Worth the upgrade? Athlon 700 Classic to Duron 900

[CHiMPBizKiT]

I'm thinking of upgrading my current system which is running at 850 to a Duron 900. Which means I'll need a new motherboard as well (all for ~$200). Is it worth the upgrade? I am seriously considering this because I may finally have the Gig system I've been waiting so long for. Thanks for your input!

 

[Adul]

its cheap enough to do it. Go for it, though I would wait for the kt133a based boards. You end up with a higher performance gain.

 

[erikiksaz]

hmm, pay another 200+ for something you don't really need. well, if you have spare cash, might as well upgrade the mobo now. But upgrading for another 50mhz won't do much.

 

[demenion]

I would keep the Athlon (700mhz fast enough) and just wait for the next new thing.

 

[CHiMPBizKiT]

Is there a difference between my current Athlon 850 and a Duron Gig? The thing is, I will sell my Athlon classic and its motherboard, so the total cost for upgrading will be less than $100.

 

[Shu8]

i don't think it's worth the upgrade. getting 1ghz or above is too much in your head. you wouldn't notice much of a difference and all you'll be getting for 100 bucks is being able to tell people you're finally in the 1ghz+ club. if i were you i'd wait to upgrade when ddr athlon ddr boards come out.

 

[Jhhnn]

Back up into the Anandtech archives, they are full of all kinds of tests and comparisons. Use that info to help decide.

For what it's worth, I doubt that you would see much of an overall difference. What you might gain in terms of clock&cache speed you'll lose in terms of cache size.

Unless you just want braggin' rights, and even that is a gamble. Can't seem to get more than 900 out of my 700 Duron...

 

[Ulysses]

You have a pretty decent system now. And while it really depends on what you do with your system, I'd suggest you save your money. I had a P3 Katmai @ 560 and just moved to a P3 850 @ 1000 'cause I thought the jump was significant, and it was. With your classic at 850 you're kind of in a no man's land - not slow, but not at the cutting edge either. If you do it, maybe get an Athlon, not a Duron, and get a guaranteed overclocked one, so you're not disappointed.

I'd really suggest you save your money - in Q3 or Q4 there should be some significant new CPU/chipset/mobo/RAM choices available and they probably won't be cheap.

 

[luv2chill]

I agree with Shu8--I've used a 1GHz Athlon and it was so... underwhelming. I've also got a 700MHz Classic (it's not even overclocked) and it's got plenty of speed for me. I can usually wait to upgrade my processor until I can double the clock speed. But I don't game, so...

l2c

 

[Pearman]

There isn't that much proformance difference from 700 to a gig if you ask me, Ive used both and it was a little better, but not worth $200