If you are here for the top of the line CPU, there are an obvious 3
choices. It depends what you have in mind for your PC use. For gaming, going with an AMD processor is a better choice. The
clock speeds may be slower, but the AMD processors perform much better than Intels P4E and P4ee. The fastest processor from
AMD happens to be the FX-53, make sure that you get the 939 pin version, instead of the 940 pin version. The 939 edition has
the capability to use Unbuffeered DDR RAM, instead of the more expensive and slower "registered ram", which the 940 edition
uses.
The P4e, is a good processor, because of its extreeme speeds, which currently debut at
3.8GHz, which can be overclocked to 4.2GHz, imagine the power!
One thing that gives Intel an edge over AMD, is its Hyper-Threading technology (HT), which gives the
processor to run more than one thread simutaneously. This is very effective when it comes to multi-processing (running more
than one application at once). The FX-53 doesn't have this technology, but has an edge over intel when it comes to gaming,
because gaming doesn't require anything of HT, in fact it hinders gaming performance slightly. The "game" which you are playing
consists of one application, so HT isn't needed.
The third obvious choice is the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Editioin (p4ee). This processor advertises a level 3
Cache of 2MB, an unheard of amount, this is double the amount that the p4e and the fx-53 sport. This is a gaming processeor, and
can be overclocked to about 3.8GHz, from the base of 3.4Ghz, or 3.2Ghz is also available.
These processors are quite expensive. In and around $1000 for the p4ee. About $800 for the fx-53 and $500-$600 for the
p4e.
Stats below
CPU FX- 53
P4E P4ee
Clock Speed 2.4GHz
3.6GHz 3.4GHz
Cache 1MBL2 1MBL2
2MBL2
HT
NO
YES YES
Stations 12
30 30
the fewer stations the faster
