Which one has a better price/performance ratio - Duron 800 or T-Bird 750 ?

[psxjunky]

<EDIT> Changed thread title ... old title was &quot;Duron 800 or T-Bird 750 for my new IWILL KK266-R mobo ? Please advise&quot; </EDIT>


I originally asked this question in the Hot Deals forum here, but thought I should move this to a more appropriate forum.

I just bought an IWILL KK266-R VIA KT133A motherboard and now am looking for a cheap but decent CPU to go with it. I eventually want to buy a really fast CPU for it ... say in about a year ... but for now I want to go with something decent but cheap. So I need some suggestions.

I am upgrading my current PC which has a PII-333/66MHz FSB and plan to use the PC mainly for gaming, surfing and some home office activities.

Ideally I would like to keep the budget around $60-70 for now (because I plan to upgrade the CPU in the next 12-18 months), but can go upto $100-120 if the extra money is REALLY worth it.

I would like to overclock the CPU as high as possible with a decent heatsink/fan combo, and I would preferably want to buy an OEM CPU with at least 6 months or 1 year warranty.

Here are the current ones I am looking at ...

Duron 800MHz OEM $66 link

Duron 750 MHz $55 link

T-Bird 750 MHz $94 link

T-Bird 850 MHz $113 link


All the above prices are from www.tcwo.com. Shipping is $6.95 fixed (up to 150 lbs). All CPUs are OEM and they offer 1 year warranty on all CPU purchases, if this $9 fan is purchased with the CPU.


I am currently somewhat leaning towards the Duron 800 (or the Duron 750 ... only if it is really the same as the Duron 800). I am ready to go for a 750/850 T-Bird if someone can convince me that the performance increase justifies the $40-60 bucks extra.

I am VERY VERY flexible in ALL the above areas and ready to change any decision drastically as long as there is a proper justification to do so.

Guys, please suggest me which CPU I should go for and where should I buy it from. What I am mainly trying to find out is where is the sweet spot in terms of price/performance ratio.

Also I want to buy a pretty decent cooling solution which I should be able to use when I upgrade to a new CPU ... may be a 1.5 GHz or 2 GHz T-Bird


TIA !!!

 

[jonnyGURU]

Cool. Now that I got the price spread right in front of me, I'd say the Duron 800.

I bought my T-Bird 950 for the same reason.

1 GHz was considerably more and the slower processors were not much less.

As for overclocking; I only got my T-Bird up to 1060, and I've been able to get Duron 700s up that far.

I think the general concensus is that the Durons overclock better and this is likely because of the reduced cache.

If I could do it all over again, I'd save some $$$ and just go with a fast Duron and clock the hell out of it.

 

[tigereye]

Looks like we're pulling the entire hot deals thread over here... Yeah, having the prices right there definately makes the decision easire. Duron 800 all the way. It should oc well, but even if it doesn't, an 800 mhz cpu is nothing to sneeze at. I think I will get it from TCWO, too, and buy the HSF. I don't plan on using it due to the noise, but I'd say it's probably worth it for the warranty.

 

[jonnyGURU]

The new $9 fan is not so bad. The old $9 fan was noisy because it was small and had a 7000 RPM. They now have a fan with a larger diameter, more fan blades, and a slower RPM. The noise difference is night and day.

I used the $12 Aavid fan, but mounting is a BITCH! Only 45 deg Cel @ 1060, though.

 

[tigereye]

Really? That's interesting. How would you compare it, noise and cooling wise, to like a fop32 or something else you might have experience with. Heck, I guess I could always get it, and try it for a while, then order something else later.


Tiger

 

[jonnyGURU]

Well, right now I've got three PIII 800s running with that very fan and I'll tell you what... They're pretty damn quiet! It's a big ol' heatsink so it keeps things cool. Telling you what these PIIIs run at is pointless since they run cooler than Athlons anyway, but to give you an idea, the sink is so large I had a bitch of a time getting it on these Tekram boards due to capacitor clearance!

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks GURU and Tiger !

I have almost made up my mind about the 800 Duron from TCWO. Now I have to decide about the HSF. Like Tiger I would also be very interested in getting a Globalwin FOP32-1 or FOP38, but unfortunately TCWO doesn't sell one. The lowest I found these were at www.axiontech.com...

