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I think my son would agree. We have two of them here as well. He writes:

"My AMD XP2000 kicks the stuffing out of most Intels up to 2.3GHz. (it runs a modest 1.81 GHz)

The old Intel/AMD numbers games.

Tell you the truth ~ I had a really nice 1GHz AMD I built last year with 512mb SDram. So, I got a bit of cash back from the IRS, and built this new one. 1.53GHz / 512mb DDRram running the fastest mem settings in the BIOS.

REAL WORLD DIFFERENCE? It took me 23 minutes to install WinXP Pro on my new one. It took 24 minutes to install it on the 'old' one.

Personally, if I were to build right now, I'd get an Epox motherboard, at least 512 megs of fast solid ram, and an AMD XP2000 [co-incidentally, that's what I DO have now) or (if I were going to be bleeding edge) an XP2700 on a new 333MHz board. Again, the speed difference is neglible, but at least I'd be cutting edge.

Once we reached the 1GHz mark, it seems the actual speed increase became more 'on paper', as in, SiSoft, 3DMarks, PCMarks benchmark results. I have pages of them from my own system. According to the numbers, I'm flying. According to realworld ~ It's ok. FreeCell disappears after the last card is played, that's all I care about. hehe."

ping # 23.

Personally, if I were to build right now, I'd get an Epox motherboard, at least 512 megs of fast solid ram, and an AMD XP2000 [co-incidentally, that's what I DO have now) or (if I were going to be bleeding edge) an XP2700 on a new 333MHz board. Again, the speed difference is neglible, but at least I'd be cutting edge.

My cheepo computer that I would build today would be a board with 512mb of PC133 and an Athlon XP. With the Athlon 1600+ and 2100+ being the best buys. Not too many boards run pc133 and Athlons but they're out there. One of my computers has 512mb/2100 DDR. But 256mb/pc133 modules can be gotten cheap and even cheaper on sale.

Once we reached the 1GHz mark, it seems the actual speed increase became more 'on paper', as in, SiSoft, 3DMarks, PCMarks benchmark results.

Did you see much difference between 512 and one gig of memory? With windows 2000 or XP?

There are applications that are disk bound, but professional graphics and cad programs can use the CPU cycles. They also show the difference that multiple CPUs can make.

I'm pretty sure my next build will have on-board USB2 and firewire. Fewer cards the better.

Once we reached the 1GHz mark, it seems the actual speed increase became more 'on paper', as in, SiSoft, 3DMarks, PCMarks benchmark results. I have pages of them from my own system. According to the numbers, I'm flying. According to realworld

That is a totally inaccurate statement....especially the "3DMarks" part. If you're running a high-end card like the GF4600 or Radeon 9700 a 1 GHz processor kills your 3D performance. If, for no reason other than the front bus speeds.

I recently went from an AMD to a P4 for one reason: heat. I liked my AMD chips (I've had several) a bunch, but almost all of them ran extremely hot. I don't overclock, so I get upset when I have random crashes due to heat, especially when I have spent lots of money on an expensive and high-quality CPU fan. I've had AMD's run at 56-64° C, with a high performance CPU fan, while my P4 never breaks 30° C with the stock fan and running intensive software apps.

I wouldn't argue for a second with anyone who said that AMD's are the best value and better performers than Intel chips on average. But, I can say that with my AMD's, I had to worry about heat related crashes that have never occured with my Intel. If AMD could get a handle on the heat problem, I'd buy another one in a minute...

an XP2700 on a new 333MHz board. Again, the speed difference is neglible, but at least I'd be cutting edge.

I am building a new one from a barebones kit I bought on e-bay for $98. It has a 333MHz motherboard,a 1.7G P-4 Celetron processor,and a mid-tower case. I upgraded to a nice SoundBlaster sound card for $71,a floppy drive for $12,and spent another $13 to ugrade to a 450W power supply. I found 512 MB of Samsung DDR-2700 RAM for $80,and a OEM version of XP-Pro WITH a brand new IBM 40G HDD for another $185. I still have to use my old video card and DVD player for the time being,but I'll end up with a pretty decent system without having to have spent a bunch of bucks. Better yet, may end up getting half back when I sell my old P-3 system.