Help me decide. Pentium-M vs A64

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:54 pm

well ive done my research. ive been corrected a few times along the way, but i definately know which case i want to build my next system on.

i'll give you what ive got so far.

Case: $270 Silverstone SST-LC11-BM300
http://www.sundialmicro.com/silverstone ... 9_417.html
http://www.sundialmicro.com/Riser-card- ... 4_385.html

HD: $300 Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9120821AS
http://www.c-source.com/ttechnote.asp?p ... T9120821AS

DVD: $120 Plextor PX-716SA/SW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827131351

RAM: 2x 512mb
-DDR: $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820220005
-DDR2: $100 (possible option only for the Intel board)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820141200

VGA: $350 XFX GEFORCE 7800 GT 256MB
http://www.buyxg.com/store/item.asp?key=VC-147-108

ive even got my motherboard choices narrowed down between one pentium-M mAtx, and one A64 socket 939 mAtx board. and as far as i know, neither are actually available for sale in the us yet, but i wont be building this system for another couple months anyhow, so thats ok.

on the Intel side of the house: MSI 915GM Speedster-FA4
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.a ... 37&head=58
on the AMD side of the house: A8N-VM CSM
http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.asp?sku=313691&cks=PRL

and here are the CPU's i would choose for each of them:

Pentium-M:$300 Pentium M 760 2.0GHz
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MPM-760JBX&c=pw

!!!!!EDIT!!!!!
AMD: $220 AMD Athlon 64 3500+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103533

as you can see the prices for both system will be very similar, and what little difference their may be from the motherboards, it wont really matter to me. so set aside price differences. this will become my primary rig, and i will want to be able to game on it. i am a noise nazi. i want this to be absolutely as quiet as possibly can be. i will probably put a zalman 7000-alcu on the cpu no matter which way i go, with a modded 92mm nexus fan running at 5-7v.

right now, im leaning towards the pentium M. Dual Gigabit LAN is really nice. if i did go this route, which do you think would be better, ddr or ddr2? the price is about the same.

what are your opinions on everything? sorry this was so long.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:17 pm

I'd go Amd.

But I have been doing Amd machines since Athlon came out. Not sure if I'm biased.

It used to be because the power per pound (or $) was simply irresistable....

The A64 though has wonderfull power management features and seems to be the darling of the site here.. I would be suprised if you get many votes for the intel.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:21 pm

Looks like an awesome setup, I'd love to get a compact case like that, but its out of my budget since I just built a PC less than 3 months ago

I think the AMD with DDR will outperform the Intel with DDR, and maybe the Intel with DDR2. I'm not sure, but I don't think the DDR2 will make that much of an impact coupled with a Pentium M processor. With that being said, the Intel will be easier to cool quietly. Its TDP is significantly less than the A64's, especially a San Diego core, which has a TDP of 104W. I think even the highest clocked Pentium Ms top out at around 25W or less.

If you're going the AMD route, I would suggest getting a 3500+ Venice, slower, cheaper, and has 512kb less L2 cache, but most importantly its TDP is only 67W.

Also I think you should be careful about sticking a Zalman 7000 in there. The case is only 96mm high, and the the heatsink is 62mm high. Subtracting out the motherboard offset, the case walls, and you don't have much room above the heatsink/fan for it to suck air. Is there a hole on top of the case that I don't see or something? I'm not sure if there's a shorter heatsink/fan combo that is as quiet so I'm not sure if you have any another choice.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:22 pm

justblair wrote:I'd go Amd.

But I have been doing Amd machines since Athlon came out. Not sure if I'm biased.

It used to be because the power per pound (or $) was simply irresistable....

The A64 though has wonderfull power management features and seems to be the darling of the site here.. I would be suprised if you get many votes for the intel.

i too am an AMD fan, i havnt owned an intel system since my old P3-800mhz system like 5+ years ago.

the ultra low power consumption of the Pentium-M is just SOOO atracting. to have the possible option to run it completely passive is a huge factor for me.

stromgald wrote: With that being said, the Intel will be easier to cool quietly. Its TDP is significantly less than the A64's, especially a San Diego core, which has a TDP of 104W.

If you're going the AMD route, I would suggest getting a 3500+ Venice, slower, cheaper, and has 512kb less L2 cache, but most importantly its TDP is only 67W.

Also I think you should be careful about sticking a Zalman 7000 in there. The case is only 96mm high, and the the heatsink is 62mm high. Subtracting out the motherboard offset, the case walls, and you don't have much room above the heatsink/fan for it to suck air. Is there a hole on top of the case that I don't see or something? I'm not sure if there's a shorter heatsink/fan combo that is as quiet so I'm not sure if you have any another choice.

i was actually wondering about the AMD cores. thanks for that bit of info. i will definately change that to venice core if i end up going that route. i was under the assumption that the only difference was the onboard cache, thanks for clarifying that for me.

as for the 7000-alcu. take this link. it wont be an issue:

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=698&pid=2692

ive also been thinking that if i do go the Intel route, that i could go completely fanless with a thermalright xp-120, since its only 1mm taller than the zalman.

elec999 · Post by **elec999** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:34 pm

I would amd. Just make sure you get a venice core. And use some nice cooling on it to make it as quiet as possible. And also if I may suggest finding a nice quiet Samsung drive, instead of using the laptop hard drive.
Thanks

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:38 pm

elec999 wrote:I would amd. Just make sure you get a venice core. And use some nice cooling on it to make it as quiet as possible. And also if I may suggest finding a nice quiet Samsung drive, instead of using the laptop hard drive.
Thanks

SPCR says that this laptop drive is one of the quietest, with least vibration they have ever seen in any hard drive.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article264-page2.html

also i will be suspending it in a 3.5" drive bay and have it wrapped in acoustic dampening material.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:28 pm

Aris wrote: as for the 7000-alcu. take this link. it wont be an issue:

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=698&pid=2692

Wow, nice, I noticed the opening on the bottom of the case, but didn't realize the motherboard would be facing upside down and drawing air from the outside. Looks pretty open and could probably cool even a San Diego core, but maybe not quietly.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:35 pm

since i changed the amd processor, i checked up on toms hardware for a review of the aopen 915 board with a pentium-M 770, and the scores were almost even, sometimes the pentium-m was ahead, sometimes behind, but it was always close. the total system wattage used though was twice as much with the amd solution.

right now im leaning heavily towards pentium M. i havnt really heard any huge points to sway me the other way yet. i really like the dual gigabit lan, and also the spdif optical out. plus dual channel ddr2 is slightly faster than regular ddr, and since its actually cheeper now to go with ddr2 i think i would go that route.

slipknottin · Post by **slipknottin** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:41 pm

If you can find a MB that meets your needs, go with the pentium M. Its significantly more power efficient than the AMD.