Pentium 4 Systems – To Buy or Not To Buy / To Cry Or Not to Cry – THG.RU

<!–#set var="article_header" value="Pentium 4 Systems –
To Buy or Not To Buy / To Cry Or Not to Cry” –>

Introduction

We at Tom’s Hardware are known for doing in-depth reviews of PC-technologies and PC-components. However, we still haven’t tested any complete system yet. There are a lot of reasons that have kept me from doing so, which I don’t want to get into right now, because it would go far beyond the boundaries of this article.

While I may not have reviewed any OEM-systems yet, I still need to keep track of what is going on in the PC-business, which means reading computer publications and checking the latest offers of the big OEMs as Dell, Gateway, Compaq, IBM, HP and Micron. Recently, when reading my favorite computer magazine, the German PC-gaming publication ‘Gamestar’, I was startled by an ad from Dell, offering a complete Pentium 4 system for the surprisingly low price of only $1500. I hardly believed my eyes, because I had considered Pentium 4 systems to be much more expensive. With that price, I thought, Pentium 4 is even able to compete against Athlon systems. Thus I had a closer look at this system, which goes by the name ‘Dimension 8100’. After reading the equipment list of this system, I almost got angry. This particular wannabe-high end Dimension 8100 system, targeted to the rather critical German PC-buyer, had indeed teamed up a Pentium 4 1.3 GHz with NVIDIA’s slowest TNT2 M64 3D-decelerator!

Pentium 4 Plus TNT2 M64? Insanity Par Excellence!

I was shocked. How could any sane person castrate the almost only strength of Intel’s expensive Pentium 4 processor in 3D gaming with this pathetic graphics card? This seemed like a typical case of taking customers for fools, which really upset me. Instantly I went to my console and checked Dell’s website to find out more details. I also looked at HP’s, IBM’s and Gateway’s Pentium 4 system offers and found the very same situation. All those great OEMs are trying to ride Intel’s Pentium 4 marketing pony by selling ‘reasonably priced’ Pentium 4 systems in highly mediocre configurations. The inexperienced customer might indeed get fooled by Intel’s juicy promises of this supposed high-end processor, and completely overlook that the other components in those systems ensure mediocre performance.

Time To Wake Up

For me, this situation didn’t only smell like the material for an article, it actually stunk. I decided that I had turned the blind eye towards those big, powerful and rich OEMs long enough. It was finally time to wake up. At first I decided to make an editorial (blurb) out of it, but then I remembered that my readers expect as well as deserve more detail. Thus I came up with a different idea. A decent article obviously requires some hard test facts, but I certainly didn’t think that acquiring any of the above-mentioned mishap-systems was in any way justifiable. However, who says that I had to test those actual systems? Haven’t we got enough components in our lab to actually build-up systems with equivalent components? Those could be tested, and using our own lab high-performance configurations would definitely ensure the best results that can be scored with those boxes.

Buying An OEM System

Before I go into more detail of the actual testing, I’d like to have a look at the actual purchase of an OEM-system in comparison to building up one’s own box from scratch. I am currently not quite aware of the statistics, but I guess that a large number of the Tom’s Hardware Guide readers are actually people who prefer to build up their own system. Still I am sure that there’s a large number of readers who have either already purchased OEM-boxes before, or who are currently considering to do so.

The obvious disadvantage of buying an OEM-system is the fact that you can’t quite tailor it the way you would like it. Although most of the large OEMs are nowadays offering pretty fancy options to customize their systems within a rather wide range, it still remains a fact that some important components of a system cannot be chosen by the potential buyer. I suppose that most overclockers will disregard OEM-boxes, simply because there is no way to choose a particular motherboard and in many cases the motherboard found in OEM-systems is a stripped-down version of some (often rather cheap) retail-motherboard without any tweaking options whatsoever. HP may be the big exception, being known to use Asus-motherboards in a large number of their systems. Other components, like special sound cards, mice, keyboards or especially monitors can also only be chosen within a rather limited range. Basically, an OEM-system takes away quite a bit of your freedom, which understandably is very important to so many of us, including myself.

On the other hand OEM-boxes do have a lot of advantages. In most cases, the price is considerably lower than that of a comparable self-built system. OEM-systems come with a warranty, a help-line and other forms of support, making the life of less experienced users much less difficult and giving you some feeling of safety. You also hardly pay for the operating system and the other software supplied with an OEM-box, which costs the owner of a self-built system a whole lot of money.

