I am thinking of buying a new computer in September and wanted to know the differences in the different chip sets and what they could do compared to each other. I intend to get a good graphics card as well as this computer will be mostly used for a mmorpg... City of Heroes. I`m not particularly computer-literate so a layperson`s explanation would be appreciated.
210801
The difference between a Sempron and an Athlon is cache size and also, Semprons are not 64-bit processors but all Athlons are nowadays.  Semprons are comparable to Intel Celerons and Athlon 64s are comparable to the Intel Pentium 4/D.  AMD also has the Athlon 64x2 chips which aren't really comparable to anything made by Intel because Intel has yet to produce a competent dual core processor.\n\nTo keep it simple a Sempron 3100+ will be slower than an Athlon 64 3000+ because the Sempron has less cache it will be slower than the Athlon even if the Athlon is rated at a slower clock speed.\n\nAMD is also working on quad core chips which are due out later this year and Intel is still fumbling around 64-bit and dual core, beat by AMD again, Intel just sucks no wonder they sit at the bottom of every single benchmark.  Don't buy an Intel chip and don't even bother with a Sempron.  Buy an Athlon 64 or Athlon 64x2.  It's a little hard to tell you what to get because prices will drop and new hardware will be out by the time you get around to building your system.  So, check back here in August and I (or someone) will tell you exactly what to buy.
448125
While both are RADEONs, the Diamond card is of an older generation, so its an easy call -- go with the X1300.\n\nStealth is a brand name of Diamond's and not specifically meaningful in the card's performance. ATI licenses their card designs to other vendors to manufacture and sell with different feature sets, so its important to compare  each cards' features to determine your best option. Good luck.\n\nAdditional point -- ATI releases new Catalyst drivers for their RADEON card series regularly, and 9600 series cards and above can use the latest versions, while cards under 9600 series have to use older drivers that won't be as regularly updated for new games. This is another reason to go with the X1300 card.
423839
either go mac, or if your building your own, then check out nVidia's FX line of vid cards. they dont get much attantion because they are terrible for gaming. what they excell at is graphical design. for graphics apps, a Quadro FX1500 will most likely beat out the new GeForce 8800. I'd say go with a Quadro FX560. You'll need a motherboard with at least 1 PCI-E slot, which is now the high-end standard for graphics and should not be hard at all to find. For the processor go with something dual-core. either the AMD X2s or the Core Duos. You'll also need at least 2GB of memory, i'd recommend 4GB so that your computer will keep performing decently for the next couple of years.
132688
AMD has the best gaming processors these days. Go with an AMD FX or X2 processor. Many people prefer Intel because they are familiar with it and so they have brand loyalty, but the latest Intel models are really getting crushed by AMD for gaming. AMD may show a slower clock speed than the Intel chips, but they still end up faster for a number or reasons. First of all, the dual cores (in the X2's and even numbered FX's) talk directly to each other, but on the dual core Intels, the data has to leave the processor to go to the other core, I believe through the North Bridge, which slows it down comsiderably, and kind of defeats the purpose. Also, the new Athlon chips have a dedicated memory bus, which means that they communicate with the computer's RAM on one line and the rest of the computer on another, rather than having all communication jammed into a single bus, like with Intel. On a side note, as it doesn't deal with gaming but should still be noted, Athlon has adopted Enhanced Virus Protection (EVP) which is a processor-level virus blocker. Intel has plans to use this in the future, but Athlon has it now.\nAlso, if you plan to build a good gaming rig, you should know that athlon and Nvidia fit together like a glove. Athlons also tend to run cooler than Intels as well as being more stable.\nIf you have plenty of cash, and are building a system, I'd recommend an ASUS A8N32-Deluxe Motherboard, and Athlon AMD FX-60 Processor, dual Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX's from BFG, and 4GB or Corsair memory. (and if you're really loaded, buy me a set, as well) The slightly more budget model (although still not cheap) would be the same motherboard, an Athlon AMD 4200+ or 4400+, dual 7800 or 7900 GT's and 2GB or RAM.\nTrust me, AMD is the way to go. I just did a lot of research to upgrade my system, and everything I found showed AMD kicking Intel's @$$.
