can't access up to 16GB but just realize 12GB of it will be virtual memory. See the RAM 101 for a distinction
A 64bit machine is NOT twice as powerful as a 32bit machine. Period. People suggesting or saying that are either misinformed (and that's putting it nicely) or they are trying to pull a fast one.

Is my CPU 64bit?

All Socket939 processors are 64bit capable
All Socket754 processors with at least 512K of cache are 64bit capable
The Socket754-Sempron3300+ is 64bit capable .. future Socket754-Sempron models will be 64bit capable too
All Intel Socket775 processors with the series number 5x1, 6xx and 8xx are 64bit capable
If you dont have a 64bit capable processor, there is no way to hack it so that you can get 64bit functionality

What can a 64bit CPU do that a 32bit one cant?

As mentioned above, 64bit machines can address four times as much memory as a 32bit machine
Some applications are more effective and optimized for running in a 64bit environment (i.e., statistical analysis applications, video applications)
Some games are written/optimized for 64bit environments (i.e., Red Mercury, FarCry) and you'll notice a detail/world difference (usually the difference lies in the number of objects present on the screen at a given time)

Should I buy a 64bit CPU?
The generic answer here is "yes" however there are a few points worth considering

INTEL64 For similar clock speeds, going from a 5xx series to a 6xx series usually entails a 10-20% premium depending on where you are buying it from. This isnt "pocket change" and if you aren't exactly planning on playing in a 64bit environment and realize that future upgrading my be more limited (as more applicatrions become 64bit only) then the 5xx is for you
AMD64 If you're on a limited budget and are considering say between a Athlon64-2800 and a Sempron-3100, the same logic as the intel route applies however even still, the Athlon64-2800 is probably still the better route

