cpu advice needed for system upgrade

[gplracer]

I have a bh6 and samsung gh ram. Right now my processor is a celeron 300a @ 450mhz and a v5 video card. Everyone keeps telling me the best bang for the buck is a celeron II 566 @ 850mhz. I have to agree. But is it the best way to go? My cousing is telling me to wait a few months until the new motherboards for the duron come out. He says they will support a lot of new features. Is this true? I can not afford to upgrade that quick again. Thanks for you time and comments.

 

[jeremy806]

In computers, tomorrow never comes.

If you play games now, upgrade now.

Remember, the Duron will require a new mb, it's all in what you want to spend, and when you want to play.

Jeremy

 

[HannibalX]

Too bad an Athlon 600 and a PII 650 still beats that Oced Celly. I'd wait a while, get some more dough and go for a new Mobo/CPU - The T-Brird 700 looks nice.

 

[Ulysses]

The BH6 is a nice board with one of the best chipsets ever - why replace it when you just need a CPU? Just get an Intel Pentium III Coppermine of the cB0 stepping and preferably in the FC-PGA format (you'll need an inexpensive 'slocket' adapter to match it to your BH6 too). Spend as much as your budget allows, upgrade the board's BIOS if you need to, then put that new baby in your board and overclock it as high as you can. Down the road you can get a new mobo based on the new Intel 815E chipset and the FC-PGA P3 will plug right in.

And you won't have to look back. The Coppermines are excellent overclockers and stock are faster than the Celerons, Durons, and old Athlons. The new Athlons/Thunderbirds are only marginally better than the Coppermines and the difference is not worth switching platforms for.

Finally, I think you'll notice that many of the newer motherboards are getting more expensive than previously , especially for the AMD CPU's (I saw an A7V for Duron/Tbird @ $210 shipped). I think the days of cheap VIA-based mobos are coming to an end.

 

[Tom]

Its hard to beat a Celeron 566@850 given the components you already have, since you can get one for $100-140. I was able to get a retail 566 and a MSI Master slocket for a total of $96 by going for deals in the Hot Deals forum. It works great in my old BH6.

 

[Goi]

It really depends on your budget. If your budget is low then the C2 566@850 is probably the way to go. If you have a higher budget, perhaps you could wait for more KT133 mobos to appear and get a new Thunderbird/Duron system. Right now, Your C300A@450MHz *should* suffice for a while longer...

 

[Ulysses]

Goi has a good point.

I was just looking at AnandTech's test of the Celeron II 700 (http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.html?i=1264)and the latest Intel OEM prices at Sharky Extremee(http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/weekly_cpu/2.shtml). What I noticed is how misrepresentative the overclocked MHz figure for the Celeron is when compared to the benchmark rankings. It looks like a Celeron 700 running at 850/100 is barely equivalent to a stock P3 Coppermine 600E/100 on a BX board . And the 600E on your board might do 750/124. This is what Trinitron was saying in the first place (I think he meant PIII, not PII).

At this time it looks like for $100 you could get a Celeron 566 or for $200 a P3 Coppermine 600E/100 or 650/100. The Celeron II 700 @ $200 makes no sense at all, as Anand points out.

If you go with the one of the Duron you are probably talking around $300 total, since you have to get a new board and maybe a power supply. And the Duron lags the P3 in performance and its overclocking potential has yet to be determined.

A good intermediate choice might be the P3.

This is kind of fun.