All in all it’s always worth having a look at the latest OEM-system offers, because you might save money, nerves, you don’t have to fight with incompatible hardware and in many cases you can later upgrade your OEM-box with the components you prefer.

Two Pentium 4 OEM-Boxes Vs. Two Athlon OEM-Boxes

The chapter above stated that it might well make sense to prefer an OEM-system to a self-made PC, but you still need to make sure you don’t get a bad apple. Unfortunately there is no relying on any particular brand name, because in the end all those OEMs are merely interested in your hard earned money. Each OEM would gladly sell you a complete nonsense-system. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you take a look at the websites of Dell, Gateway, IBM and HP. Some of the offered systems may only make you smile, others may even upset you too.

I am actually not trying to start a crusade against OEMs here. It is certainly true that most of them sell a bunch of systems that aren’t worth its money, but rely purely on e.g. Intel’s marketing. However, at each OEM you will also find very reasonably priced and well-equipped systems that seem very attractive to any of us. It simply requires experience and knowledge to make the right decision. Unfortunately, inexperienced and uneducated buyers will often fall into the marketing-trap and go for the wrong box. This article is supposed to give you a couple of examples.

For my comparison I chose two systems from Dell, a system from Gateway and a system from Micron. The two Pentium 4 boxes I chose had to be from Dell for two reasons. First of all it was a Dell ad that had inspired me to write this article in the first place, secondly Dell is the one OEM who is still in bed with Intel while ignoring AMD’s Athlon and Duron processors as if they wouldn’t exist. This article will show if Michael Dell and his company are indeed following the philanthropic ideas that are always displayed so sweet and nicely in their television commercials.

I decided that the low-end box of the ‘opposing’ systems should come from Gateway. Gateway has started to work with AMD a while ago and it is at least offering a decent midrange-solution equipped with Athlon or Duron processors. However, Gateway isn’t any better than Dell in terms of the high-end systems it offers. You will find the same or even worse Pentium 4 system configurations at Gateway as you would find them at Dell, with the only difference that Gateway doesn’t seem to sell you any of that crappy PC600 RDRAM along with it.

IBM and HP are both also offering their Pentium 4 solutions and you will find the same kind of situation as with Dell and Gateway. What particularly annoyed me with HP was the fact that each Pentium 4 system came with the slow PC600 RDRAM and I couldn’t find a way to choose the faster and much more sensible PC800 RDRAM.

The system that competes with Dell’s high-end Pentium 4 system comes from Micron and it could only be Micron. While Athlon systems with AMD760 chipset and DDR-memory are virtually unavailable from any other large OEM, Micron is shipping its Millennia MAX XP series for quite some time now. The other interesting fact about Micron is that it seems to completely disregard Pentium 4 right now, which I consider as rather remarkable.

Compaq would also have been a good candidate for an Athlon system, but I decided against a Presario simply because they have several proprietary solutions that make upgrading difficult to impossible.

Let’s now have a look at the systems I chose:

Dell Dimension 8100 Limited Edition Pentium 4 1.3 GHz System – $1588

“Available for a limited time, the NEW Dimension 8100 Limited Edition Series desktop gives you an Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4 processor at 1.3GHz and a great price! This system has cutting-edge technology and the ability to maximize productivity, you can use this system to enjoy the latest in audio, video and Internet technologies.”

Please note the ‘cutting edge’ comment in Dell’s juicy statement and keep it in mind until you have a look at the benchmark numbers of this ‘greatly priced’ system.

Gateway Select 1000 Customized Athlon 1 GHz System – $1594

“Gateway(tm) Select systems feature super-powerful AMD(tm) Athlon(tm) Processors with Performance Enhancing Cache Memory, delivering ultimate performance for cutting-edge applications and an unprecedented computing experience. Gateway Select offers Internet surfers, gamers, students, bosses, and parents incredible multimedia performance at a great value.”

Well, Gateway feels just as ‘cutting edge’ these days. Must be the latest marketing slogan right now. Still, you will see that with this system, Gateway is well able to live up to its promises.

Dell Dimension 8100 Customized Pentium 4 1.5 GHz High-End System – $2659

“The Dell(tm) Dimension 8100 desktop redefines “cutting-edge” technology. This powerful system, with Intel(r) Pentium(r) processors, speeds you to the highest levels of performance ever offered on a Dimension. The Pentium(r) 4 processors also provide enhanced multimedia, 3D and encryption, giving you a realistic, theater-like sight and sound experience right in your own home.”

