Do-It-Yourself PC System: CPU & Motherboard

Page 4 of 20:

Ideal CPU: AMD Athlon 800

Having chosen the perfect motherboard, we're now looking for the appropriate CPU. We certainly could take the fastest AMD CPU for Socket 462 - an Athlon rated at 1200 MHz. This CPU costs a whopping $279 and would drastically reduce our PCs price/performance ratio. (Compared to Intel this is still very cheap). We listed different Athlon processors below.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

CPU	Rated CPU clock	Overclockable to	Price	Price/Performance
AMD Athlon 700	700 MHz	950 MHz	$97.00	good
AMD Athlon 750	750 MHz	950 MHz	$99.00	good
AMD Athlon 800	800 MHz	1000 MHz	$109.00	very good
AMD Athlon 900	900 MHz	1050 MHz	$139.00	good
AMD Athlon 1000	1000 MHz	1150 MHz	$186.00	satisfactory
AMD Athlon 1100	1100 MHz	1266 MHz	$227.00	acceptable
AMD Athlon 1200	1200 MHz	1400 MHz	$279.00	poor

We concluded that AMD Athlon 800 offers the best price/performance ratio. Only $109 buys a very powerful CPU, which is also well suited for overclocking. We've overclocked Athlon 800 (manufacturer's clock multiplier = 8) to 1000 MHz by setting the DIP switch of the Asus A7V accordingly. It is no secret, either, that AMD recently made drastic improvements in their CPU production, so that most of their CPUs are designed to sustain at least 1000 MHz CPU clock. Only laser coding of the CPU surface pins effectuates lower clock rates.

Ideal CPU: AMD Athlon 800

Ideal CPU: AMD Athlon 800

Overclocking Power