Not sure what new system to go for, the Pentum P4 3.2 GHZ systems or an AMD 64 3200 system. Currently have an old CELERON 2 GHZ system so any of the above will be better, but which would anyone suggest would be the best platform to go to from an obsolete Celeron machine? At one time INTEL had better 'press' than AMD but these days?

Are you making it yourself?
If you are then I would go Athlon, if buying a machine then most ready made ones seem to use P4's

Whats it for? if it's for general browsing of the interent etc then it won't make mcuh difference, if for playing games then most of the money needs to be sent on a graphics card anyway so work out your budget.

I would recommend the AMD system.

I go the AMD 64 and it serves me very well, highly recommended, espeically if you're a gamer.

Doing a lot of intensive video editing and DVD authoring so really need processing power, coupled with a top end graphics card. Looking for the fastest and most reliable processor I can afford therefore........

yep athlon every time:thumbsup:

for encoding a P4 EE with its big cache is the best option, but they aren't cheap, A64's offer great power for their money, but P4's ARE better when it comes to encoding...

that said I'm quite happy with my A64 CPU, and for the money I'm certainly not complaining...

it all boils down to how much money can you afford and how much intensive encoding you plan to do? do some research and look at benchmarks for A64 vs P4 for the things your going to do most

[edit]

for example:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/09/23/amd/page36.html

ARe these Marix Pro PC's reasonably good deals? I have used NOVATECH many times in the past and very happy with their service and after sales support....not the cheapest usually but never had a problem with them in the last 7 years or so. One reads so much in the negative about certain other online suppliers I am reluctant to try elsewhere. This range of machines is about my current budget, probaly the middle machine on the page. Unless of course, they are really £100 cheaper somewhere else which has proven service and customer support?



http://www.novatech.co.uk:80/novatech/pcrange.html?MTP

Originally posted by goldenfleece
Doing a lot of intensive video editing and DVD authoring so really need processing power, coupled with a top end graphics card.

You said this earlier... those PC's on that page have intigrated graphics that certainly aren't top end... the middle one is the same processor as I have, it packs a bit of a punch when it comes to power :) depending on the amount of video editing your doing you might want to consider 1Gb of RAM

not really, the graphics is integrated, emaning its onboard, this isnt as good as having your own graphics card installed.
also it doesn't mention what brand the motherboard is, plus you only get 521Mb ram installed

So can anyone recommend a good online supplier and give me a URL for a really good deal quality machine?.....not looking to spend more than £400, but want the best I can get for that cash. Already have a good modern 256 MB graphics card to move to a new machine which I use for video editing at the moment, so this can replace any integrated crappy on board graphics easily. Not bothered about audio quality or 5:1 surround sound as never use it for sound at all, just need faster graphics and processing than my old Celeron 2Ghz antique.

Only recommend online suppliers if you have had nothing but 100% good experience and service.......I know ALL the horror stories about certain bad reputaton online dealers!!!!

These guys are really good http://www.europc.co.uk/ but unfortunatly you dont get a monitor with the price but if you've already got on then there are some sweet deals if you shop around.

The after sales service is also very good indeed

EuroPC sell old DSG stock (PCWorld, Dixons, Currys) hence the Packard Bells etc. - none of which are particularly good as they scrimp on the motherboards etc. Seems like they've added Dell stuff as well which is probably slightly better.

Personally I'd go with the AMD and two manufacturers worth checking are Mesh http://www.meshcomputers.com and Evesham http://www.evesham.com/ - not sure what deals they've got on at the moment but they do usually use good components in their pc's and have done well consistently over the years.

http://microdirect.co.uk is one of the best value suppliers on the net and also in their shop in manchester. http://overclockers.co.uk have all the F1 gear you will ever need.
i cant give recomendations for overclockers *yet*, i hopefully have a machine within the next week or so......

i've used overclockers numerous times, so have many of my friends too, and so far we've had nothing but good service