363497
get somthing from asus ... lok for the features you want ...plenty of pci expansion slots ...if you dont want to buy a new video card then you need an agp board but if u want to play the latest games you should move up to pci express and get a new video card like an nvidia 7950 ... a sli capable board is a bonus if you ever want to increase video performance even more by adding a second card ... raid is a good feature to have ...sata is better if you want to move up to faster harddrives  ...and get a board that supports ddr2 unless ur wanting to keep ur old memory ... it really depends on if ur wanting to run ur old components off of it or wanting to put together a new system ...
246267
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/index.htm\nhttp://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9488,00.html\nhttp://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9488%5E9495,00.html\nGoodluck ^_^
435734
They are all excellent brands. Pick one that seems to be the right mix of performance and price. BFG makes excellent cards but you're going to pay the price. I have an EVGA and it's been perfect. Check out reviews on newegg.com and about a zillion other hardware review sites.
492537
if you mean something like this \n\nhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135007\n\nThen its atx still. the Express term is used for the chipset name (Intel 945PL Express in this case)\nConsidering the form factor still says ATX you're fine.\n\nTakes a whole 30 seconds to figure out, one's too lazy to even read....
210839
It all depends on the motherboard. Do you know what model number the motherboard is? How about contacting me? A lot easier to explain.\n\nNot true, Man. Some components like the processor and video card he mentions, will have to start with motherboard.
260293
Both are made by Intel - I don't personally see any real difference in performance from the type of chip (either Celeron or Pentium).\n\nWhat you really need to know is the clockspeed, not the chip name.\n\nThe PC you buy should reflect what purpose it will be used for. If it's just word documents etc, you only need an entry level PC, but for high powered graphics editing, serious gaming etc, you'll want a higher spec one.\n\nPCs on the market today are getting to the 4GHz mark (that's 4 GigaHertz) for the really high spec models.\n\nDepending on what you want to buy, you need to understand that the higher the clockspeed, the faster the PC will be.\n\nAdditionally, you should check out how much RAM it has. For docs, you can go for 128/256 MB RAM, but higher spec PCs are getting produced with upwards of 1024 MB\n\nHard disk size is merely to do with the amount of data you will store on it. Standard is 80GB last time I checked, but there are PCs out there with 250GB etc. As with the above, it's all to do with requirement and bigger is better. Remember with this though that text takes up less space than graphics.\n\nHope this helps.
251681
That's because most corps don't purchase motherboards, they purchase systems.  Therefore, which chipset that ends up getting used is entirely dependant on which one the OEM that they (the corps) are purchasing from use.  So most Dell's for instance will use the Intel chipsets, so any corp that uses Dell's will use Intel chipsets.  This isn't a conspiracy or a concious descision by corps, they really don't care (actually most don't even know).
143096
One of the main differences in all of Intel's line is Cashe in the processor.\nThe next difference is Dual Core, where it is like 2 processors in one.\nOther differences are tolerance levels for heat and bus speeds.
646431
1x Geforce 7950GX2.\n\nIn numerous benchmarks out there, both perform pretty much on par with each other.  The hardware is essentially the same with just one specific difference; the 7950 GX2 doesn't have to go through another PCIe bus to access the second GPU.  \n\nThe speed difference is, for the most part, negligible though.  Keep in mind that the 7950 GX2 is really two GTX GPUs that are underclocked to help keep control of heat.  Depending on which vendor you buy your 7950 GX2 from, they might be attaching a heftier cooling solution and overclocking the card yet again.\n\nHope this helps!
