P3, T-Bird, Duron...which is better?

[sweetca]

p3 800MHz = $160+
t-bird 800MHz = $105+
duron 800MHz = $75+

My question is simply why the drastic price change? I just sold my dual 500's (celeron) and i am looking to buy something faster. I obviously want to get the best chip for the cheapest price, so the Duron is really looking like my number 1 choice. But why is it so much cheaper for the same MHz than the other 2 types? I am a fairly hardcore gamer, and i need speed. Before anyone tells me which is the best for that price, i also want to OC it to at least 1 gig. So any help i can get on my situation here would be much appreciated.


Thanks

 

[Grendel99]

The Thunderbird and the P3 are more expensive becuase they have more L2/L1 cache. The Duron is the lower end CPU. It has less cache than them both. I would go for the Thunderbird. Just as good as the P3 and a good bit better than the Duron.

I don't know the exact numbers of the cache, someone else wanna help me on that?

 

[Galadala]

Alright...

Tbird has 256K Built-on Cash. Duron has half that. Besides this there is no difference.

This means that the Duron will give slighty less performance. 5 - 10%.
P3... nooooo... don't even go there.

Its not worth it and since you said you were a gamer, I definately suggest getting the Duron if you are looking for excellent performance for just a little less than what a Tbird would be. The performance is bearly noticable. Oc'ing is a breeze with both CPU's. You should easily get about 150 - 200 Mhz extra out of them.

 

[toph99]

Duron is an amazing choice for a lower-budget system

 

[AdamK47]

I wish my CPU came with $256000 of cash. Mine only has cache.

 

[sweetca]

haha that CASH comment was...interesting. anyways, thanks for the help guys, if any of you would like to help me a little more in depth, my e-mail is bandtank@hotmail.com

 

[Zedfu]

you can't go wrong with the AMD processors, especially the duron. you'll get the best bang for your bucks!

 

[kengsim]

Yeah, go for the AMDs. But depending on whether you need the extra cache. Most benchmarks show that the T-Bird's larger cache works well when you're doing heavy work, like code compiling, etc. Otherwise, save yourself some money, get the Duron and buy a better graphics card or more RAM (dirt cheap now).

My 1.0GHz T-bird is amazingly fast. Seti@home really flies. And it's not even overclocked. The extra 200MHz doesn't make that much of a difference to me. At 7400 3dMarks, I figured that I'm finally content...

 

[sweetca]

thanks for the help guys. i ended up getting an 800mhz duron =)

 

[Dark4ng3l]

what mobo are you gona use that duron on??

 

[sweetca]

i have a K7T Pro2-A, and i have the 800MHz duron OCed to 1.05 GHz