Should a person go xp athlon or is 64 necessary?

[ChipX]

 

[gaara]

in my opinion a processor and a motherboard should be bought retail.

OEM seems like a good choice if you plan on overclocking pretty much right away.

 

[ingeborgdot]

So, what motherboard do you recommend? Under $100 if possible. No need for overclocking.

 

[millerhighlife_]

If you are going to go with the higher end Sempron, then I would look at the A64 b/c the price difference wont be much more. If you go with something alittle cheaper, like the 2500+ Barton $86, emtioned above then you should not consider dishing out the extra dough for the 64 b/c what you will be doing wont need a powerhouse cpu.

 

[ekÆsine]

very few stores still stock the xp2500 retail and if you find some the prices are crazy. a better cpu would be the xp2500 mobile. if you insist on retail try this

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-342&depa=1

AMD Athlon XP 2700+, 333MHz FSB, 256K Cache Processor - Retail $104.00


Model# AXDA2700BOX
Item # N82E16819103342
Specifications:
Model: AMD Athlon XP 2700+
Core: Thoroughbred
Operating Frequency: 2.17GHz
FSB: 333MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/256K
Voltage: 1.65V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Packaging: Retail Box (Heatsink and Fan included)

 

[Apokalipse]

I really don't know where people are getting this idea that just because a 64 bit proccesor, it only excels in 64 bit applications. This is totally untrue. The Athlon 64s are some of the fastest 32 bit proccesors availible on the market today. The benchmarks speak for themselves, and guess what, the benchmarks are performed in 32 bit applications.

benchmarks are the only place appart from high end games that you really notice a difference, and even then, the difference is not much between a Sempron, Athlon XP and Athlon 64 2800+
yes the Athlon 64's are some of the fastest 32-bit CPU's, but for this purpose (word, internet and whatnot) the difference is unnoticable

 

[ingeborgdot]

I am looking for a board for the athlon 64.

 

[ChipX]

then u r looking for an abit!

 

[Apokalipse]

if you do want to get a cheap Athlon 64, I would recommend a socket 754
the Gigabyte K8N Pro is a good board, and is not what you'd call expensive either

 

[gaara]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-469&depa=1

Under a hundred bucks, and a pretty good motherboard at that.