Buying behind the curve...64-bit AMD or dual Intel

Snowfly

I'm throwing together a temporary workstation for around $800, but I'm stumped as to which processor to get: Athlon 64 3000+ or a Intel 805 (2.66Ghz) Dual Core LGA775.

Obviously it's a setup for game art. Just got tired of making do with a PIII. I'll be using Maya 4.5 and Photoshop 7 mostly.

Alos, are there any sites that compare benchmark results of any two CPU's?

CheapAlert

amd

rawkstar

i have a 64bit dual core amd athlon x2, i say go with intel. this thing is cool, it works well for everything i need, but it is not very stable for some reason, the factory default voltage settings are off so i had to bump up the voltage on the cpu manually to make it more stable, otherwise i get random reboots every once in awhile when the cpu gets undervolted, kind of annoying, i always had intel before this and it worked really well, all my pcs until this one were super stable, my laptop has a p4 in it and its solid as a rock.

for benchmarks try http://www.tomshardware.com

KeyserSoze

[ QUOTE ]
Alos, are there any sites that compare benchmark results of any two CPU's?

[/ QUOTE ]

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

Select two CPUs to compare, select a benchmark, and the CPUs you selected will show as red bars on the chart.

Snowfly

Thanks, I'm going with the Pentium D since it's both 64-bit and dual core, and I don't like the sound of stability problems on a workstation. Since I'm going to be using this computer for only a few months on a tight deadline, I want the experience to be as headache free as possible. Now I'm wondering if my software supports dual core at all...anyway, I'm off to get the computer.

CheapAlert

my a64 3200 is working without any hitches with a 450w psu. (good for me, yeah, but the only excessively unstable amd i've ever had was the thunderbird-c 1ghz. memtest86 spewed up like 500 pages of red errors unless i underclocked it to 950mhz, and the reason behind this was actually the cheap CompUSA brand powersupply)

Snowfly

Got it. The thing is being delivered to my apartment tomorrow afternoon.

I spent an hour talking with the guys at the shop and the consensus was if I'm building a workstation, go for the efficient processor, not the powerhouse. Of course some will disagree, but I'm building PS2 type game content. This is all I need.

Pentium D 2.66
Intel motherboard
PCI-e 6800GS 512MB DDR3 RAM
1GB PC533 DDR2 RAM
80GB SATA HDD
19" flat CRT (1600 x 1200, 75mhz)
500W power supply

With these specs, I'd have felt like a bigshot 2 years ago. But I'm spending $820 to make several thousands so it's all good.

PaK

Good to see you have some work Snowfly. You're stuff is solid and I love your work, you deserve it. Congradulations

-R

KDR_11k

I want a 75 MHz display, too.