Will an Athlon out preform a Pentium 3 under Windows 2000 ?

[AndrewBrown]

I am considering building a new PC around the Athlon CPU. I currently have an Intel Pentium 3 / 533 CPU. I was VERY disapointed with the AMD K6-2 chip I had.

My question, should I just upgrade my CPU, get up into the 1 GHz range with an Intel CPU or should I go with an Athlon based CPU system. My current MB, a Tyan 1854 will take the fatser P3 CPU, but I still ponder with the idea of building a new system around the Athlon based CPU. If I went Athlon I would get an Asus or Abit (KT133a) board and a 900 MHz or 1GHz CPU.

My current P3 / 533 is only running at the 100 MHz BUS, although it's an EB chip that will run at the 133 MHz BUS. I just recently got my 512 MB of PC-133 RAM. Have not installed yet. Anyone think that will make a difference ?

I run Windows 2000, don't play many games really. I am looking for better preformace with the OS and business applications mainly. I do play some games, but nothing that requires massive amount of CPU time or high output video.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[CraigRT]

I am on my work comp a T-Bird 900/A7Pro right now and it's alot faster than this other machine I have here beside me, PIII 866/CUV4X-E, and the PIII has a 133 BUS but my computer only runs on 100MHz memory cause the generic PC133 I have won't run 133 CAS2 so i chose just to stay at 100, and it feels faster than the PIII 866 at 133!

I really do think AMD's are far superior, this system just flies!

 

[RoboTECH]

well, I never thought I'd say this, but AMD has Intel beaten for performance at every price point on the books, period.

the best performing home system today, regardless of $$$, is a DDr-Athlon based system.

 

[Judgement]

My friends 800mhz amd thunderbird is definately faster then the 800mhz pentium 3s at my school.

I think it all depends how much faster of a chip you can put in your current motherboard. If you cannot put a much faster chip you might want to get a new motherboard and go with amd. Otherwise, you could just save the money it would cost to get a brand new motherboard + amd cpu, and just get an intel cpu. Then I guess you should also factor into the mix that Intel cpu's are more expensive than AMD's.... so it might not cost you way way too much more to get an AMD motherboard and cpu then just a new Intel cpu... and now I'm just rambling.

 

[AndrewBrown]

Thanks for the response so far. Based on what I am reading the AMD Athlon has come a long way from the AMD K6-2 which I was so disappointed with.

Just to clairfy $$$ wise... My current TYAN board will take the 1GHz Pentium 3 Chip. I can get one for around $230 right now

I just put together the cost of the AMD 900 MHz Athlon + Asus or Abit KT133a mobo... appx. $275

Not much of a price differnece. There is a 100 MHZ difference in the CPU's though.

 

[rempe]

just close the L1 and youll get 1000-1100 easy