well you definitely came to the right place. The staff here works very hard to make sure that the environment stays calm, and rational discussions can take place without the immaturity that pervades so many other sites.
No siree, dont' want none of those flame wars in the first place. I'm sick of it. Just want an informed and lively discussion.
Glad to hear that.
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited March 2004
I'm going to have to agree with what's been said already. A lot of people, including a LOT of sysadmins, have been BSed by Intel quite successfully. My dad is the network/sysadmin for my grandfather's business, and for the past two or three years or so, the old P2-400MHz systems that have been our office systems have been slowly getting replaced as they wear out or aren't fast enough anymore or whatever.
My grandfather bought me my 2nd desktop in 2001, and since I'd been doing research for months, my dad asked me what I thought he should get for a CAD/CAM system he was going to be buying at the time. I recommended a system similar to mine, with an Athlon 1400 and a GeForce 3. Since then, every CAD system we've bought has been AMD based. Since then, we've started buying computers from a different company (both local), and the one time they recommended a P4-based CAD system to him, I told him they were nuts, and gave him benchmarks to prove it.
So, our new CAD systems are all AMD-based, and since the Radeon 9700 came out, every one has had a 9700 Pro or better in it. Our office systems are p4 celerons (which I also recommended), but that's because they're easier to deal with than the AMD systems. How so? The P4 has clock-throttling thermal protection and a good stock heatsink. It doesn't require the kind of attention to detail to make sure the fans are functioning and stuff that IMO, AMD systems still really need. But, even though they're only Celerons, they're still far superior to any Dell or whatever. They've got i865ge-based ASUS ATX boards with AGP slots in addition to the onboard video, and all 5 or 6 pci slots are open, so you know, they're still fairly decent systems.
Anyhow, my point is that people just don't consider AMD. My dad is an extremly smart guy, but it just never occured to him to consider them. Hell, I laughed my ass off at AMD when the Athlon first came out. I stopped laughing when I saw the benchmarks. Since then, virtually every system I've recommended has been AMD-based. My grandfather has 3 of them, the office has at least 5, my dad has 1 at home, habitat for humanity has 5, and one of their other volunteers has 1 that I recommended to them. I have had ZERO complaints from anyone about theirs. I have problems with mine all the time, but that's just because I don't leave the damn things alone.
But my point is that people in general, not just IT guys, don't take AMD seriously. Hell, I've had people ask me what AMD is because they didn't even know that anything other than Intel existed. AMD needs to increase their marketing. They don't necessarily need to take on Intel head on, they just need to start telling people that they exist, and get people to look into their systems. The lower price of an AMD system should do the rest.
...But my point is that people in general, not just IT guys, don't take AMD seriously. Hell, I've had people ask me what AMD is because they didn't even know that anything other than Intel existed.
It's like The Matrix really. So many are still plugged in, whether its the comfort and convenience, or plain ignorance, they dont' want to get unplugged. So, yeah, it's The Matrix Syndrome.
Comments
Glad to hear that.
My grandfather bought me my 2nd desktop in 2001, and since I'd been doing research for months, my dad asked me what I thought he should get for a CAD/CAM system he was going to be buying at the time. I recommended a system similar to mine, with an Athlon 1400 and a GeForce 3. Since then, every CAD system we've bought has been AMD based. Since then, we've started buying computers from a different company (both local), and the one time they recommended a P4-based CAD system to him, I told him they were nuts, and gave him benchmarks to prove it.
So, our new CAD systems are all AMD-based, and since the Radeon 9700 came out, every one has had a 9700 Pro or better in it. Our office systems are p4 celerons (which I also recommended), but that's because they're easier to deal with than the AMD systems. How so? The P4 has clock-throttling thermal protection and a good stock heatsink. It doesn't require the kind of attention to detail to make sure the fans are functioning and stuff that IMO, AMD systems still really need. But, even though they're only Celerons, they're still far superior to any Dell or whatever. They've got i865ge-based ASUS ATX boards with AGP slots in addition to the onboard video, and all 5 or 6 pci slots are open, so you know, they're still fairly decent systems.
Anyhow, my point is that people just don't consider AMD. My dad is an extremly smart guy, but it just never occured to him to consider them. Hell, I laughed my ass off at AMD when the Athlon first came out. I stopped laughing when I saw the benchmarks. Since then, virtually every system I've recommended has been AMD-based. My grandfather has 3 of them, the office has at least 5, my dad has 1 at home, habitat for humanity has 5, and one of their other volunteers has 1 that I recommended to them. I have had ZERO complaints from anyone about theirs. I have problems with mine all the time, but that's just because I don't leave the damn things alone.
But my point is that people in general, not just IT guys, don't take AMD seriously. Hell, I've had people ask me what AMD is because they didn't even know that anything other than Intel existed. AMD needs to increase their marketing. They don't necessarily need to take on Intel head on, they just need to start telling people that they exist, and get people to look into their systems. The lower price of an AMD system should do the rest.