Duron 650 - simple question, easy answer?

[AceT]

Quite a simple one this... how good is a Duron 650?

I'm looking to upgrade my Celeron 400 setup soon and like the look of a Duron/Socket A setup... cheap, easy to upgrade at a later date etc.

It looks a much better option for the budget builder like me than to throw more money at Intel for a P3 chip now. I'm nearly at the end on my BX board now (in my opinion) so a new socket A board makes sense.

In the UK the best price I can find for a Duron 650 chip is £90 (from Insight UK), £30 cheaper than the Duron 700.

Is there really that noticable difference between the chips to warrent this price hike?

Most of the reviews of Duron's I've seen concentrate on the Duron 700... I would much rather put the extra money towards a GeForce MX card at a later date.

Thanks.

 

[cdrakejr]

I haven't seen a review using the Duron 650, but GamePC has a review with the Duron 600 and 700. If you look at their benchmarks, the two are not that far apart. So the 700 does't look that much better for the money unless someone really wants it. The 650 fills in between that samll gap apparently.

http://www.gamepc.com/reviews/hardware_review.asp?review=duron&page=1

There is a good general article comparing Duron and Celeron, no benchmarks, at:

http://www.pcmech.com/article.htm?duron-vs-celeron

Just an idea, I read an article on The Register today. They talk about rumor of AMD 40% price cut at end of July. If that turns out to be true you can buy the 700 then and have change left.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/index.html

 

[AceT]

I saw the news about the price cuts as well... it looks as if AMD are going to become my new best friend!

If I can get a decent Socket A motherboard and Duron chip for £200 then I will do it straight away... obviously the faster the Duron the better.

Thanks for your comments and links.

 

[Quickfingerz]

It's darn good. (That simple enough for you)

 

[cdrakejr]

If you are going to wait for a few weeks before moving up, you want to read this news post:

http://www.insanehardware.com/#asusa7v

I also read in another board that Abit most likely will also have cpu multiplier available in some form. If you're planning on overclocking then these are the two boards to wait for. ASUS and Abit are the two top names for Slot A boards right now, and it looks like they will stay there with the Socket A also.

 

[Muerto]

40% price cut? WOOHOO!! I like the sounds of it but it sounds like it might be too good to be true. Oh well, the lower the prices the better.

 

[AceT]

I would guess that the 40% price cuts are only going to be for the 'big' chips, 1GHz etc.

Any saving on the 'small' chips would be welcome.

But here's a slight change of direction... is a Duron 700 as good as a classic Athlon 700? This is a strange question because I would expect the answer to be no, but only by a little bit.

However UK vendors are now bundling good (ie ABIT) Slot A motherboards with 700/750 classic Athlons for between £205 and £250 (+ VAT). This means that there is only a slight price increase in a classic/Slot A board against a Duron/Socket A board of a similar speed.

I like the idea of a Socket A board so that I don't need to change it again in the near future. But if a classic Athlon 700 would give a massive enough increase in performance for only a few pennies more then that might be a better option for me.

Anybody got any comments.

 

[cdrakejr]

As far as any price reductions that are coming, I imagine the high end might have more than low end but also think there will be reductions across the board. Personally, I think there will be significant reductions because Mustang core Durons/T-birds will be coming out this fall. Combine that with probable introduction of an over 1Ghz T-bird at the end of the month and Intel's expected price drops at that time, AMD could put a real hurt on Intel.
Enough speculation.

Your question about Classic Athlon 700 vs Duron 700. Look at the benchmarks in these two reviews where both are listed, they speak for themselves. Unclocked Duron stays within a point or two in the benchmarks. Then consider that in another article on the second site the Duron easily overclocked to 950.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1264&p=1
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q2/000619/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q2/000623/index.html

Here is a news post where ASUS confirms that the A7V will have cpu multiplier making overclocking the Duron a snap. I can't imagine that Abit won't follow suit.

http://www.insanehardware.com/#asusa7v

The only reason I see to buy the Classic Athlon now is if someone already has a Slot A board, or if you don't plan on o/c or upgrading for a couple of years IMHO.

 

[Elteor]

AceT, on the same clockspeed, the "classic" Athlon performs a tiny bit bether than the Duron, buth given the fact that the overclock-capability of the Duron is better than the Athlon, the Duron would be my choice .....

For comparising between Duron, Thunderbird, Celeron II and PIII see also : http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q2/000623/amd-08.html

[edit] I see i've been a little bit late .....

 

[randomlinh]

i want a t-bird, DDR mobo, slocket A of course... and completely stable and no major chipset problems..... all for a relatively good price

 

[Hyper99]

Yes sir for the same price of a K6-2
AMD have done rightous this time!
And the same performance of Athlon.
Not like K6-2 vs Celeron where K6-2 was 64K cache only
with 1meg onboard cache that doesn't help the cpu in anyway.

The Athlon was to compete with PIII
The Duron to compete with Celeron.
So you see what they are doing is right!
The future looks bright for AMD
Even ABIT is making motherboard for them
heehee SWEEET...

 

[rigor]

how you figure the duron clocks better than the class athlon? There is no GFD for the Socket-A and the news so far is theres no multiplier unlock on any production boards to be made at this time.

The duron/tbird will push the value of the classic down, which can be clocked a lot more easily with a GFD/MOD than the duron/tbird can be at THIS time.

 

[AceT]

Well, this is getting interesting!

I think that a Duron will be my choice... equally for the overclocking ability and that it will mean that I will have a socket A board with more future.

I have also just ordered a Celeron 566 FC-PGA for my current BX setup... I've now decided to wait for a decent Duron mohterboard to appear (Abit is my choice, as long as it can overclock!) and build a completely new system. The Celeron, confirmed to reach at least 850MHz, will be the final chip for my current setup and should go well with my Abit BE6-II board.

Thanks for the info and links guys!

 

[rigor]

I agree with.

1. The duron is a great chip.
2. Its too early to buy the duron because theres no multiplier unlock
feature to make it a SUPER chip.
3. Motherboards are too much in their infancy.

But when it does come out, and there is a multiplier hack, and they are stable, i will probably buy a duron/mb combo to clock it near 950mhz.

Until then my celeron 850 is fast enough for the $40 (NET UPGRADE COST) out of pocket upgrade of my existing system.

 

[cdrakejr]

Rigor,
Both ASUS and Abit have announced that their boards do have the cpu multipler; ASUS dipswitches, Abit SoftMenu. ASUS boards start shipping next week and I imagine Abit will ship this month too. No GFD needed.
Insane Hardware has ASUS news from yesterday and Abit post this morning:

http://www.insanehardware.com

I agree stability/conflicts are possible/probable early on, but I think that is as a much an issue of drivers as it is motherboard. But I think both companies have a track record of responding quickly with fixes. I guess it's how close to the edge you like to live. Personally I like sitting on the patio.

No reason now to go with the Classic Athlon unless you already have a Slot A board or don't plan upgrading again for a couple of years.