GLOBALWIN FOP32-1 $17.95 + $7.30 s&amp;h link
GLOBALWIN FOP38 $18.95 + $7.30 s&amp;h link

... so I guess I'll have to wait for one of these.

GURU: a question for you. I was also thinking of getting the Aavid cooler from TCWO, but am not sure if TCWO will offer the 1 year warranty with this cooler. Do you know if they do ? Because on the CPU product description pages they specifically mentioned that item# 333206, i.e. the $9 fan needs to be purchased for the 1 year warranty.

 

[tigereye]

Jonny,

Do you work for tcwo, or have you just purchased a bunch from them? Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with you giving advice if you do, just curious is all. Well, seems to me that I'll just go with the $9 fan since you recommend it so highly. Sounds like it'll do the job just great.

 

[psxjunky]

I just went ahead and placed the order for the Duron 800 MHz from tcwo.com ... woohoo ... now I can't wait to get my hands on the new mobo and the duron ... both of which should be here by next week !

 

[jonnyGURU]

I'm one of the three techs there. Not something I like to bring up in conversation since I like to keep a neutral ground.

Any fan will get you the 1 year. Even if it's the Orb. They don't care. They just want to make sure that you have some sort of adequate cooling on the thing.

They thought about stocking the Global FOP fans, but they were loud and the clips were difficult. It got passed up. I think they may consider the Volcano II for higher end cooling, but why bother when the $9 fan is nearly identical to a Volcano II?

 

[tigereye]

I can understand why you don't bring it up casually, wouldn't want people to think your opinions were biased or anything. You know, for some odd reason, I thought you worked at plycon. Strange. Well, if you say the $9 fan is ok, and almost identical to the volcano, then that works for me. It's good to have someone with experience speaking about it since it isn't one of the big, common, heavily reviewed fans.

PSX, glad you made your decision. Sounds like that'll be my choice, too. Just have to wait a couple more weeks until the $ is here. It's frustrating waiting, especially with RAM prices starting to creep back up. I hope they stay creeping, and don't double overnight...

Hey Jonny, mind if I ask you another question? What do you think of the case that tcwo offers. (The 300w mid tower)? Is it decent to work in? Do you know what kind of power supplies are in there?

Tiger

 

[jonnyGURU]

It's cool. Thought I worked at Plycon, eh? Think I ordered a power supply from them once. I think more important than where I work is that I am a PC enthusiast like everyone else. I buy stuff from and for the same reasons as everyone else and that's all there is to it.

The case is cool for the price. Being used to cheap razor blade cases, I was impressed. It's not as good as an Enlight. About as good as an Inwin. I use the full tower for my main rig and like it just fine. The power supply is supposed to be a Topower, which is a GREAT power supply, but lacks the grill on the BOTTOM of the power supply like an Enermax power supply has. Fortunately, there is a spot for a fan just below the power supply, so rarely does an overclocked T-Bird overheat in one of those cases.

 

[psxjunky]

Thanks for the reply Jonny ! I ordered the $9 fan with the Duron ... glad you recommended it highly.

Hey I just checked your website ... it's pretty cool

 

[tigereye]

Yeah, don't know where I came up with the plycon idea. Anyway, cool, I'll think about the case. Was just poking around tcwo, and noticed the aavid fan for the first time, can see why psx is wondering about it. Looks pretty sweet. You say it's a bitch to mount, though, huh? Don't wanna crack the core.... Hmm, don't know. How's the noise on it compared to the $9 fan? At those prices, it's hard to turn pass them up...

Thx again,

Tiger

Ditto on the website, checked it out, too. Man, that system with the drive coolers, looked pretty snazzy...

 

[jonnyGURU]

The Aavid doesn't run the risk of cracking the core. It's a matter of it having this contoured base and if you don't have the contour dead flush on the CPU or it wont cool the CPU and the CPU will fry. It's a matter of being patient vs. being cocky. Also, there is no thumb tab to release the fan. Taking the fan off requires either a needle nose or a small flat head.

 

[tigereye]

Aaah, I see. Sounds a little nerve wracking. Maybe I'll stick to the $9 fan.

 

[Al010101]

check this out.... o/c's store, i plan to get my duron from there...

 

[Regalk]

If that's the OCZ store better check for lates status on resellerratings.com