Are 32-bit computers worth it anymore?

April 9, 2004 8:50 AM

Would I be crazy to plop down money on a 32-bit mobo & processor when 64-bit are now available? (More inside)

Continuing my grand tradition of always rolling my own machines from freshly picked components, I find myself uncomfortably out of the loop since I slapped together my (then) state of the art Pentium III machine. I was all set to go out to my local computerama super store today -- tax refund in hand -- to build a new PIIII 3 Giger when -- lo and behold -- I notice that 64-bit machines snuck onto the market when I wasn't looking. My gut tells me it's an inferior choice in the short run, but may have a longer shelf life in the long run. I doubt if much of anything takes advantage of it now, but that could change overnight. I'm so confoozed.

What's the conventional wisdom?

posted by RavinDave to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Unless you have some religious belief or something holding you back, you could probably go the 64bit AMD route for approximately the same price as the Intel P4 you were looking at.

As for adoptability, I expect that it will be 5 years at least before 64 bit becomes mainstream.
posted by yangwar at 9:03 AM on April 9, 2004

Get an Athlon64 3000+ and a MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R motherboard. Install XP 64-bit (assuming you're a Windows person), and you'll never look back.
posted by Jairus at 9:27 AM on April 9, 2004

"Athlon64 3000+"
--$259.99

I assume that the "MSI K8T NEO-FIS2R" is the same as the "MSI NEO-FIS2R VIA K8T800 SK-754 DDR"
--$138.


Sounds pretty dang attractive (but I guess I'd have to get a new version of XP? I just got the general upgrade yesterday. Argggh!!)

Oh well ... thanx for the tips, guys!
posted by RavinDave at 9:45 AM on April 9, 2004

i don't know how yang could say that you could buy a 64-bit AMD processor for roughly the same as a P4. a quick glance at newegg shows a 2.4Ghz AMD-64 selling for $784, while a 2.8Ghz P4 sells for $181. regardless of featuresets, that's a pretty big difference.

all of the benchmarks i've seen of AMD-64s have made me feel that there is not yet a large performance benefit on the 64 bit side. that will probably change in the future, but because of that, i think it makes a lot more sense to buy a 32 bit processor.

i just bought and put together a shuttle ST62K with a 2.8Ghz P4, and it's quite fast. (and an external passively cooled PSU, so it's pretty silent.) with a gig of ram and a 160GB hd, that came out to...$1,055.
posted by moz at 10:20 AM on April 9, 2004

I use AMD 64 3200+ with ASUS K8V Deluxe, and it's such a great computer. Building it from scratch, using new memory, harddrive, video card, case, power supply, heck even a new floppy drive, it only cost me $850ish.

AMD has released low powered variants of the 64 bit CPU, I think AMD 64 2800+ is only $180 or so.
posted by riffola at 11:01 AM on April 9, 2004

Oh and don't use the Windows XP 64 OS as your default OS. It's still in beta mode, and is seriously lacking driver support for that very reason. I love how fast it is, but I only use it for testing purposes. Regular Windows XP is the way to go, or if you really really want 64 bit OS, try the various Linux distros.
posted by riffola at 11:04 AM on April 9, 2004

that mobo can only take 2gig memory. what's the point of going 64bit with it? especially if you're recommending an os that's not 64bit and ending up with a lower powered chip because of the prices...
posted by andrew cooke at 11:24 AM on April 9, 2004

Newegg sells the Athlon 64 2800+ for $173

But you don't need it yet. Lots of memory is the key to PC longevity.
posted by NortonDC at 11:38 AM on April 9, 2004

Just because it's a 64bit CPU doesn't stop it from working really well in 32bit OSes. Most desktop motherboards are limted to 2GB for now.
posted by riffola at 12:29 PM on April 9, 2004

moz, you're looking at the top-of-the-line enthusiast AMD chip. A better comparison for that would be to one of Intel's "Extreme Edition" chips, which are also ridiculously expensive.

In any case, 64-bit won't give you much better performance for the cost, in my eyes. What you will get is upgradeability. If you choose your motherboard well, you'll be able to stick something faster in there later, while the 32-bit offerings are nearing the end of the line.
posted by whatnotever at 12:48 PM on April 9, 2004

Are you seriously going to keep anything except (god forbid) the floppy drive in 4 years?
posted by Keyser Soze at 10:58 PM on April 9, 2004

is there even very much software at this point to take advantage of a 64 bit processor?
posted by crunchland at 5:28 AM on April 10, 2004