I need opinions on Shuttle PC's and AMD 64 bit!

[kazzer]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking of getting/building a new pc and at the moment I'm looking at one of the Shuttles with an AMD 64 bit. Has anyone had any experience with these? Is it worthwhile going for a 64 bit cpu now? I appreciate all your opinions!

Cheers!

[SaSi]

64-bit sounds better than it currently is. If you are planning to use Windows as an OS ( ) then 64-bit isn't going to make any difference for the moment.

On the other hand, reading through a comparison that tried to prove that AMD processors are mightier than the Intel counterparts, I got the firm impression that in real power applications, all that matters is FSB and CPU GHz. This means that the best option right now is a 400MHz FSB with a 3.2GHz Intel and a mobo that supports Dual Channel RAM.

[kazzer]

Hi SaSi,

So am I right in saying that a 64 bit procossor has no advantage when using a 32 bit OS like Win XP Home?

[miksu]

If you are buying/building expensive SFF-PC (Small Form Factor), you aren't going to swap it every six month? Take a look, for example, at The Inquirer, which has somethin' to say about 64bit processors and Intel's current offerings, especially in SFF sector http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16952. Even cheapest 64bit Athlons have more to offer than Prescotts. It seems also that Prescott just can't live up to expectations.

There is even report of melted mobo-support blocks (SFF+Prescott), kinda funny to read, but may not be nice own ones

If I were buying PC currently, I would buy AMD-based. They are fast and for sure, get even faster, when used with 64bit OS and software. That's something you just can't do with P4.

[miksu]

And then, of course, many companies that make "big tin" (IBM, Sun etc.), have introduced Opteron (yes, AMD 64bit) servers with something like 8CPUs or more. It can't be done (easily) with P4, since P4's bus architecture is inferior even when compared to original 650Mhz Athlon, which uses EV-bus borroved from DEC Alpha. It's still used in newest 32bit Athlon cores and it's still superior to Intel solutions.

64bit AMD-cores have even better bus (Hypertransport+integrated MMU). It's really not clockspeed or FSB that matters, it's how to make use of it and how to get rid of bus and pipeline latencies.

[SaSi]

I am not implying that the ADM is inferior to Intel. I merely state that if you decide to buy/build a PC now, don't over-buy. For typical audio/video operations, like capturing, editing, play-back, etc, buy 85~90% of today's state of the art. That way you won't pay too much for something that won't repay the cost.

Such a system will be fine for more than a year. By then, any update to the system will probably require replacement of major parts, like CPU and/or Motherboard.

The SFF/Multimedia PCs are now in their infancy. The features available in a year's time will render any current box obsolete by far, so even the box won't survive.

So, buy conservatively and save the rest of the cash...

[kazzer]

Thanks for the replies.

I did hear that the AMD systems do disspate heat better than the P4 system, so im leaning towards this.

As far as the SFF system go, I think some of the latest shuttle ones look infinitely better to any ordinary tower system.