Athlon or Duron

[DeadCat]

I am looking at building a new system based around an AMD CPU. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but at the same time, I would like a speed boost. Currently I am running a PIII 700, and use my computer to most offen to play games.

My question is this...Should I get a Athlon or a Duron CPU? And what speed? Also, what is the difference between the two proccessors?

Thanks for any all help,
DC

 

[JWade]

Last time i checked the 1ghz chips where priced about the same. Go with the t-birds because of the more cache.

I would probably go wityh a 1.3ghz one, as the price on pricewatch.com is $86 for the 200mhz bus one for the lowest company selling them. Only $1 more than the 1.2ghz, and $11 more than teh 1.2ghz duron.

edit: the 1ghz durons are now close to $30 cheaper thant eh 1ghz t-birds, hard choice there, i would still go with the 1.3 though myself.

 

[MoFunk]

I would say to get the T-bird. I bought myself a Duron 850 from and Athlon classic 700 and was not happy. Bought a 1.2 200, was not happy. Got a 1.4 266 and was very happy. Not at the extra 200mhz but the axtra FSB. I had my 1.2 up to 1.4 anyway. But go with a T-bird with a 266fsb. You'll be glad you spent the extra few bucks. I see an XP 1600 FSB retail box for $134 at newegg. Newegg has been acting funny today so that is the only price I can give you at the moment.

 

[Alex]

athlon...

 

[microAmp]

<< I am looking at building a new system based around an AMD CPU. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but at the same time, I would like a speed boost. Currently I am running a PIII 700, and use my computer to most offen to play games.
My question is this...Should I get a Athlon or a Duron CPU? And what speed? Also, what is the difference between the two proccessors?
Thanks for any all help,
DC >>



Let you decide on the cash part, but either Athlon XP (not Tbirds) 1.33 GHz higher or the Duron 1 GHz or higher. Both of these have SSE on them while the Tbirds and Duron's under 1 GHz do not, better performace with SSE. If you can affor either XP or Duron 1 GHz, go with XP due to higher cache and the 133 FSB.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I think you should get as much processor as you can afford. I personally would not go above an XP 1800+ because the highest end ones are still pretty expensive, but an XP 1700+ or 1600+ should be pretty reasonable. I would be looking in this range if I were you. These have the SSE instructions which improve performance and the higher FSB and cache than the Durons, so the speed difference will be noticeable.

 

[Wind]

Athlon. The larger L2 cache helps in games on most/all occasion than an equivalent clock Duron.