Dual Celeron 400 Vs. Single Celeron 950

[butch84]

I built a comp for my dad to use, and for me to use on weekends when I'm home. I basically used spare parts i had laying around, so I ended up building a dual celeron 400 rig. Would a single celeron 950 be much faster for everyday stuff? My dad basically uses the comp for internet, email, and wintv. I like to have an mp3 playing, and have several windows open at once when im using the computer. However, thats about all the multitasking i really do.

Do you guys think a celeron 950 would be a noticable improvement us?

Also, if i do switch to a single cpu, do i need to reconfigure winxp pro to have only one cpu, or will it jus configure itself automatically?

Thanks,
Butch

 

[mamisano]

A single processor that is more than double the aggregate speed of two processors will be faster. Not all programs are able to take advantage of dual processors, especially for email, internet and office programs.

 

[mechBgon]

If WinXP Pro is like Win2000, it will deal with the missing CPU ok... I've gone back and forth on my dualies before. However, if you have the classic dual-Celeron board, the ABIT BP6, be aware that it's not built for Coppermine-based CPUs, period. What board are you using?

 

[butch84]

I am using an MSI 694d pro, which supports coppermines . . . at one time i had two pIII 700s in it, which are now in my ECS D6VAA.

Incidentally, i am having trouble overclocking the 700s past 816. I would think they would both do closer to 900, and one does 933 for sure. When i try anything higher than 116fsb, i get no video / post. I have a radeonddr, 640 pc133 cas2, ect.

Anybdoy have anny additional suggestions about the dual celly or my pIII overclocking problems??


Thanks guys, ATers are da best!

Butch

EDIT: Sorry i forgot about the 4hr bump rule . . . I just remembered after i posted, oh well . . . forgive me??

 

[mechBgon]

I had one of those too, with a pair of P3 733's. A fast single CPU will perform better than the dual for most general apps, in my experience... I replaced the dual-P3 with a single-AthlonXP system having the same exact total MHz and it was a noticable improvement in day-to-day office/multitasking usage. What surprised me about that is that we use aggressive antivirus software that picks apart every program and file in real-time (heuristics enabled). I would have thought that having dual CPUs would have helped perk up the system under the considerable burden of the AV software (it produces about a 30-50% percieved performance decrease). Live and learn...

 

[Zap]

Yes, single 950 would be better. Better yet, get a slower CPU and overclock I have an 800 that easily does 1066.

As for the problems overclocking the 700's, you need to test the CPUs individually. You said one will do 933. If the second one doesn't, you need to find out what it can do. The problem is probably one CPU holding it back, and the no-POST problem may be the AGP or PCI bus running too far out of spec. At 100MHz FSB and 133MHz FSB, the AGP and PCI are in spec. At any in-between speed, the AGP and PCI are out of spec. Most (but not all) boards will overclock the AGP/PCI bus up to 124MHz FSB, after which they'll underclock it until 133MHz FSB. The problem is with overclocking the AGP/PCI.

 

[Richardito]

The 950 Celeron will be unfathomably faster.