329513
GECUBE RADEON 9250, PCI-bus, 128MB / 256MB Edition\n VPU   R9250\n Memory 128MB/256MB\n PCI bus \n\n  Product Features\n# owered by PCI series ATI RADEON 9250 (GPU).\n# 4 pixel pipelines for the fastest 3D gaming performance in its class.\n# Support 128MB or 256MB of 128-bit DDR memory for today demanding games, applications, effects and animation.\n# Multiple display configuration supports CRT, DVI-I (optional 2nd CRT via DVI converter) & TV-Out (PAL/NTSC).\n# Featuring ATI CATALYST -Industry-leading software suite for the best enhancement and accelerate the ultimate visual experience.\n# Supports maximum 3D resolutions (32-bit color) up to 2048x1536 16.7M color with 128M display buffer.\n# CATALYST™ driver software ensures your PC systems is stable and reliable with regular updates, graphics performance.\n# SMARTSHADER™ supports Microsoft® DirectX® 8.1 feature sets, enabling more complex and realistic lighting effects.\n# SMOOTHVISION™ delivers an exceptionally realistic gaming experience.\n# FULLSTREAM™ delivers smooth streaming media playback, eliminating choppy Internet video.\n# HYDRAVISION™ plug two monitors into your PC at once and get access to easy to use features that help you to see more and do more.\n# PCI 2.2 compliant - PCI-33 and PCI-66, or Universal PCI based systems. (PCI Edition)
111304
I'm not sure how much detail you want, so I'll keep it somewhere in the middle.\n\nBoth are bus architectures designed for moving data being peripherals and the motherboard, in this case they are both overwhelmingly used for graphics cards.  Both have roughly the same base speed.  AGP 1X and PCI-E x1 both support 256MB/sec, however AGP maxes out at AGP 8X for about 2GB/sec.  PCI-E currently goes up to x16 for a single slot, which is about 4GB/sec.\n\nSo far, they sound very similar, except PCI-E supports a bi-directional flow of data and a higher max speed (twice as fast).  In theory, there's no reason AGP 16X couldn't be made, but the bi-directional nature of PCI-E precludes any justification for making it.  What this means is that if you have an identical video card running at 8X AGP or PCI-E X8, you'd get fairly similar performance because you'd be bottnecked by the bus.  If the GPU is designed for PCI-E and you have an AGP variant, you should lose a little performance to the AGP bridge.  The bi-directional nature of PCI-E is also what makes ATI's crossfire technology feasible; Nvidia's SLI can operate without the SLI bridge as well, but you'll have reduced performance when going through the PCI-E.\n\nBecause the AGP standard is essentially obsolete for all entertainment purposes, there's no reason to build a new computer around one.  Although, if you're looking to add a video card into a current system, you'll probably need to go with an AGP card.  If that's the case, probably the best AGP card you can buy is the 7800GS from BFG.  It will cost $350 at a Best Buy or about $320 online (I've included links below to it at NewEgg and TigerDirect).  Considering the high price of the card and how poorly it performs compared to its PCI-E counterparts, which are running in PCI-E x16, you should probably just hold out for an entirely new system.\n\nIf you have any other questions, just send me a mail to my Yahoo! account and I'll try to answer them or point you in the right direction.
349935
The 6600LE is a cut down version of the 6600, it has half as many pixel pipelines, which reduces performance when gaming.  Now apparantly the other two answerers misread your question as "people who don't know squat about graphics card help" because to say that the 5500 is very good card is ridiculous.  If you are into gaming that card is simply not up to the task at all.  I can help you find something better but I would need to know your budget and what type of computer you have so I know what interface to be looking for.  If you could email me that info I can help you out, email is in my profile.
8288
OK, since you have a P4 w/ 2.4 GHz, it's a good thing you want a low cost card since that's a pretty low performing CPU nowadays.\n\nI disagree w/ the other poster.  You don't choose graphics cards by matching AMD w/ nVidia and Intel w/ ATI.  That has nothing to do with it.  Honestly, AMD has it all over Intel for gaming nowadays, period.\n\nIf you want Pixel Shader 3 you will have go with one of the ATI x1000-series cards or an nVidia 6 or 7 series card.  Also the 9800 cards suggested by the other writer are 2 generations out of date.  For ATI, the last Gen were X800 cards; current are the X1000 series.\n\nHowever, 9800 cards are pretty cheap right now and you can get them around 126 (OEM) or 127 (non-OEM) at Newegg (according to Pricegrabber).\n\nX800 prices are close to 200.\n\nFor nVidia cards, I would recommend the 6600GT\n\nI'm assuming you have AGP, but check just in case.\n\nNote that these cards are going to need a free Molex connector for power.