‘Cutting Edge’ once more, but this time the system is actually well equipped. Dell is also very wise in making the ‘performance’ comment dependent to their own PCs. “Highest levels of performance ever offered on a Dimension’ – Why wouldn’t they say, ‘highest performance ever offered in a PC-system’ I wonder? We’ll soon find the answer.

Micron Millennia MAX XP Customized Athlon 1.2 GHz High-End System – $2645

“The Millennia MAX XP [..] features the powerful new AMD Athlon(tm) processor, AMD chipset, and new DDR SDRAM memory technology. That means home, home business, and small business users can have unrivaled desktop performance at an affordable price. Combining speed and innovation, the Millennia MAX XP harnesses the power of ultra-fast AMD Athlon processors and DDR SDRAM for maximized productivity in the most intensive applications. That means an unprecedented computing experience and incredible multimedia performance at a great value for Internet surfers, gamers, students, and parents.”

Well, well, Micron is not exactly modest either, but tests of many other PC-publications agree with them. Let’s see if Tom’s Hardware is able to agree with Micron’s big promises as well.

Feature Comparison

Now that you had a good look at the configuration of the four competitors it’s time to compare the features of the low-end and the high-end systems side by side.

Dell’s ‘little’ ‘Limited Edition’ Pentium 4 is not equipped that much worse than Gateway’s Athlon system. There are a few remarkable things however.

First of all, Dell is realizing the ‘low price’ by equipping the Pentium 4 1.3 GHz with PC600 RDRAM. This memory type is no less than 25% slower than PC800 RDRAM, having a very bad impact on the memory bandwidth-sensitive Pentium 4. A Pentium 4 1.5 GHz with PC600 RDRAM is 5-8% slower than with PC800 RDRAM. If you should ever decide to go for a Pentium 4 system, please take my advice and invest in PC800.

The other and most important difference between the Dell and the Gateway system is clearly the 3D-card, which I marked in red. NVIDIA’s GeForce2 Pro is of course way faster than the GeForce2 MX. This graphics card alone will assure that the Gateway system will kill Dell’s Pentium 4 box in any 3D-benchmark. The good 3D-performance of Pentium 4 has simply been cancelled out.

Last but not least the Gateway system comes with a home networking card and a bit more software for the same price. The other components seem pretty much on par.

Feature Comparison, Continued

As we go to our $2700 systems the differences between the Pentium 4 and the Athlon system are much more obvious. Micron’s equipment list is a pleasure to read. Only the best seems to be good enough for the Millennia MAX XP.

Instead of equipping an only medium-fast 80 GB 5400RPM hard drive from Maxtor, Micron goes for a rather unusual dual-hard disk IDE-RAID solution that gives several different options. If you like it super fast, you can configure the two drives as stripe and benefit from extremely high disk transfer rates. If you are into safety, you can run the two hard disks as mirrors, cutting the capacity in half (40 GB), but ensuring excellent data safety. If you don’t trust either solution you can still ‘span’ the two drives, thus simply making one out of them without the increased risk of data loss of the RAID0 (stripe) configuration.

The combined CD-RW writer and DVD solution of the Millennia MAX XP is obviously better than the DVD-drive only configuration of the Dimension 8100.

Unfortunately Dell’s Pentium 4 box would have become too expensive if I would have equipped it with a GeForce2 Ultra card. Micron’s Athlon system comes with this top-notch 3D-accelerator and will therefore have a very nice edge over the Dell-system.

Lastly, the Micron PC is actually equipped with a network card, something that the Dell-machine is completely missing. I’d also prefer Microsoft’s Office 2000 SB to Microsoft Works 2001 and the Turbo Tax software might be helpful to some of you too. Basically, the Millennia MAX XP benefits from the low price of the processor and is therefore clearly better equipped than Dell’s Pentium 4 monster.

The Testing

For this article I chose home / home office systems, which obviously also determines the tests. People who use PCs at home won’t run any scientific software or complex rendering application or Photoshop. The typical home/home office PC is used for word-processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, gaming and maybe DVD/Video stuff. Therefore I decided to run Sysmark2000, which tests office application and web browsing performance, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament to test 3D-gaming performance and Video2000 to test video performance. The two 3D-games were this time ran at a mode that reflects real-world usage. I chose a resolution of 1024×768 and a color depth of 32-bit and therefore a setting that ensures excellent 3D-experience and fun, just as advertised by the OEMs.

