What does speed of 1ghz P3 cpu compare to athlon cpus?

[Lapchern]

i have 512mb sdram, and my cuv4x can handle a max speed of 1ghz p3..i currently have a p3 550mhz cpu, is it worth shelling over 120 for a 1ghz p3 cpu or should i get a new mobo and some sort of athlON? I'm not planning to upgrade anything else for a while...any opinions(even biased) would be nice...thanks

 

[Theslowone]

That is pretty steep for a 1ghz p3. How bout a cely 1.1 for 70, 1.2ghz for 85 or a 1.3 athlon and new mobo for about 145?

A ecs setup you can use your sdr sdram and get a faster cpu(1.3ghz athlon) and a hs for it for 145, I would go with that before sinking 120 into a p3
1ghz.

Or a new duron 1.2ghz with that same ecs board would be a pretty good improvement as well. You can get that for about 135-140 shipped.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< i have 512mb sdram, and my cuv4x can handle a max speed of 1ghz p3..i currently have a p3 550mhz cpu, is it worth shelling over 120 for a 1ghz p3 cpu or should i get a new mobo and some sort of athlON? I'm not planning to upgrade anything else for a while...any opinions(even biased) would be nice...thanks >>

The Athlon is much faster and available with DDR memory. You might also want to consider a P4A.

 

[Lapchern]

the thing is, i dont wanna buy ddr ram, i already have 512mb sdram, it'd go to waste :[

wow, where can i get a mobo + 1.3ghz athlon for 145??? if i get a new mobo, i wanna make sure it supports both sdram and ddr ram

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< the thing is, i dont wanna buy ddr ram, i already have 512mb sdram, it'd go to waste :[

wow, where can i get a mobo + 1.3ghz athlon for 145??? if i get a new mobo, i wanna make sure it supports both sdram and ddr ram >>

You'd need an ECS K7S5A, which I highly recommend avoiding. Here's why.

 

[Lapchern]

lol, at first i was like...ok ur post is very discouraging about getting the ecs, but i overread the "avoiding," so yes, i think i'll avoid it thanks to you . What do you recommend as a more stable alternate that will do the same things that I'd ask for from the ECS? Thanks lots.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< lol, at first i was like...ok ur post is very discouraging about getting the ecs, but i overread the "avoiding," so yes, i think i'll avoid it thanks to you . What do you recommend as a more stable alternate that will do the same things that I'd ask for from the ECS? Thanks lots. >>

No other board comes to mind that has SDRAM and DDR SDRAM slots...Many people have success with the K7S5A, maybe I just had the worst luck ever.
For SDRAM, I recommend the iWill KK266. For DDR SDRAM, there are a slew of boards to recommend. Gigabyte's GA-7DX+ and their KT266A board (which I don't recall the name of) are both cheap and rock solid.

 

[Theslowone]

There are a few options for boards with both, but not at that cost. And the ecs might not be the best board, but if it works it is a very good board.

The other options is the asus a7a266, and I think there are more but not that i know of. Newegg has the cpu and mobo for 141 b4 shipping but a lot of other places has the ecs and 1.3ghz for under that with a hs, just look on pricewatch and then look up the sites on resellerratings.com.

Oh yeah fyi, I don't recommend the a7a266, just personal experience(nothing more).

 

[Rand]

The Asus A7A266-E is a solid mainboard offering both DDR SDRAM, and SDR SDRAM support.

 

[Jolt2]

What power supply do you have? If you go with an AMD processor, you may also need a bigger power supply too. If thats the case, your going to spend even more money on a motherboard, AMD processor, heat sink-fan for processor, and a power supply.

If money is a limit, which it is for most of us, I'd go with a 1Ghz CeleronII chip and a slot to chip adapter card. Get a name brand adapter card that supports the CeleronII copper chip, then overclock it and try to get to 133Mhz frontside bus speed with it. This will require 133Mhz memory. You'll get the most out of the parts you have without spending a lot of money. Past this or best bet would be to sell what you have and build a new system because you'll be close to that point anyways.