Better for Linux: Athlon or P4?

[zippohippo]

*Walks in, sprays flame retardant solution over entire area*

What CPU makes the most of Linux, P4 or Athlon? I understand that a P4, despite its 400MHz FSB and other enhancements, is only a hair faster than a P!!! at the same clock speed. Most of its major speed improvements are software-related (MMX, SIMD, SSE, SSE2) and the software you run has to be optimized to take advantage of this.

That said, from a hardware aspect, which CPU takes the Golden Herring Award for Excellence in the Feild of GNU/Linux (an award I just made up, but it sounds really official http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif)

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"Quiet, brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip!"
-Homer J. Simpson, Sector 7G

[Sweede]

linux isnt fully supported on the p4, and neither are motherboards and a couple other things.

if your going to get a p4, wait till feburary/march when they move to the .13 process.
for now an athlon 900 is like what, 60$ or something ?

[zippohippo]

I'm with you, intel is too $$$. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

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"Quiet, brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip!"
-Homer J. Simpson, Sector 7G

[Muzzafarath]

What do you mean by not fully supported? If you mean that Linux would not boot on a P4 because of an incorrect CPUID "database", then yeah that's true for older kernels, but it has been fixed in 2.2.18 (there's a note about it in the ChangeLog I think). I also believe you can pass an argument to the kernel to get it to boot on a P4...

[This message has been edited by Muzzafarath (edited 15 December 2000).]

[DrDrake]

Athlon all the way

[Wonock]

*cough* *cough* Athlon Rocks *cough*

[Sweede]

Originally posted by Muzzafarath:
it has been fixed in 2.2.18 (there's a note about it in the ChangeLog I think

i didnt read the changelog

[vvx]

Actually, a 900MHz tbird will run you $155, at any rate it's a bargain compared to the Intel equivalent. (In fact, it's what I'm using in my new system.)

[zippohippo]

I'm rockin a dual P!!! 450 at home right now, I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon. But I do kind of get the feeling that the P4 is a lemon, I may be wrong though.

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"Quiet, brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip!"
-Homer J. Simpson, Sector 7G

[SlCKB0Y]

P3's are a lot better than p4's in terms of price per mhz. A p4 will ONLY be better than a p3 if the software is optimised for the p4, otherwise, from what i understand it it will be very little difference.

Athalons consistantly out-benchmark p3's of the same speed, and they are a couple of hundred dollars less.