Time to upgrade a PIII 500? Duron/Athlon ?

[koolhand]

Currently have PIII 500, 128MB PC100, ATI AIW 32mb AGP on a Abit BE6
board (can only do dma/66), Quantum 40GB 7200 in win98. Been playing around with TV card capture, video capture/editing, DVDs, etc... and notice this rig is gettin' slow on me...

Am considering upgrading, but cheaply to a upper end Duron (850-900) with some expansion options for Athlon in the future. Would this give me any noticeable difference in performance if I just upgrade the CPU/MB (any possible more RAM)?

Any recommendations on MB? Budget's roughly: 100-120 for MB, <<100 for CPU, maybe another 50 for RAM.

 

[Rafael]

For such heavy application like video editing, stuff like that, you should go for Athlon, instead of Duron. Even its a lower clock than the duron you planed to get. I dont know the prices in US, i hvnt been checking lately.
About the board since you get a 100-120 budget, try a Asus A7V133 or Abit KT7A, and get you more memory if you can. Maybe try to sell you 128 Mb PC100 and buy 256 Mb PC133.

 

[chainbolt]

Go for an Athlon, not much more expensive than a Duron 900 and better, believe me, you feel and see the difference. The biggest bang you get with a 1.0 Giga TBird. The newest stepping goes stable up to at least 1250Mhz with good cooling. Good 1.0 Gigas can be overclocked up to 1400Mhz.

Take PC2100 memory, it is now as cheap as PC133 and gives you more bang. Performance gains of DDR versus PC133 are (between 0%) and up to 20%, depending on the application.

Take a budget/high performance DDR board like the new Soltek SL-75DRV. Maybe it takes 2 or 3 weeks until the board shows up in USA, should be around 110 USD. That is one of the best performing and cheapest DDR boards around. With a TBird 1000@1300 you have an almost unbeatable, though cheap, machine. Check the discussion about the Soltek here:

Soltek SL-75DRV Discussion

Also such a DDR board is future proven. Will almost certainly run also with the new Athlon 4, in case you later decide to upgrade the CPU.

 

[Biggs]

If you're serious into getting performance for your video-editing, I suggest getting a dual-processor Intel rig or wait for the upcoming AMD 760 Dual chipset.

 

[koolhand]

Thanks for the recommendations... been looking around and
am considering the Abit KT7A with a 1Gig Athlon with faster
RAM. Some room for future expansion there ...