Duron vs Athlon : price differences

[jollyjeffers]

hi all,

I'm sorry if this is a bit annoying, but I dont post here much - and everytime has been fairly helpful

Anyway, I'm about to go to university (yay!) to do Computer Science. I have a nice computer - 700mhz Athlon TBird (200mhz fsb) and a GeForce 4 Ti4400 288mb PC100...

Given the nature of my course, I'm thinking of giving my Computer a little speed boost before I go.

I've read bout 4 articles about Athlon vs Duron (I wont consider intel, as I dont have enough cash to change the mobo as well). It's clear that Athlon's are faster than the Duron equivelents (I'm talking in the 1ghz->1.4ghz, not Athlon XP's).

BUT, my observation is that athlon's are around 30-40% faster... yet in the UK are about 50-70% more expensive. so on a priceerformance ratio, it would seem that the Duron is better. <b>any problems with this assertion</b>?

At the end of the day, can someone comment on this idea:
<b>replace my 700mhz Athlon with a 1.2 or 1.3ghz Duron</b>

it'd cost me around £40, but will the speed benefit really be worth it? will 500mhz up make much difference given the Duron is slightly slower at same clock speeds?

FYI, I make heavy use of my computer: 3DS Max 5, trueSpace 5 and 6, Visual Studio 6 and 7... I write lots of DirectX8 and 9 applications... and am currently working on a professional computer game

thanks for reading my post (if you got this far)!
Regards,
Jack;

 

[CMRvet]

OEM Prices from <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A>:

Duron 1200: US$45
1300: US$56

<b>Athlon XP 1600: US$ 56</b>

So the question is: does your motherboard support Palomino based CPUs? What MB do you have?

<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>

 

[phsstpok]

Well, if you have determined that a Duron is your only good choice then the Duron 1.2 or 1.3 is considerably better than your present Athlon 700. Not only being faster but the Duron (Morgan core) supports SSE. If your applications support SSE you will see great benefits.

As someone else mentioned, make sure your motherboard supports the newer Durons. It probably will with a BIOS update.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

he stated that XP's r ruled out.....therefore i would assuem his older board does not support 133MHz FSB...which means it doesnt have Morgan support either.......as morgan durons are Palomino based....i know the morgan is only 100Mhz FSB based....but im pretty sure they dont have a bios update for boards to support morgan...well mayeb they do actually....

in all honesty <b>jollyjeffers</b> i recomend that you OVERCLOCK your T-Bird 700 to lets say 950Mhz or 1000MHz if ur chip will go that high......u wont have to buy anything...except maybe a new HSF like the TT Volcano 7 and it will be MUCH cheaper than a new CPU for sure....and ull notice the speed difference...a 1GHz t-bird is faster than a 1.1Ghz Morgan duron.....

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

 

[chuck232]

Actually, IIRC, a V7+ is quite expensive around over there (UK), and also that high an o/c isn't real common is it? So, I'd suggest you get the Duron.

<i>Past mistakes may make you look stupid, but avoiding future ones will make you look smart!</i>

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

i didnt say Volcano 7+....just Volcano 7....i can pick one up for $22 CDN here...i dunno about over there...but thats REAL cheap here....remember im not talking about the 7+ model...just the 7....

ALSO....that high of an overclock is VERY common.....hed max out at either 950 or 1000MHz.....my bro had a 700 and i got it at 1000MHz at 1.80 VCore....later on i even got it at 7.5 Multiplier x 133Mhz FSB to make a 1Ghz 'C' type T-Bird....that was on my buddies A7V133....

i will gaurantee 900Mhz....950Mhz 90% Gaurantee and 1000MHz i give it a 75% chance...still pretty high! and especially with that cooler.....its overkill for that chip...so it'll do a good job FOR SURE..to ensure a reliable OC....

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

 

[chuck232]

Ok... cause those o/cs look to rival/beat the NW o/cs we've been seeing, and I've not heard much about t-bird's o/cing pontential.. (i guess it could be cause they're older...)

<i>Past mistakes may make you look stupid, but avoiding future ones will make you look smart!</i>

 

[phsstpok]

Tbirds, 700-850 were notorious for not overclocking very well. A 700 would be lucky to reach 850.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

WHAAAATTT motherboard do u have? is it slot A or socket A?


