upgrading a pentuim to a celeron?? what the.....

[sargeduck]

I currently have a P3 800EB processor with an EPOX 3vsa2 motherboard using the Apollo Pro 133T chipset. I have been wanting to upgrade this to a P3 1.4(fsb=133,L2=512), but at around $400 CDN, this is a little exspensive for my liking. (My motherboard can take a Tualatin without any adapters). I was thinking instead about taking a celeron 1.3(fsb=100, L2=256) priced around $100 CDN and overclocking the fsb to 133. I play alot of games (ut2k3, mohaa, ghost recon, ect...), and I was wondering about the performance difference. OC'ing the celeron's fsb to 133 will make it comparable in SPEED to the 1.4, but what about the extra 256 of cache the pentium has? Is it worth spending an extra $300 for 256 more L2 cache? I don't want to buy a whole new setup, so these are really the only options I want to take.

 

[dhlucke]

It's a no win situation for you in my opinion.

For those out there wondering, $100-$400 canadian is $65-$260 USD.

<font color=red>
<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">Forum Assassin</A></font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

It can't be done! A Celeron 1.3 at 133MHz FSB would be running 1733MHz! No, this is too far for the Tualatin.

In fact, the 1.2 at 1600MHz is also unlikely to happen. The best choice is the 1.1 at 1466MHz. $44 at Newegg. It will give you about a 20% performance boost in games, and make heavy processing programs like compiling video go by at least 50% faster.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[jclw]

No, the extra 256k of L2 isn't worth it.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

Correction....the extra 256Kb of L2 Cache IS worth it..performance wise.....but for the money? hell no...INFACT ur much betetr off buying a new MB and a cheap AXDA Thoroughbred AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU (for $99 CDN RETAIL) and u can do this for the same price as JUST the Tully 1.4 PIII..and it'll be MUCH faster than the 1.4 Tully PIII...and di i mention u can Overclock that T-Bred A to around 2200+ ?? Sounds like a good deal eh? Check it out urself...

<A HREF="http://www.infonec.com/" target="_new">Infonec Computers</A> just for a reference to a place near me that i shop at......mayeb ur in the area to its a great store...check it out urself.....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[jclw]

It depends what you use it for - IMHO the extra 256k of L2 doesn't do much except when multitasking or running scientific apps.

The extra memory bandwidth however, at 133mhz, makes a huge difference.

You're better off getting a 1.1A and running it at 1463 (133FSB) then running a PIII-1400-S at stock.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[Unolocogringo]

The P3 tualitins with 512 cache are slightly faster or slightly slower than a equally clocked Athlon system.

My 1.26 overclocked to 1583mhz(memory at cas 3) is about equal in performance to a Athlon 2000+ or a P4 2.0 gig.

With a G4 4200 overclocked to 285/600 I score 10500+ 3dmarks. With better memory that would run cas2 I could probably break 11000. But havent been able to find any that will run 166 or above at cas2.

I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[ritesh_laud]

It depends what you use it for - IMHO the extra 256k of L2 doesn't do much except when multitasking or running scientific apps.

My adapter/CPU combo just died on me, but I was running a Tualatin-S 1.26 GHz (512K) and for gaming it simply kicked the crap out of my previous P3/850. Now I'm back to a P3/933 and it's noticeably much slower. In my experience, that extra cache makes a big difference for games.

Ritesh

 

[jclw]

Comparing a Tualatin PIII-S to a Coppermine to compare the effects of a bigger L2 cache isn't fair since there were other improments to the Tualatin core as well - most notably the data pre-fetch for the L2.

I'm not saying the PIII-1130-S isn't faster then the regular PIII-1130, I'm just saying it isn't much faster for everyday computing.

<A HREF="http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140657" target="_new">L2 Cache Performance Benchmarks: 512KB vs. 256KB by macklin01</A>

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

There is absolutley no way a Tualitin 1.26 @ 1.58GHz is faster than an AXP 2000+......
MAYBE it says so in SiSoft Sandra......but remember that Theoretical benchmarks mean nothing.......

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[sargeduck]

Thanks for all the great feedback. However, i'm still no closer to a decesion. I like the idea of going with a celeron 1.1 and overclocking it to 1.4 speeds, but then again I play a lot of games (and they are getting more demanding), so I keep thinking that the extra cache may really come in handy. This will be my last upgrade for a long time, so I would really like to get the most.(I've had the hardest time trying to get my mom to let me use her credit card to buy a SINGLE chip, so going to a new mb/chip/ram would probably put her over the top!)
Argh! decisions. maby I'll flip a coin. lol
BTW, MeTaLrOcKeR, that store you suggested also has the cheapest p3 1.4 I've seen in Canadian prices

 

[ZER0]

yeah do that with the celeron. i had a celly 1gig at 1.4 and now i have a 1.2 at 1.6

voltage 1.825 asus tusl2

 

[ZER0]

<<<There is absolutley no way a Tualitin 1.26 @ 1.58GHz is faster than an AXP 2000+......
MAYBE it says so in SiSoft Sandra......but remember that Theoretical benchmarks mean nothing.......>>>
well he didn't specify the application or platform for that matter. considering a sdram platform do you know for sure that there is ABSOLUTLEY NO WAY a tully p3 1.26 at 1.58 is faster than a axp2000. considering 166 memory bus and twice the L2 cache i don't think there is ABSOLUTLEY NO WAY.

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

Considering clock for clock the Athlon T-Bird (Not even XP) ON SDRAM was slighty slower AND slighty faster than the 512Kb L2 Counterpart Tully P3....im willing to put money down on it.....

Toms, Anandtech...whole bunch of different hardware sites did reviews and compared them......this is way back too when the XP wasn't even released it was compared to the T-Bird's still......and even than the T-Bird one most of the Benchmarks IIRC.....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[Crashman]

The performance difference between a Celeron 1.1 at 1466 and a PIII 1.4 at stock is probably around 10% favoring the PIII. But the price is 400% more.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[sargeduck]

hmm. thanks for all the help. I think I'm going to go with a celeron 1.1 and oc it to 1.4. This got me thinking about taking a 1.2 and overclocking it to 1.6ghz (12*133=1596). The only thing is that I want this to last a long time as I'm going to hand it down to my sister (she's using my old 233). Will a tualatin at 1.6 be able to last for a couple of years? Would it burn out after, say, 5 yrs?