How much better is the ThunderBird Athlon?

[glock18]

I am considering buying either a regular Athlon or a Slot A ThunderBird. How much of a performance difference is there? Also how different is the OC'ing potential?

 

[cdrakejr]

If you already own a Slot A board then the Classic Athlon probably has more potential overall for you.

If you are going to buy the motherboard also, then I would suggest going the Socket A rather then Slot A route. With the Slot A you are at essentially a deadend unless AMD changes their mind (which I consider unlikely) about not producing anymore Slot A processors.
The future is in the Socket A format, so any further upgrade of processor would require a new motherboard as well if you have a Slot A.

Check the reviews that Anand has posted, they include an article on Socket A overclocking scene. Keep in mind that the overclocking picture won't be clear until people have a chance to work with them more with some of the boards yet to become available, i.e. Abit and Asus which have been the best overclocking boards for Slot A.

http://www.anandtech.com/articlelist.html?i=101

I'm sure you are going to get some other opinions.

 

[DDad]

Figure about a %10 percent overall performance increase- considering that they are sold for the same price, you'r best bet is to go with "the Boid"
O/Cing on the Slot A version is the same as the "Classic, with one difference- no more messing aroud with Cache speeds!

 

[Chooie]

If you already have a 750 board, buy the 'Bird. If you have a VIA board, hold off until the socket A boards drop in price.

 

[Insane3D]

I also agree that if you are purchasing a board as well, wait and get a good socket A mobo from Asus or Abit. You could also wait for AMD's upcoming 760 chipset that supports DDR ram, but no one is real sure when that will actually hit shelves. If you need to set up a system now, the classic Athlon with a good KX133 mobo is also a good choice because it has been proven for awhile. There is also talk of Abit developing a "Slotket" to use newer T-Birds and Durons on the Slot A mobo's, but there is has been no official talk of them, so they may never happen. Good luck...