Difference between PII and PIII

[allgoodpeople]

I'm considering upgrading my dad's computer for him for christmas. He's currently got a PII 300, but his board will take up to a PIII 1 GHZ @100 MHZ FSB. The 1 GHZ chip is a little more than i want to spend, but the 500 and 600 MHZ chips look a little more affordable.

My question is this: is the PIII architecture alone enough to make significant (read: noticable to joe sixpack) performance gains, or is the increase in clock speed going to be what makes the difference?

I know going from the 66 MHZ FSB of the PII to a 100 MHZ FSB will make a performance difference as well. Is it worth upgrading the processor without a large increase in clock speed? Thanks for any opinions.


allgoodpeople




"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear."

 

[FatBurger]

Yes, I'd say it's worth an upgrade. Although for the $115 for a P3 500, you might look at a Duron 800 or so with a motherboard. I got one for $100 at Fry's.

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.

 

[allgoodpeople]

hmmm, good thought. I hadn't thought of changing the mobo out too. only problem i can think of there is trying to convince him to change out the mobo. Might be some resistance to making a big change like that. but certainly worth considering.


allgoodpeople

"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear."

 

[Guest]

The PII, and PIII are almost the same chip, they added SSE to the slot version, then Coppermine get a 256kb 256-bit full speed cache, instead of a 512kb 64-bit half speed cache.

I AM Canadian.

 

[Crashman]

It depends on your motherboard as to what you can support. The best priced PIII is the 750, at $93.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

I'll buy your P II for $20 (including shipping)

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[peteb]

I wouldn't recommend changing out the motherboard (Intel to AMD) since you'll likely end up having to fully reinstall his system. If it is a PII300 then you may not still have the software around and it is unlikely his PSU will support a fast AMD mobo and cpu anyway.

Also - what memory do you have - if the system is a 66Mhz PII is the memory capable of supporting PC100?

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email for application details<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by peteb on 07/06/01 02:53 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[girish]

you probably have a slot1 board, so you can get a slot1 P-III 600 MHz processor.
But wait, if you have a too old board, you might not be able to use the newer processor due to its lower voltage requirement. make sure the processor core is Katmai and the processor is strictly P-III 600 and not E/B/EB.

girish

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[allgoodpeople]

He's got some PC100 and PC133 in there for RAM

allgoodpeople




"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear."