Celeron 566@850+ or Cumine 700E?

[gmoney]

With the recent deals going on with the Pentium III 700E listed in the deals forum, I'm having trouble deciding whether to grab one of these cb0 700E's or a Celeron 566.

Right now, I have an Abit BX6 rev. 2 with a Celeron 300A@527 and PC100 RAM. I'd like to keep the motherboard and RAM and just upgrade the CPU. (BTW: 99% of the time the comp is going to be used for games)

Initially I was going to get the Celeron as I could overclock the FSB to 100MHz and get 850 pretty easily. But how much faster would the 700E be at its rated speed (with PC100 RAM it doesn't seem like I'd be overclocking the P3 much past it's rated speed)? Would this speed difference (if any) be enough to justify the cost difference between the two chips?

Thanks for any help.

 

[BuddyHolly]

From my experience, the are similar in speed, with the C2 slightly faster than the stock 700. The 700 will beat it if you overclock it, but I don't know how much you can push it with your current board/ram. Either is a big jump from what you have. C2 is a great bang for the buck, but the 700 is great also.

 

[NaturalPredator]

All benchmarks I have seen so far indicate that the 566@850 is about as fast as a 733 PIII. So the Celeron would save you quite a lot of money...
However if you overclock the 700e it's an entirely different story.
At the moment you seem to be using the 117 Mhz FSB setting, so if you overclock the PIII to 819 Mhz it would somewhat faster than the oc'd Celeron. Depending on your RAM you may even be able to push the 700e even higher (also depends on FSB settings offered by BX6).
And finally: Get a pretested CPU if you plan to overclock...
just my 2 cents...

 

[MadRat]

Duron 700 at $180 and Asus motherboard at $130 local prices. I bet you could shave $50 off that mail-order.

 

[gmoney]

Ok, thanks for the info. Look's like the Celeron's the better buy.
What about the higher speed Celeron II's that are popping up (i.e. 600 - 700 MHz)? Are these better overclockers than the 566? From what I'm hearing it would seem that the 566 is probably my best bet.

Thanks

 

[rigor]

someone on fleabay is offering 633 celermines guaranteed to 1004 mghz. Sounds fishy. try it and let us know!

 

[MadRat]

There is one benchmark at least where a 850mHz C!! whips the 700E; RC5-64 cracking. If you are into RC5 cracking then the C!! is the better performer.

 

[Eug]

Note that it isn't guaranteed that a Celeron 566 will do 850. Probably have about a 70% chance. I'd go for a 700E and run it at 784 or higher. From your current setup we already know your RAM is up to the task.

I wouldn't buy a 566 unless it was guaranteed to hit 850, and that adds quite a bit to the price.

P.S. I'm not biased, because I already own a 533A that hits 920 and even posts at 992 (running at 840 though).

 

[Mr Mac]

gmoney, here's some more info for ya:

I have a BX6-R2, flashed with the latest bios. Last week I got a P3-700E cb0 stepping, retail box. I'm using a golden orb with a MSI master slocket. I have no trouble running this chip at 933/1.75 volts while simultaneously running Prime 95, Seti, and whatever else I want. The only problem I have is when I try Unreal Tournament or 3Dmark2000. I think it's my V770 TNT2 Ultra. This MB (and chipset) will be running the AGP bus at 89 Mhz with a front side bus of 133. I love this P3, but I'm going to return it because of my video card. Make sure your video card can run at 89MHz before you decide to go with the P3-700E.

Luck!

 

[rigor]

the tnt's are just suck.
all the geforce including the sdr run at 89mghz fsb. esp the creative labs models. I'm sure you could pawn off your tnt2 and spend $40-50 bucks and get a SDR or 2MX somewhere and keep that cool chip.

 

[jblondi]

Yeah, TNT's are crap....NOT! You havent a clue. Sure, waste your money on a GeForce when you already have a great video card for an affordable price. TNT's are what put Nvidia on the map. Of course a brand new car will out preform a classic, but it doesnt mean the classic isnt a great car. Why dont you back your statement up with some kinda proof?

 

[gmoney]

Well if I went with the Celeron 566, I'd probably get a pretested one, which would run about $185 or so with a Slocket and Golden Orb fan. The PIII 700E, according to the latest deals, is about $220. Maybe the chips are cheaper on E-bay, but I heard some horror stories with CPU's and don't want to deal with it.
As far as my video card, it's a Voodoo 3 3000, which I'm pretty sure has no problem running well at non-spec'd FSB speeds (it runs great now at 2/3 117Mhz).
From what I'm reading around the net is that the CII 566@850 can keep up if not surpass the 700E. For me, it's all about the games and I want the CPU that gets me the best framerates at a decent price. It doesn't seem to me that the performance difference betweent the two chips is enough to justify spending the extra $40 for the 700E.
Any thoughts? Am I compeletely off base here?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Eug]

No, the pre-tested 566 is a great chip, but you're unlikely to get much past 876 MHz. However, there's an excellent chance that with an untested 700E you'll hit 819 with your memory. An 819 PIII will easily beat an 876 Celeron in most situations.

On the other hand, the differences won't be huge, because of your video card.

Either way, you'll be getting a good deal. Actually, the best bang fo the buck is still the 533A Celeron.