benefits of upgrade to Duron 800

[mtb_mikey]

I currently have PII 350 Mhz, I'm thinking of replacing the motherboard and CPU to move to a Duron 800Mhz. Apart from the obvious difference in clock speed what other factors would influence system performance, i.e. onboard cache memory, FPU, MMX instructions etc.

Mostly I run Linux, I do lots of digital image manipulation with tools like Gimp & Photoshop
(I have 512Mb ram). I've grown out of playing 3d games
so I'm not really sure if the upgrade would be worth it.

Mike

 

[Crashman]

What kind of motherboard do you have? It might be MUCH cheaper just to get a faster processor for the one you have!

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

I have a duron 800 and i love it!!
Blazing fast and speed

I came from a K6-2-350 and this is so fast.


I reccommend buying a new AMD duron highly

 

[Arrow]

If your motherboard will support a fairly decent speed, just go for a processor upgrade, as Crashman suggested. If not, then go for the Duron 800 and board upgrade. You should see an increase in performance.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Guest]

I agree with Crashman , check out how fast oyur MB can go cos if you can put a 700 - 800 PIII in it you would save yopurself quite a bit, but if you have to buy a new MB anyway you would probably be better of with the duron....


M

UK Prices are <font color=red>toooooooooo</font color=red> high , keep competition going to bring em down

 

[flavio321]

durons are worth every penny. but just as important is the motherboard.

My slowest PC out of 61 computers is @1050Mhz

 

[Guest]

I would guess that if your running a PII 350 you've probably got a BX chipset mobo, which will probably accomodate a faster PIII. If you can take that route do it. Otherwise, like everyone else said, the Duron 800 will be much faster than what you have. Also, if your memory is at least good PC100, you might be able to reuse it on a new socket-A board too.

 

[Crashman]

Basically what everyone is saying is that if you can support a 700-800MHz PIII, you should go that rout and save money. If you have to buy a motherboard, you might as well get a duron because they are cheaper. You would not gain any performance with the 800MHz duron over the 800MHz PIII, so find out if your motherboard will support it.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

If you decide to upgrade, go for the Duron, cos it's got superior bus speed and therefore better memory throughput. DO NOT even think about a Celeron, whether it's got 66 or 100MHz FSB.

That said, you might have problems if your 512MB will not run above 66MHz FSB, because (as far as I know) Durons/Athlons need at least 100MHz.

~ I'm not AMD biased, I just think their chips are better ~

 

[mtb_mikey]

my motherboard is a Chaintech 6btm (1998) .
the manual says it supports upto PentiumII 450 :-(

My ram is PC100 so a socket A board is the way to go.
One of my disc drives is ATA66 so I'd probably get some increase through having a faster IDE controller.
But would a ATA33 CD drive on the same cable slow it down?

Thanks for the replies

Mike

 

[Booky]

I have a 440BX board and the manual says it only goes up to PII 450, hope his isnt the same MB.

Someday I will stop asking all the questions!

 

[datwater]

I'd just like to point out that a MSI K7T Pro 2A with Duron 800, heatsink, and fan is going to cost around $180. A PIII 800 is going to cost close to, or above $200. All these folks saying "go the cheap route and get a faster processor for the mobo you have" are misinformed. Duron 800 probly outperforms the PIII 800 anyhow.

-D

(Prices from pricewatch.com, tufshop.com, and a few other random merchants on the web, oem.)

 

[Crashman]

Well, I have news for you. Depending on the manufacturer there are several ways to get past that. First, most motherboards will support faster CPU's than originally designed for because the PIII and later PII had fixed autodetected multipliers. If the motherboard manufacturer has any recent BIOS it should support the high multiplier.
So that only leaves voltage. Evergreen technologies makes a chip called the Performa III that is 800MHz and works on any 100MHz system bus PII system. And other companies make converter cards with the necessary votaltage controls. But many motherboards will support the necessary voltages with only a BIOS update. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/mboard.html gives you options for finding the manufacturer from bios and links to many of their websites.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

The ATA33 will slow it down on the same cable. But why would you want to put it on the same cable? There are two channels on every board, some boards have 4 (if they include another controller such as Promise RAID).

~ I'm not AMD biased, I just think their chips are better ~

 

[Booky]

Ok I have a AMI BIOS. I wasnt on the list but the BIOS checker said it was a gateway BIOS. I just have some questions, not real important yet since im building a whole new system, but they may help in the future. When I startup and hit F2 for setup, is that BIOS? If it is are there some BIOS that you just can't change things in? I mean as fas a memory is concerend it only says amount(192MB) and nothing else. No speed or anything. For CPU it says 350 and nothing else. I can't change anything with the CPU either. Well if you cant answer these its alright since im building new system in April anyway. Prolly use a new board with KT266 chipset.

Someday I will stop asking all the questions!

 

[Crashman]

Well, if you look in enough places you can figure out who made the board. Gateway BIOS is usually interchangeable with the motherboard manufacturers BIOS. You know how to get inot BIOS, gateway just doesn't give you many options. If it is an Intel board you can probably get newer bios to support faster processors from Intel, but you still won't have many setup options. Other manufacturers may give you more options.

Suicide is painless...........