<b>P4 'Wilty' Celleron 1.7, 128Mb PC100 Cas3 SDRAM, 5400rpm HDD, Integrated everything. YUM!<b>

 

[Matisaro]

Ok... cause those o/cs look to rival/beat the NW o/cs we've been seeing, and I've not heard much about t-bird's o/cing pontential.. (i guess it could be cause they're older...)

Chuck, axia tbirds could go from 1ghz to 1.6-1.65ghz My own axi tbird ran@1.55ghz easily.(it was a 1.33 stock but even so its still an axia).

The big ass 55% northwood ocs are not the best ever, hell some old celerons could do 100% overclocks!

The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark

 

[phsstpok]

At one time the Athlons/Durons were the overclocking kings. The Athlons were especially good after the release of the 1.0 ghz AVIA core. The Durons (Spitfire core) were exceptional overclockers. I ran my Duron 600 at 1007 Mhz (68% overclock) for 14 months before I gave the computer to my nephew. It's still at 900 Mhz. My Tbird 1.0 was running at 1.5 ghz (50% overclock) until I gave up the noisy HSF. It also isn't doing well in this 35+ degree heatwave (no A/C). I'm running it at 1.33 ghz but the Radeon 8500 doesn't like this much heat.

The older Tbirds weren't that good in their day. On the other hand, we didn't have Delta fans and copper heatsinks a couple of years ago.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[eden]

That's true. But I guess in terms of raw image of the numbers, the NW's gap in between the stock and OCed speed, is big. When I would look at a 300MHZ CPU and see it at 600MHZ, I'd feel less impressed than a 1.6A at 2.4GHZ. The numbers feel better, get what I'm saying?

--
Is the opportunity to earn money by working, free?

 

[jollyjeffers]

I have a Gigabyte GZ-7ZM (first revision)... it's a cheap Socket A board, about 2yrs old now...

It specifies in the manual that it'll handle "1ghz and faster" - which is a little unclear!

The problem with O/C, apart from my being a little wary of it is that I dont know how to change the multiplier for my mobo really, there's no jumpers on the actual board, and no options (that I see) in the BIOS setup... it just auto selected a 7x multiplier for my Athlon...

thanks for the help people I still don't know if i can afford the upgrade even £40 is a little steep for me atm!

Jack;

 

[Spitfire_x86]

To get a speed boost, get a decent DDR motherboard (KT333 based) and some PC2100/PC2700 DDR RAM. Then think about upgrading the CPU.

Athlon 700 + KT333 w/DDR RAM will perform like Athlon 900 +Your mobo w/PC100 SDRAM.

I recommend this mobo and ram for you:

MSI KT3 Ultra (Good performace and inexpensive)

Kingston PC2100 CL2.5 DDR RAM (very good price/performace ram and no stability issues, I am using a 128 Mb module of this ram)

 

[jiffy]

If the Duron will save you money, go for it. I think there pretty fast and less likely to give you any trouble. For $40. bucks I think that is the better choice then trying to overclock, where heat is a factor.




Hey Baby, want to play with my computer?

 

[phsstpok]

Well maybe you would be more impressed by the fact that the 300 mhz Celeron once had a street price of $200 (USD).

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 08/19/02 02:13 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[psykoikonov]

You can't change the multiplier unless you "unlock" your CPU. You can search that info out in this forum. However you should be able to adjust your FSB speed in your bios. Your FSB speed (100) X your mulitplier(7.0)= CPU clock speed (700). You should be able to go up to between 106 (212) and 112 (224 ) without increasing your core voltage which will not damage any of your components. That would make your 700 a 785 at 112FSB. Beside your FSB will be another number (shown like this 100/33), it is your PCI bus speed. Depending on your components you should be able to go to around 35, say 37 tops. Your AGP slot will increase by twice that much (normally 66 will be say 70). The two numbers are somewhat tied, increasing one increases the other and vise versa. Even though the CPU speed only goes up say 80 you should notice a fair increase in the entire system speed .If you plan to do this DO SOME RESEARCH you might find you can get the extra horsepower your lookin for with NO money or little (new HSF). There are MANY other bios tweaks you can do to increase performance it all depends on your hardware and bios options.
CHEERS

Who needs heatsinks and fans, I have an igloo

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

Not totaly true.....

go dig up soem of the first T-Bird reviews here from Toms.......includign Overclocking articles....u'll see for urself that 700's, 750's, 800's can OC pretty damn well.....

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