[ShirleyM]

Trevor went computer window-shopping yesterday (IU this fall) and found an HP brand with all the bells and whistles he wants (gaming, etc) and it has an AMD Athlon processor. (It's $860, 17" monitor and HP printer included.) Is the Athlon processor as good as a Pentium?

Specs:

AMD Athlon™ XP processor 2800+ with QuantiSpeed™ architecture* and 333MHz frontside bus
*QuantiSpeed architecture operates at 2.25GHz

512MB DDR SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 1.0GB

DVD+RW/CD-RW drive; 48x maximum speed CD-ROM drive

512KB L2 cache memory for efficient processing

120.0GB Ultra DMA hard drive

nVidia GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64MB DDR video memory

Integrated 10/100Base-T Fast Ethernet interface; V.90 high-speed data/fax modem
6 USB 2.0 ports (1 front, 5 back); 2 IEEE 1394 ports (1 front and 1 back); 1 parallel port, 1 serial port, plus a front-mounted 6-in-1 media card reader

Do you have an opinion regarding HP brand? I've been a Compaq/Sony Vaio/Dell person...

Thanks,
Shirley

 

[Doug1]

Wow sounds like a sweet puter. From what I gather the Athlon cpu is as good or better, mot a bad choice.
I like Dells personally but then I know lots of people that have HP and no probs
HP and Compac are merging or did so who knows, still sounds like a nice machine, tho I think I would add another 512 memory chip

 

[Casey]

I like HP's and have one and AMD rocks!

 

[Prismaco]

Work for e-commerace.....HP is C.R.A.P.!!! Get a custom made computer....Tried calling tech support for the HP...There was a printer problem (HP Printer) that we had. They said add more memory... They where totaly wrong. It had the wrong drivers....they are the CRAP.... But every one has there own opintion...but thats my $0.02 .... Oh yea...get a P4...


-Paul

 

[Casey]

No get an AMD and my Hp has never given me a prob in 5 yrs
But I use a Dell absoulutely the best!:banana:

 

[ShirleyM]

Hmmmm...I wasn't happy at all with HP support 7 yrs ago w/a friend's HP...but that was 7 yrs ago...

I will have Trevor read these reviews....any one else out there have a solid reason one way or the other?
Thanks!
Shirley

 

[Casey]

Shirley i doubt you will find any computer company that gives good support even Dell has slipped in CS over the years .

 

[ShirleyM]

That's quite true.

I have a friend with a MSCNE license, but he's on vacation...I was wondering if there's a technical advantage of Pentium or AMD Athlon?

~ Thanks,
Shirley

 

[Casey]

That I would not know sorry

 

[Mr. Ono]

That's quite true.

I have a friend with a MSCNE license, but he's on vacation...I was wondering if there's a technical advantage of Pentium or AMD Athlon?

~ Thanks,
Shirley

It will depend on who you ask and want functions you want the CPU to do. Intel and AMD each have test that show their is better.

For gaming I'd worry more about the graphics card.

 

[asmith]

Go with the AMD. They give you much more bang for the buck. The computer above should do most of what he wants to do. It should run all but the absolute newest games without any problems. The graphics card would be my first upgrade when money became available. If you are comfortable working with computer hardware, you can save money by buying your own parts and building it yourself. It really is not all that hard to do.

Andrew