Lo-Cost Duel: Duron 1100 vs. Celeron 1200

Boosting Performance By Overclocking: Celeron With 1500 MHz

The Celeron 1200 with the Tualatin core proves to lend itself especially well to overclocking: 1500 MHz were no problem in the test.

The 0.13 micron technology is what makes it all possible. The Celeron 1200 was overclocked to 1500 MHz without any problem at all in the test. When this happens, the FSB runs at a speed of 125 MHz, the PCI bus at 41.5 MHz and the AGP bus at 83 MHz. Sensitive components such as the GeForce 3 graphics cards can have problems with the high AGP or PCI speed. An experiment in which the Celeron 1200 was overclocked to 1600 MHz was unsuccessful, although the temperature of the CPU core was not even close to the critical range. It is only at the 1600 MHz speed that the CPU equipped with a fixed multiplier would run at specified speeds (FSB speed at 133 MHz, PCI at 33 MHz and AGP at 66 MHz). Most impressive were the benchmark results of the overclocked Celeron 1500, which beat the AMD Duron 1250 in all benchmarks. Only in interaction with the Intel 815 EPT chipset and at an FSB and memory speed of 125 MHz does the Celeron 1500 show off its true performance. With its factory-set 100 MHz memory speed, the Celeron 1200 runs with the handbrake on.

Duron Overclocking: 1250 MHz For $102

The AMD Duron 1100 has no fixed multiplier, making a simple overclocking possible by giving the multiplier a high setting. Despite good cooling, it was only possible for us to overclock the Duron 1100 to 1250 MHz. But a stable 1250 MHz is an excellent rate, considering that you can get the CPU for $102. Dyed-in-the-wool AMD freaks will without a doubt find specimens that in exceptional cases can be overclocked marginally higher.