Thunderbird vs. Athlon

[UF Jspec]

The last time I built a computer for myself (1 1/2 years ago), I was on top of all the information. I did my research and ended up with a Pentium II 333. I have since fell out of the loop.

Now it is time to upgrade, but I feel like a novice again. Sorry for looking like an idiot. What is the difference b/w a Thunderbird, Athlon, and Duron. Is the Duron like Intel's Celeron? And what bus speeds do these run at? I've also noticed that some Thunderbirds run at 266Mhz bus. What type of RAM goes with this?

Thanks in advance.

- Jspec

 

[arod324]

You will probably need PC133 ram in a 266 system, although you COULD try it with PC100. The Duron is "like" the Celeron, but is MUCH faster at equivilent speeds. It takes a Celeron on a @100mhz bus 100mhz more to be equivilent to a Duron. Also I think the Durons overclock much easier since the multiplier can be manipulated. I would get some PC133 ram, the IWILLKK266 mobo, and get a Tbird or Duron depending on your budget.

 

[BCYL]

Thunderbird is the new "generation" of Athlon processors... you can't really find anymore classic Athlons now, they have all been replaced by T-birds...

T-birds has 256k L2 cache, while Athlon classic has 512k. However, the L2 cache on the T-bird is on-die, which means it runs the same speed as the processor. Athlon classic's L2 cache is not on-die, and only runs at a portion of the speed of the processor.

Therefore even though the T-bird has less cache, it actually is faster than an Athlon classic given the same clock speed...

You can unlock an Athlon very easily too if you ever want to overclock by changing the multiplier... Therefore I dont think that would be a big issue...

 

[Tweaked750]

you also forgot to mention that the duron only has 128k of on die cache, one of the significant differences between the duron and the tbird.

 

[CTho9305]

Athlon ("Classic&quot: Slot A cpu, with 512k off-die cache at 300-ish MHz (1/2 to 1/3 divider depending on clock speed). Not a good choice, since they aren't made any more... and the Socket A is a little more future-proof (finding slot replacement CPU's/mobos/heatsinks is getting hard. Also, to overclock you need a ~$30 "GFD" to unlock the multiplier, since the Slot A boards dont like high FSB speeds)

Athlon ("Thunderbird&quot: Officially still an Athlon, Thunderbird is the code name. It has the 256k full-speed on-die cache. Comes in both slot and socket formats - the slot format is highly not recommended since many mobo's can't take them >800mhz. The socket versions go up to ~1.2ghz right now. They come in 200 mhz and 266 mhz bus speed version, with the sole difference being the multipliers.

Duron: Not called an Athlon. Less cache than the tbird. I have heard there is a minor difference in the core too (a shorter pipeline), but the performance is very similar for most applications. Unlike the Celeron, the Duron is not a Thunderbird with a manufacturing difference - it is truly a different CPU.

Tom's Hardware has some nice benchmarks/reviews if you want to read them.

 

[UF Jspec]

Thanks a lot for the great information!

 

[esung]

The ONLY difference in Thunderbird and Duron is in L2 cache.

Thunderbird has 256K on die L2 cache
Duron has 64K on die L2 cache.

both have 128K L1 cache as all K7s do.