Should I get PIII 700 or Celeron 700?

[usbnuts]

Hi, as you know, the price difference between the two is big. PIII 700 is almost twice as expensive as Celeron 700. For this reason, I would like to know if it's really worth my $$$ to upgrade my PII 350Mhz to PIII 700Mhz when I can get similar performance by upgrading to Celeron 700Mhz.

I run mostly business applications, but I need the best FPS when running games.

Here's my config...

Pentium II 350
Abit BE6
128MB PC100 RAM
TNT 2 Ultra 32MB
8.4 IBM HD + 14GB USB HD...

Please help me!!!

 

[AndyHui]

The performance will not be similar. Due to the way the Celeron is crippled, the CuMine-128 Celeron 850 is equivalent to the P3-700. The P3-700 is quite a bit faster than the Celeron version.

 

[jsbush]

The P3 runs on 100mhz fsb and has 256kb of l2 cache and the celeron runs on 66mhz fsb and only has 128k of cache.

 

[toph99]

IMHO there is a big difference between them. it depends on the kind of things you do. if you just surf the net and type things in word and such, go with the celeron. if you play games and do MPEG4 encoding etc., definatly go with the PIII 700, and if it isn't too much extra, a 733 as it runs on a 133mhz fsb and will give you a much larger performance boost.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

heh. go with 700E no 733EB. 733EB gots no chance of hitting 933. 700E almost guarantees it. you may hit 1ghx with 700E, especially if ur lucky and get a cC0, instead of the common cB0.

 

[Sunny129]

Exactly...if you get the P3 700E, you can attempt to OC it to 933 mHz (which would be accomplished by setting the fsb to 133 mHz). not only would you have the same system performance then of the 733EB, but your CPU would also be running 200 mHz faster. keep in mind that the most common OC (and probably the most likely to reach) for the P3 700E is 933 mHz (133 mHz fsb).

 

[novice]

Or you could go cheap and get a Celeron 600 and run it at 100 mHz fsb for a 900 mhz clock speed. Although the 633@950 might be an even better choice. Of course, if money is no object get the PIII 700E and run it at 133 on a board that will allow you to run at standard AGP/PCI bus speeds and have the best of both worlds. Of course you will also need good PC-133 ram. I kind of like the cost effective Celeron approach, but then I am cheap
Chuck

 

[usbnuts]

maybe I forgot to tell you guys that I only have a Abit BE6 mobo (BX) and that I don't plan to O/C my CPU.

I do a wide variety of things, including WMA encoding and DVD playback.

From what you suggested, Pentium III 700Mhz (100) is a better choice than Celeron 700.

 

[Sunny129]

Yes, no that you mention that you wont be OCing, the P3 700EB is better than the P3 700E b/c you will be running the fsb @ 133 mHz instead of 100 mHz, which will give your system a boost in performance. on the other hand the 700E might be better b/c, if i'm not mistaken, the BX chipset doesn't officially support 133 mHz fsb. maybe someone else can shed some more light on this issue?

 

[usbnuts]

Sunny129: Don't you feel your V5 5500 is an overkill for your system?

Yes. My board supports 133Mhz FSB but cannot make PCI to 33Mhz at that FSB. So, I think I am pretty much stuck with Pentium III 700E.

Do you think my system can play DVD? I want to get a DVD-ROM drive as well. But I don't need AC3.

 

[Sunny129]

Sorry, i know nothing about DVD. i choose not to impliment that into my system.


As for the V5 5500, it does look a bit overkill when you view it with the rest of my system specs, but don't knock it till you try it If you noticed, my system specs show that i own a Dell. B4 i put the V5 5500 in my system, it came with an STB nVidia ZX 8MB video card. The Voodoo made a world of difference. Even with a P2 350 CPU, games like Unreal Tournament, MDK 2, and Flight Simulator 98 look great and play very smooth.

Once i upgrade my system, the card won't look overkill at all. i have a CUSL2, a P3 700E cC0, and 256 MB PC133 rev2 or rev3 i'm in the process of getting now, and i'm going to put it all together over christmas break!

 

[BFG10K]

There is a big difference between the P3 and the Celeron, so get the P3. Not only that but your motherboard might not even support the 700 / 66 = 10.5 clock multiplier required to run that Celeron. My motherboard is only about a year old and it only goes up to a 9.5 clock multiplier.

 

[usbnuts]

Last time I checked Abit website. My BE6 supports Celeron II 700Mhz (66) and Pentium III 700 (100). Nice to know...

http://www.abit-usa.com/english/download/bios update/bios-be6.htm

I thought I have a Abit BX6-II. But I opened case and noticed a huge ABIT BE6 labeled between two PCI slots.