Test Setup

Please remember that we actually SIMULATED the above listed systems, by building almost identical boxes in our lab. This is NOT a test of the actual systems! We used retail motherboards, which are better than the ones used in the OEM boxes and faster hard drives (all 7200RPM). The system configuration used was our default test setup, which is also providing better results than the setup of an OEM box. Basically, our results will be higher than what you can score on those actual systems, but each system got the same advantage/disadvantage.

Benchmark Results

Office Application Performance

We know that Pentium 4 performs rather poorly in current office applications, so the two Athlon systems are leaving their equally priced Pentium 4 opponents quite far behind. What is amazing however is the fact that the Gateway Select 1000 Athlon system that costs only $1600 is almost as fast as the $1100 more expensive Dell Dimension 8100 Pentium 4 1.5 GHz in this test. So far about ‘cutting edge’.

3D Gaming Performance

Quake 3 Arena shows how much of a difference the graphics card actually makes. In fact, as soon as you are using a higher resolution than 800×600, the processor plays much less of a role than the 3D card. It is quite amusing to see how well the Athlon systems are performing here. Again, Gateway’s $1600 Select 1000 is able to outperform Dell’s $2700 Dimension 8100 P4 1.5 GHz system with ease. Now we know how different the two companies seem to define ‘cutting edge’. You can also see that the ‘inexpensive’ $1600 Pentium 4 system from Dell is far behind all the other systems. Basically, a Pentium 4 system is one of the worst things to spend $1600 on if you are a 3D-gamer. Pentium 4 (as any other processor) needs a fast (and thus expensive) graphics card or it is lost.

3D Gaming Performance, Continued

Unreal Tournament is less 3D-card and more processor-intensive, so the results don’t look quite as devastating for the two Dell-systems. Still the equally priced Athlon systems from Micron and Gateway can easily outperform the Pentium 4 boxes from Dell.

Video Performance

Last but not least here come the Video2000 scores. For once Dell’s $2700 Pentium 4 system has a bit of an edge over Micron’s $2700 Athlon system, while the Gateway Select 1000 beats Dell’s $1600 Pentium 4 system once more. I doubt that the 45 points (about 5%) lead of the $2700 Dimension 8100 can justify a purchase however.

Conclusion

You’ve got $1600 or $2700 to spend on a new computer system. What will you do?

I guess it is pretty obvious that the purchase of a Pentium 4 system for $1600 is one of the least sensible things you could do with that amount of money. For that price you get way better systems with Athlon processors, as Gateway’s Select 1000 example is demonstrating extremely well.

You won’t find those ‘bad apples’ at Dell only. Gateway, HP and IBM are offering the same ridiculous configuration. Please be wise and don’t fall for it. I mentioned it before; the PC-market has nothing to do with common sense. If the decision makers at Dell, HP, Gateway or IBM would think in a straight forward kind of way, they wouldn’t offer those crappy P4-boxes and hype them with empty ‘cutting edge’ phrases. Why do those guys get away with it? Because there are hundreds of thousands of uninformed people out there who will continue to fall for hollow marketing phrases and throw their money away. The TV commercials of those OEMs may sound as sweet as they want, but the minds behind those $1600 P4-boxes are merely out to take advantage of the uninformed. It’s close to modern robbery. I take my hat off to Micron, which simply DOES NOT sell any P4-systems, thus being the only OEM that can maintain a clear conscience in this ridiculous game.

Let’s now get to something positive however. If you look at the prices, configurations and benchmark scores of those four tested systems, Gateway’s Select 1000 seems to be the system with the by far best price/performance ratio. For only $1600 you get a system that is even able to beat an $1100 more expensive ‘cutting edge’ P4-system from Dell (and most certainly an equally priced P4-system from Gateway just as much).

The only system of the four that is really providing ‘cutting edge’ is Micron’s Millennia MAX XP however, the only system that did NOT use this phrase in its marketing. If you want to go for a top-of-the-line system and have $2700 to spend, you can hardly make a better decision than to buy the Millennia MAX XP.

So what’s the bottom line? Well, firstly I have to repeat myself for the 10,000th time, reminding you that systems with AMD’s Athlon or Duron processors are the best you can get for your money right now. I also don’t want to fail to mention that you can of course configure a Pentium 4 box that beats Micron’s Millennia MAX XP in a few benchmarks, but for what price? I leave it up to you to decide what you want to think about Dell, the only large OEM that still doesn’t offer systems with AMD processors. Are they really caring about their customers? I honestly wonder …