05-15-2005, 03:28 AM	#6 (permalink)
Praetor Administrator Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Age: 26 Posts: 19,953	Section 3 - Recomendations Naturally it's important to preface this section by suggesting that (1) these are only suggestions rather than absolute rules and (2) given market fluctuations and price variances, by the time anyone reads these suggestions, they will be horribly obsolete With that being said let's tackle some issues. If you are looking for specific model suggestions, have a look at a short list here ... for more generic (and thus, less obsolecent-prone) suggestions, read on. *Single vs Multi-Core* If you didnt read above where I commented about dual and multi core configurations, now would be a good time to do so. Regardless, if you are trying to decide between say an Athlon64 FX series processor and a Athlon64 X2 series processor, you will probably benifit most from selecting the Athlon64 X2 because Some games nowadays are multithreaded. In the future, it's reasonable assumption to make that games will be almost universally multithreaded so a dual-core processor will easily prove it's worth. Between say, the Athlon64 FX57 and the Athlon64 X2 4800 processor for instance, even though the FX57 does better on single threaded games -- at say 150fps (compared to say 135fps on the X2), you're not going to notice the difference If you're the type to do multitasking and stuff and/or the type of person who enjoys the benifits of HyperThreading, consider a dualcore processor to be a Hyperthreading-on-steroids processor. Instead of just being able to multitask, now you can get work done in those background threads. People that play around in multimedia, animation and image processing will benifit a lot from this as will those who do lots of statistical analysis and other heavy-math applications Similar comparisons exist for Intel [dual-core] processors however since Intel has divided their platform up a bit more, it's worth dealing with directly. There are three platforms to consider, the Intel Pentium 4 5xx/6xx single-core lineup, the Pentium D 8xx dual-core lineup and the Pentium Extreme Edition 8xx lineup Of the three, the Pentium Extreme Edition 8xx lineup is the most superior and carries the a very big price tag to boot. What makes it so fancy and special is that, in addition to having two physical cores (and thus be able to deal with two threads simultaneously), each physical core has a HyperThreading unit enabled which means it can effectively handle four threads concurrently. This is quite benificial for multimedia and image processing type tasks. The Pentium D 8xx series is in all respects like it's big brother the Pentium Extreme Edition series however Hyoerthreading is not available and as such the Pentium D processors can only deal with two threads simultaneously. Again, being a dual-core processor carries the same benifits towards multimedia, animation and image processing applications as other dual-core processors The Pentium 4 5xx and 6xx series are single core processors which have HyperThreading enabled on them and as such they can handle two threads simultaneously (although not as effectively as similarly clocked Pentium D processors). Now it is important to note the distinction about being 'similarly clocked'. For the price of any given dual-core Pentium D processor, you can potentially get a single-cored 5xx or 6xx with a 600Mhz clock advantage. Now since the single-cored processors have HyperThreading enabled, being single-cored is not as much of a penalty [as expected] and even a moderate clock advantage of 400MHz (for a given price) is nothing to shy from. As such, I think the best advice I can give here is ... if the clock-difference (for similar prices) between single and dual-core processors is 200MHz, go for the dual-core setup. If the difference is more than 200MHz then it's worth considering how far in advance you intend to build this system for (i.e., when is the next time you plan to upgrade) and what kind of heavy multithreaded applications you will be running. Lastly, for dual-core oriented readers, there is a question of Athlon64 X2 or Pentium D/EE, a few comments Again, if your budget can support it, the Pentium Extreme Edition is superior to the Pentium D For gaming, the Athlon64 X2 will clearly give you better performance If you plan on firing up lots of threads within a single application (say Photoshop, Lightwave, 3D SMAX etc), the Athlon64 X2 is the premier processor to get. If you plan on firing up lots of threads across several applications (say Photoshop and Lightwave simultaneously), the Pentium EE is the processor to get Performance-wise there isnt much reason to consider the Pentium D however it should not be ruled out entirely since it has the very nice characteristic of being a somewhat affordable dual-core processor So the bottom line I suppose is, for AMD buyers, if your budget can support a dual-core rig... go for it as it is generally superior and the cases where its not superior the deficiency isnt really an issue. For intel buyers, if the Pentium Extreme Edition is in the budget, thats the route to go but more tha likely the decision will be between the 5xx/6xx and the Pentium D ... and again, if the clock difference for a price bracket is <=200Mhz, go for the dual-core configuration. If not, then you need to do an evaluation of how heavy you multithread *Core Selection* For single-core Socket939 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are San Diego (1MB) Venice (512K) Winchester (512K) SledgeHammer/Clawhammer (1MB) Newcastle (512K) Newcastle256 (256K) For single-core Socket754 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are Winchester (512K) Clawhammer (1MB) Newcastle (512K) Paris/Palermo (256K) (Winchester based) Palermo (128K) (Winchester based) Paris (128K) (Newcastle based) For single-core Socket775 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are Prescott (2MB) Prescott (1MB) Gallatin (512K+2MB) For dual-core Socket939 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are Toledo (2x1MB) Manchester (2x512K) For dual-core Socket775 buyers, the core's to look for (from most favorable to least favorable) are Smithfield (2x1MB) *64Bit CPUs* What is a 64bit CPU? Well the "64bit" in "64bit CPU" means the same thing as the "32bit" in "32bit CPU". Specifically it means that communication occuring between the CPU and "external data" occurs with 64bits of precision. Now by "external data" I essentially mean 'RAM' and through that, the rest of the system. In simple terms this means that a 64bit machine is capable of addressing up two 2^64 bits of memory (thats 16TB of RAM) while a 32bit machine is only able to access 2^32 bits of memory (thats 4GB of RAM). It is important to note that, for consumer systems, you wont be able to install more than 4GB of RAM anyways due to limitations in the chipset. This does not mean your system (if configured) can't access up to 16GB but just realize 12GB of it will be virtual memory. See the RAM 101 for a distinction A 64bit machine is NOT twice as powerful as a 32bit machine. Period. People suggesting or saying that are either misinformed (and that's putting it nicely) or they are trying to pull a fast one. Is my CPU 64bit? All Socket939 processors are 64bit capable All Socket754 processors with at least 512K of cache are 64bit capable The Socket754-Sempron3300+ is 64bit capable .. future Socket754-Sempron models will be 64bit capable too All Intel Socket775 processors with the series number 5x1, 6xx and 8xx are 64bit capable If you dont have a 64bit capable processor, there is no way to hack it so that you can get 64bit functionality What can a 64bit CPU do that a 32bit one cant? As mentioned above, 64bit machines can address four times as much memory as a 32bit machine Some applications are more effective and optimized for running in a 64bit environment (i.e., statistical analysis applications, video applications) Some games are written/optimized for 64bit environments (i.e., Red Mercury, FarCry) and you'll notice a detail/world difference (usually the difference lies in the number of objects present on the screen at a given time) Should I buy a 64bit CPU? The generic answer here is "yes" however there are a few points worth considering INTEL64 For similar clock speeds, going from a 5xx series to a 6xx series usually entails a 10-20% premium depending on where you are buying it from. This isnt "pocket change" and if you aren't exactly planning on playing in a 64bit environment and realize that future upgrading my be more limited (as more applicatrions become 64bit only) then the 5xx is for you AMD64 If you're on a limited budget and are considering say between a Athlon64-2800 and a Sempron-3100, the same logic as the intel route applies however even still, the Athlon64-2800 is probably still the better route __________________ ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8 4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400 5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10 OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI Last edited by Praetor; 08-02-2005 at 07:08 AM.