Minimum Spec PC in 2005?

[Ciaran]

The Athlon 64 would be faster than the P4.

[Digfox]

The Athlon 64 would be faster in games, yes.

Check:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2004...et_939-19.html for some benchmarks. Your comparing the 3200+ (obviously) with the P4 3.0E, S478.

[Rossco]

Excellent. Cheers. Any drawbacks to buying it?

My mate recently bought one for his PC and then went to buy this mad Jet Fan thing but couldn't as it wasn't compatable with AMD!

Everything else though should be fine yeh?

[Ciaran]

Some fans will be compatible with P4, some with A64.

The A64 will be slower in multimedia tasks (video editing/encoding etc) other than that you will have a faster chip.

[Digfox]

No drawbacks, two of my last three CPU's have been AMD (an XP and 64), and they've have been fine for what I wanted them for.

When you buy the cooler, just make sure it is compatible with the 'Socket 939' platform.