I might be getting myself a new computer soon, so while bearing the £ sign in mind, would I be better off buying somthing like an AMD Athalon 3000 OR a Intel Celeron 2.4Ghz? What difference will Pentium 3 / 4 make, or is Celeron totally different?

After Christmas I will be buying my first flight stick. Am I right in thinking that the Saitek X45 is 1) NOT force feedback and 2) The best under £100 HOTAS? In your opinion, how important is Force Feed?

Dan G  

You should never put AMD Vs Intel as your title it invites flame.

Anyway out of those two processors the AMD is better
The Saitek is not force feedback, but the best ???
For me no, i like force feedback too much...

No seriously don't start flame wars it annoys mods and gets threads closed.

I use the Wingman Force 3D, this can be got for £40.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&contentid=5016&CRID=12&d...

amd xp2800 runs on 333 fsb whereas the 2500 runs on 266 am i right i know the 3200 works on 400fsb and thats probably best bet but the 2800 is nice

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Sorry Hyvry, i feel very bad about that now....
Dan

ahhh. so what does swanny338 mean? That I just get the newest version from Athalon i can?
Dan 

If you want to go mad go for the FX-51

I had an utterly naff 1.7 Celeron, it ran most things well except CFS3  

I'd recomend a Celeron to somebody about as much as I'd recomend piles......  

However, if your looking to build a machine and plan to upgrade in the relative future, then buy the best Springdale board you can afford (Which support the 400fsb Celeron's) then once the price drops as it surely will, replace the Celeron with an 800fsb p4 - and find out instantly why the p4's cost so very much more!

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Was that it? Was that the rant? I expected more than that...
Dan G
Wales, Uk

Buy an AMD 2500+ Barton and set the FSB at 200. You effectively have a AMD 3200 for half the price

Has anyone out there actually run FS2004 on an AMD64?

My understanding is that the AMD64 would be running in its 32-bit compatibility mode (since Win and FS2004 are 32-bit apps), so you wouldn't see any increase in performance over a 32-bit Athlon processor running at the same clock speed. (If you see what I mean! )
In fact, I saw some benchmarks carried out on the new 64-bit chip that suggest it might even be *slower* when running 32-bit applications.

If that's the case, then anyone wishing to use their machine purely for fs2004 might do better to go for a cheaper (32-bit) Athlon or Pentium running at the same clock speed, and spend the extra cash on RAM or a better video card.

I'm currently weighing up the 64-bit/32-bit question for a new PC, so any ideas/opinions/abuse would be gratefully received...

Hi Daveyboy, Im afraid I don't I don't know much about computers (so don't listen!) but I have a new machine on the way (see below).

I am slightly regretting my decision not to go for the AMD64 now. I think the Pentium 4 3.2Ghz is the best short term solution (benchmarks etc prove this) but the world will be moving on to 64bit proccessors. Who can tell whether the game developement people with discard the 32bit stuff sooner or later. Hopefully it will be later from my point of view!*

*I knew I shouldn't have bought this months computer shopper (Febuary in January - the world is mad!) but I found the world of computers quite interesting! The sooner this new one arrives I can stop worrying!

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I think your fears are somewhat unjustified birdman,

Cast your mind back, remember the many people who rushed out to buy the then new Sct423 Pentium 4's? within months of the new platform's launch Intel went and re-designed the chip, onto a Sct 478 platform and overnight all the "new" p4's were utterly obsolete!

My advice with any new Processor range is to wait and see what revisions (i.e. bug/glitch fixes) they iron out first, wait for the new chip to settle on something representing a standard spec, then perhaps take the plunge.
Not forgetting, in this time of waiting and seeing, the price will keep falling not to mention the sound of Intel's 64Bit p5 in the distance,will be getting very loud by then .

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Welcome to the honest & truthful world of PC marketing, I advise you leave any morals or principles of fair play here at the door.

I currently have a P4 2.0 with 1 GIG of ram, 256 Nvidia 5200 and I just bought a P4 3.0 chip with 800Mhz bus w/hyperthread. With everything but the CPU being the same, should I see a substantial increase in performance? My current MOBO is capable of handling this new chip.

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If like mine, your p4 is an early variant with 256k L2 Cache, then jumping to the 512k Cache alone will bring a big jump in performance..... add an 800fsb (Double the earlier P4's & Celerons) and, well, I think you can guess, it'll be just a bit better again.......  

Are you SURE your board will really support the 800FSB? most boards don't!!!

I'm assuming you want "true" support of the 800FSB, thus, I'd be ensuring your board is either a "Springdale" or "Canterwood" chipset otherwise, I doubt you'll get the best from that chip at all!

Post some detailed system specs, I'll gladly help all I can.

Dan, I had'nt realised you were dumped in the U.K. like some of us lucky others here!  

Take a peek at these two places mate, nice kit, nice prices....

www.overclockers.co.uk - My Local PC shop....

www.scan.co.uk - Provided great support to a friend who blew up his p4 2.53 - they gave him a new 'un! and no questions about the 3.6 overclock that killed it either!!!!!  
In my book, thats worth a reccomendation alone!  8) 8) 8)

Paul.

P.S., I just had to include this from the Scan site.....

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  Oh, they don't even give you a fan for that !!! 


I want one..... I think.    ???    

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Hi Vagrant,

If that CPU goes into your computer and all is compatible, you are still left with an FX5200 Video card, which is no match for the rest of your system, so you will only see a very small performance gain compared to the same setup with a video engine that will use the system's power fully.

I don't think there can be any way there was an P4 EE for that price!

(You might get a broken one just to admire it ??)

From Pricewatch.com:

Intel (Microprocessors PC) - P4 3.2GHZ EXTREME EDITION 800FSB 478PIN 2MB BOX
Details:
-mfr. part # BX80532PG3200F; Intel Pentium 4 Processor EE
Part - CPUIN799
Updated - 1/4,  11:42 AM  TotalCost $1,066.95

I don't know what you were looking at congo!! Thats £584.12 + %17.5VAT 

My apologies Congo, I had no Idea there were two different Extreme Edition P4's available - that seems like a good intermediate between the 3.2GHz P4 (512k L2 cache) and the 3.2 P4 EE (2mb L2 cache)

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Is that literally 2CPU's in one computer?

6 time my fps at Cardiff!!!!!!!
WOW Dan
Wish I had 4000$

You should get a Pentium 2.8GHz because an Athlon of the same quality is about 3 times as expensive.