Moving to AMD64

A good idea?

[encyclo]

After six years service, my computer is on its last legs (it's fine as long as I don't ever reboot it ever again!). So I'm looking to replace it urgently.

A local vendor who builds custom machines is offering AMD Athlon 64 3000 processors at a very reasonable price, and it seems that I can build an AMD64-based machine which fits my pretty low budget.

Is buying AMD64 a good choice, and are there any particular problems I should look out for (for example, heat/ventilation). Is the performance noticeably better than, say, a Pentium P4? The machine will act as a desktop (running Linux) for web development.

[oddsod]

AMD or Intel is pretty much the same price if you use the same quality components. AMD is not the universally cheaper option it was some years ago.

Given a certain cost price neither is noticeably better in performance. No doubt there'll be strong reactions from one camp or the other but the only way you'll tell the difference is by running some benchmarks.

A properly configured and tweaked machine from either camp will be noticeably faster than it's default BIOS/default Windows/default drivers competitor.

[moltar]

I've heard that AMD simply killed Intel in 64bit processor market.

[encyclo]

Does 64bit vs. 32bit really make any significant difference? The AMD64 3000s are available for an almost identical price to a 32bit P4 2.4Ghz.

[oddsod]

In short, no. The newer Intel CPUs have EM64... oh, never mind, a half decent 64 bit version of Windows is far, far away.

If you are using a 64 bit *nix it's a different story. Go AMD.

[encyclo]

If you are using a 64 bit *nix it's a different story. Go AMD

100% Linux only for this machine, so the lack of a decent Windows is not a handicap (and anyway, there's also a lack of a decent Windows for 32bit processors too!). Looks like I'll go for the AMD then, unless the overall price exceeds my budget. Thanks!