which is the best P4 or AMD

[dragon]

i am figureing out why P4 is better over AMD or vice versa cause my comp is running on crap and i want to know which should i get

[Barumonk]

Pentium 4.

Pentiums (since the Pentium 3) have been able to limit themselves so they don't overheat. If the CPU fan dies suddenly, or some other unknown issue occurs, the Pentium 4 will automatically detect that its running too hot and slow itself down. AMD processors don't do this, so if something happens you run the risk of actually melting your processor off your motherboard. The pros of using AMD is that its cheaper and generally a bit faster, but like I said that extra speed doesn't exactly counteract its main weakness.

[rainstorm]

Kind of a late response, but here's some additional info for you.

AMD's in the past have generally had higher benchmark scores than their Pentium counterparts but only in the sense of multimedia. Barumonk is right, AMD's run hotter and don't have that nifty temp monitor built in, but AMD's are generally preferred by gamers because of its slight boost in speed over the Pentium. On the other hand, Pentiums are preferred by businesses who are running fileserving, databasing, and office applications since the Penium's math co-processor has a great deal more instructions than AMD, hence are capable of "crunching" much faster and cooler.

Here's a tip to overcoming AMD's greatest weakness of temperature control. When buying an AMD, put it on an ASUS or equivelant mobo, and avoid the mobos that can accept AMD's or Pentiums. These boards sometimes have temperature monitors on the CPU slot and can double check the FSB rate that instructions are being sent to the processor. Additionally, DO NOT buy a full AMD package. These are the AMD's that come with heat paste and its own fan and generally cost 2-6 dollars more than their OEM-Processor Only packages. Blow the extra $30 for a high-quality fan such as the Thermaltake Volcano 9. Other fan features that help are variable speed, temp sensors, and software-capabable monitoring. Thermaltake generally leads the pack in these, but feel free to shop around. As long as it's a big freakin fan with a high cpm output rating, you'll be all good.

Also advisable is to buy a slot fan and place it in the first PCI slot, between the AGP slot and any other cards you have. Video cards put out alot of heat, and onboard video processors are invariably close to this slot as well. Having a good amount of circulating air inside the case helps the processor fan do its job. I've worked on other people's PC's far too many times to find out that their processors are choking themselves down because of overheating because their power supply and processor fan are the only things cooling the entire board down.

[dragon]

hmmm nice p4 should be the most likely to buy then cause i amlike running games non stop..THX YALL