Ok, this is a hardware question, but please advise...

[Nate_Dogg]

I'm preparing to build my first computer. It will be used mainly for poker (8-tabling, PT, GT+, etc.) and I do not do any heavy gaming. Which processor should I go with, Athlon 64 series or P4? I'm looking to spend $150-$200 on the chip. Thanks.

[Chiron]

You shouldn't need anything fancy for that. My old P4 2.4ghz does all of the above just fine. Some extra RAM might help you though.

[Vern]

My suggestion is build a cheap server unit. I have found the Dell SC420 to be an excellent base for this. Even if you don't do the video hack to get a top of the line graphics card in there., it still does everything a poker server should. They are on sale at Dell all the time for around $340, $600 after you upgrade memory and decent size HD. These things are designed to run 24/7, and mine has been doing great since Feb doing just that.

Anyway, from experience with both processors, and not trying to start an AMD/Intel flame war on this forum (I avoid those flame wars like the plague), I recommend you buy or build something with a P4 2.8-3.2 w/HyperThreading. These things chew through data processing (Poker Tracker) much better than AMD. If you want to play games, top of the line, then AMD shines, but as a number crunching and application work horse, Intel cannot be beat. Make sure you have a nice fast HD, the Western Digital Raptors are nice 10K RMP SATA drives, and I think you need a minimum of 1Gig of memory.

But, don't dismiss my idea of a server either. You dump the PT workload onto the server, so imports do not cause your play rig to stutter/freeze during import. PT allows two licenses, so you put your databases on the server, with a copy of PT there. You then install a copy of PT on your play rig, just to configure the databases (targeting the databases on the server) so that GT+ will see them across the network and draw out the info. (Note this step is not necessary for PlayerView)

If/When PT goes PostGRE SQL, this set up becomes even nicer than now. Currently, if I send a MS Access query to the database on my remote machine asking it for one name that meets some criteria out of the database, the local machine does a lot of work as that is where the access engine is. Once you have MySQL, PostGRE SQL or even Microsoft Server SQL running on the remote machine, the majority of the work load is off loaded onto that remote machine, so GT+ would send a query from your play machine to get info you the players are your table, and your play machine would be barely stressed by this. PT is not running locally, and the SQL engine is doing all the work on the remote machine so the entire need for your play machine is to be able to display the multiple monitors, graphics and make the network connections. This limits your play machine need to just about anything you want, just enough to run WinXP and a decent video card or a decked out AMD gaming rig (Since it won't be doing heavy number crunching for applications, the server will). But it means no more freezes when PT is doing a massive import or autorating players in the background.

My $0.02
Vern

[pokergrader]

If you are building it, stick with AMD, it will cost less and give more performance than any intel chips.

My current computer is an AMD Athlon/Nvidia2 computer that I build 2 years ago, and still can handle multitabling (4-6) with PT and PV easily.

The A64 kicks the crap out of anything intel can offer in terms of value, and if you combine it with a nice stable chipset (nvidia3), then you should get a great computer for a low price. However, for a real poker player, the most important thing is to make sure you pick a moniter that can handle all the tables you want.

If you feel like you are going to need support in case something breaks, go with dell. If you think you can handle it all yourself, build yourself a nice A64+nvidia3 box and enjoy. Make sure you put at least 1GB of ram in it to keep all these memory intensive apps (PT mainly) happy.