<Answered> Pentium vs AMD

[Ray2047]

The post below was made by me last November. I didn't get any answers then but I got my main computer back up and running so that was OK. Now though the main computer is down again and it looks like the MB or CPU and maybe a bad HD again. Cruising Ebay it looks like I can get get an off lease computer for less then a decent MB.

Always used AMD on the ones I built but all the computers in my price range on Ebay are P4s. My experience of jerky scrolling and even jerkier flash on the Intel computer I'm using despite a reasonably good video card and a gig of memory has made leery of buying a computer with a Intel CPU even though the used computers I'm looking at are 2.5 GgHz. or more.

So what is your experience with P4s and Hulu? Anyone familiar with HP D530 computers? How good are they? Do they handle Flash video OK?

Previous Post:

On Hulu especially but also to a lesser extent on Youtube streaming video is more like a slide show then continuous video. I thought it was because of a very old very cheap PCI video card so I replaced the card but no improvement. I've played with the download adjustments on Hulu but no good. Just checked my connection and I am at my usual download speed of 1.26 megs. Never used this computer before for video and can't say if it ever worked correctly but I had no problem on my other computer. However my other computer it is a 3200Mhz Athlon so maybe that is the difference.

Pentium4 1400Mhz

Video Card GForce MX440 8X AGP 128Mg memory 128bit

I did go into PCC and set up the card. Anyway to get decent video or am I just screwed by the limits of my hardware? Any help will be appreciated.

Edit: Just tried streaming Real Player through MPlayer at a bit rate of 512K and had no problem so maybe it is Flash?

Edit 2: My usual browser is Seamonkey. I have also tried it in Firefox and get the same result but based on Web research I tried Epiphany and at the lowest bit rate and reduced screen during very limited testing it is almost normal so maybe it isn't hardware.

Edit 3: Installed latest BFS kernel. Still jerky.

[T6]

that video card is 10 years old and it is not a good 10 year old card and not sure what driver could support it on the current xorg we have

that cpu is slower than a atom cpu so it won't win any speed contest

now you mention you want a more recent intel cpu?

the one you mention has basically the same hardware and the same old video card or older with same or less vram

it looks like a bad option to me

[OMSkates]

You're better off with an Intel Core2duo.  Even a 2Ghz Core2Duo will run just as fast with decent RAM but will be much cooler.  They're found on older second hand PCs quite often.

[Ray2047]

I am just amazed how poorly this CPU works. My first computer was a 260Hz AMD with 96 megs of RAM and and ATI ALL in One Wonder Card with 8 megs of memory and I don't remember having the scrolling problems I'm having with this Pentium CPU. Heck I know I use to watch Hulu using a Athlon 32+ that ran at about 1.8 GHz. So why such a problem on a 1.4 GHz Pentium 4. Not that much speed difference. I'm beginning to wonderif it the difference between Intel and AMD.

Heck, it isn't just flash. It is just plain old scrolling. Some of the sellers sites on Ebay jump around so much they are unusable. You try to scroll down and at first they don't move then they they jump down past where you want to go and you try to scroll up and it hesitates and leaps up well past where you want to go. I have never seen problems like this. Not just Ebay either. I'm almost to the point of trying Lynx as my browser.

Course I got the computer for free so I guess I can't complain too much.

[ThirdOfSix]

My main machine for years has a 2GHz Athlon CPU and is what I compare other machines to.

I have recently acquired a number of Pentium 4 and Celeron machines in speeds from 1.7 GHz to 3 GHz.

It took my a while to figure out why things seemed so strange going between the machines when all were running the same operating system...sometimes Windows and mostly various flavors of PCLOS.

Finally I ran some benchmarks and found that the Pentiums had to run at 2.8 GHz before they could out perform my AMD Athlon system at 2 GHz.

On the 1.7 GHz Celeron machines, I can run Hulu ...sort of... as long as it is a tiny little window. Most youtube stuff seems to run more or less ok with an 800x600 display.

