Re: Pentium 4

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier <jbrockmeier@earthlink.net>]

Just to add my 2 cents...

> I'm about to buy a new computer. I have been offered a 
> really good deal on a P4 system.
> But since the architecture is so different from previous 
> pentiums I am a little hecitant.

Unless you've been offered a REALLY good deal, it's 
likely worse than the cost of an Athlon. The price
differential between Athlons and P4s and high-end P3s
is pretty steep. 

> Will I have to recompile all major components in 
> order to get decent speed with the p4?

Someone else has already addressed this, but I thought I
might throw in a piece of advice for anyone who upgrades
often, or might reconfigure their system...

If you compile an optimized kernel for a specific 
architechture, like i686, be sure to keep a working
"vanilla" kernel in case you have to swap the disk to
another computer with a different architechture. If you
have a hardware failure, for instance, and need to move
the disk with Debian from an Athlon system to a Pentium Pro
or something, it won't boot. This might only happen to
a small number of people, but it's darn frustrating in an
emergency.

> Will there be special p4-debs?

Unlikely.

> Whats the best thing to do? Buy an AMD-CPU instead?
> I just thought I'd get an opinion from you guys before I spend all my money.

Buy an AMD...it's a MUCH better investment. And, I'd
recommend buying the parts and putting it together
yourself rather than buying a complete system. 

The 1GHz Athlons are at a pretty reasonable price point
right now, (I bought mine when it was semi-reasonable)
you should be able to put together a system with a 
30GB ATA 100 drive, 256MB of 133 MHz RAM and a decent
AGP video card for well under $1,000.

Good luck!

Zonker

--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jbrockmeier@earthlink.net
ICQ: 43599611
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