Which CPU?

[katsumoto]

Depends if you're going to use your computer for gaming or just the day-to-day computing. I'd recommend the pentium 4 prescott or the AMD 64 if you're going to be a hardcore gamer (to beat the heat, you can always buy a CPU cooling kit) but if you just want it to surf the web or do word processing, well, I wouldn't even USE a pentium 4 or AMD 64, maybe a pentium III and an AMD Athlon or something lower-classed like that.

 

[TheMajor]

I will be not gaming that much, but I will be using the Internet and many programs at the same time.

Depends if you're going to use your computer for gaming or just the day-to-day computing. I'd recommend the pentium 4 prescott or the AMD 64 if you're going to be a hardcore gamer (to beat the heat, you can always buy a CPU cooling kit) but if you just want it to surf the web or do word processing, well, I wouldn't even USE a pentium 4 or AMD 64, maybe a pentium III and an AMD Athlon or something lower-classed like that.

You are right. A P3 or Celeron, something about 700 MHz will do fine.

 

[t3rk1sh]

for 800-900 your probably not going to be getting a cutting edge cpu

 

[persianxballer]

Thanks everyone for inputting your results. I appreciate your time.

I am deciding to go with a P4 Prescott, but should I go with the Socket 478 or Socket T/LGA.

They are about the same price.

Which is better when it comes to heat, performance, and stability?

 

[Megadeth2]

Go for the Pentium 4 on Socket T. I run one and it runs fine. However, this is the case with any processor. You need an aftermarket heatsink if you OC. The so-called "premium grade" stock heatsink doesn't cut it. Ok, get a Thermaltake SilentTower or Jungle512 heatsink. My friend runs a P4 3.4 GHz which runs 70 degrees full load. He used this and it dropped the temp 30 degrees to ~40 degrees.

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

If you are choosing between the Prescott and Northwood, get the Northwood. As stated b4 they run cooler and you can overclock the heck out of them. My bud has the Prescott, it runs the same as mine, except at a hotter temp.

Yeah, you can overclock them to achieve Prescott speed, and get the same heat..

I have never had an Intel chip that didn't overclock well for me. However, I have a friend that burnt up two AMD Athlons (K7).

Get the AMD64. Its future proof. As soon as they will release 64bit software and WindowsXP64 it will outperform the others.

Or get the P4 Prescott HT if you aren't interested in using 64 bit software in the future.

"Basically": if your looking for speed in 64bit programs+OS... go for the AMD64!

else, go for P4.

So your saying you can move a 64 bit line of code, faster than something half the size of it? No, I don't believe it will be "faster", but I do believe that will allow it to address larger polls of memory.