What I am trying to say is that if you have been running AMD processors at 2GHz or better, you are not going to be happy with a Pentium 4 processor of less than 2.8 or 3 GHz. The dual core versions of those processors run ok at slower clock speeds but I have not had much experience with them so I can not give a direct comparison.

This situation was a real wake up call for Intel and all their processors since the Pentium 4 group have out performed similar AMD products.

I still prefer AMD though.

I am quite happy with my current quad core Phenom processor running at 3.4 GHz except that it tends to take the fun out of using my slower single core machines.

[Ray2047]

Thanks ThirdofSix for confirming what I was coming to believe.

Thanks to the rest for their suggestion on CPUs.

[CaptainSarcastic]

This might be late, and redundant as well, but I also prefer AMD in general.  Like thirdofsix my main machine is a Phenom II quad-core running at 3.4ghz per core, and it's blazing fast.  I'm still happy with the performance of my Athlon 64 dual-core running at 2.4ghz clock speed, too.

That said, I used to do computer servicing and refurbishing, and there is a huge variety in the P4 line to the point that some versions of it might as well be different processors entirely.  The difference between socket 478 P4s and socket 775 P4s is comparable to the difference between socket 754 and socket AM2 AMD chips.

A hyperthreading P4 at 3.0ghz is a pretty decent processor.  A non-hyperthreading P4 at 2.5ghz really isn't.  A hyperthreading P4 socket 775 clocked over 3ghz is going to still deliver pretty decent performance.  The Pentium D and Pentium Dual-core (yes, they are actually different) can both deliver good performance.  Heat is a primary concern with almost all of them, though.

As a rule of thumb I'd check the specs on a given P4, determine the socket, and determine the highest P4 that the motherboard could run.  It might be possible to get a decent machine just by swapping the CPU with the fastest it can take, and P4 CPUs can usually be acquired pretty cheaply.

[ka9yhd]

My desktop machine that I have been using for a number of years now has a Foxconn Winfast mainboard with the AMD Sempron +3000 64 bit.  1 gig of ram and the Geforce FX5200 graphics card.

So far never have had any issues with it.

[T6]

on old P4 i always had to disable hiperthreading when available

system became unusable sometimes with it enabled

also sometimes the right ram was required but change ram modules on a old P4 seems like a waste of time to me

[lightning slinger]

on old P4 i always had to disable hiperthreading when available

system became unusable sometimes with it enabled....

Now that what a lot of user's report but personally I've never found any difference either way except Gnome System Monitor is insistent I have two CPU's running when HT is enabled on my P4 (nice if it was true)!

I run the same DE on a P4 HT (Skt 478) @ 3.06Ghz with 2GB RAM and a Geforce FX5200 GPU and also an Athlon 64 3200+ (Skt 754) @ 2.2Ghz again with 2GB RAM and a Geforce 6200 GPU and I cannot detect any difference in performance between the two units!

[Ray2047]

on old P4 i always had to disable hiperthreading when available
system became unusable sometimes with it enabled

No hyperthreading mentioned in Bios (Award) so I assume it isn't even available.

[Ray2047]

Epilogue: On EbayI found a used AMD custom built almost identical to my main one which isn't working. It was at a price I could almost afford. Bought it, problem solved, thread marked "answered". Thanks to everyone who replied.

[LSeraphim]

My experience is that it is best to get a dirt cheap barebones, or buy the Mobo one payday, the processor the next and so on. Used machines tank too much. God knows what the last person did, mayeb ran it with a busted CPU fan or something.

Also, I tend to lean toward a cheaper CPU with slightly lower clock and more cores, rather than paying for a faster clock on fewer cores.
I.E. a 4ghz quad core or a 2.8ghz 6 core(just an example guys...), I would get the 6 core machine.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31&SRCCODE=WEBGOOBARE&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

I got a cheezy triple core there, then went to a propus quad core 2 months later. Got a new pciex vid card a month or so later. NOw my system is decent. Damn sure a step up from the athlon XP 3000+.

Best part is, piecing them together as such, I have like 3 old machines laying around that I built out of my own used parts.


This is a decent starter for 2 bills. Do that, then just build it up with time.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1239469&CatId=332