What processor is the better deal? Duron or Tbird? What mobo to go with?

[Milito01]

Im trying to setup a good computer for a great price. I was initially thinking about going for a Duron 700 mhz, then overclocking it as much as possible. Then, i read around and saw that the Tbird was just as overclockable, and then you can get the extra performance boost. First off, is the Tbird a more reliable choice/and a better deal? Second, what motherboard should i look for when overclocking either of these chips. Ive read something with a k133a is the best, but im not sure which board to go with. Any help would be appreciated, thx

-Adam

 

[BadBrad]

If you would be satisfied right now with a 900mHz processor, my opinion is that it's really personnel preference. A Duron running at 900mHz is performing roughly equivalent to a Tbird at 800Mhz in Basic windoze apps. such as Word, Excel, Power point, Access, etc. You?d be hard pressed to see the difference except when running benchmarks. You can get either a 750 Duron for $69 or a 750 Tbird for $82 shipped from Upgradeplanet.com. Either of these processors will probably do 900Mhz, maybe even as high as 1Ghz but that is not guaranteed. Couple this with an inexpensive socket-A MoBo that has multiplier adjustments such as the Epox 8KTA+ for $93 shipped from Newegg.com. Now throw in some 128MB PC133 CL2 RAM from Crucial @ $57.59 shipped and you?d then have the basis for a powerful system at a rock bottom price.

 

[Fingers]

it all depends on the applications that you plan on running. If you plan on mostly gaming then a duron will give you plenty of performance at a better price.

 

[Boonesmi]

from everything ive read a duron is across the board 10% slower then the athlon(of course that is at the same mhz) so... (if my math is good) a 900mhz athlon will perform almost identical to a 1ghz duron. by the way 1ghz is what i run my duron at with no problems at all.

as for motherboards everyone has there own preference, im leaning toward the asus a7v133 as my next purchase.

 

[MigraineMan]

I was using a 1GHz T-Bird on an Abit KT7A-RAID, which was rocking, then ruined the CPU during a fan re-installation.

In desperation, I bought a $50 Duron 600, and with my FOP32-1 fan, have that puppy now running at 933MHz at about 40c.

Benchmarks will show that the memory scores aren't as high as they were with my 1GHz. CPU benchmarks, of course, don't compare either.

But when playing my main game, Unreal Tourney, I notice no difference in FPS. Other games and apps show very minor, if any, performance difference. This is subjective, but then, that is really what counts. The PC seems as fast as it did before, despite the benchmarks.

We tend to obsess on benchmarks that show slight differences between components, such as CPUs or video card, but when displayed on a chart those differences can seem large and somehow can force you to justify spending more money on the fastest thing. But at the speeds we are now dealing with, and our subjective feel of the PC in general, I think we upgrade more to beat each other's Sandra scores than to improve our PC experience.

Getting this Duron 600 has made me rethink my excessive hardware buying ways, and knowing that paying more isn't necessarily getting more can help you meet your budget and still rock on the PC. It may have a small cache, and I might not break the 1GHz barrier (although I will ALWAYS try), but the things that matter to me haven't changed.

No guarantees a 600 will reach 933, but it might be worth $50 to see if it can...