P3-500 to Duron 1.2G comparison?

[John Prophet]

Kind of a weird comparison, but how would a P3-500 compare to a duron 1.2 Ghz. I assume its safe to say that the Duron would smoke it due to the 2.5 times speed increase. Plus the fact that the motherboard for the Duron would be a newer motherboard than the P3 had...(ata100 or 133 vs ata33 most likely.)

Just checking so that i will know what to tell peeps if they buy a P3-500 system I have and they want to know about upgrade path etc. I know that 1.2G Duron/motherboard combos can be had for around $90 or so.

Any ideas? JP

[EvilRick]

That's kind of a strange comparison. The PIII500 is "dated" by today's standards. It'd be good for browsing the web, e-mail, word processing, some minimal games. Up to running against a K6-2/500 or so.

The Duron on the other hand, is up to running against a P4. Good for gaming, multimedia, just about anything you throw at it.

If I got to choose, throw me the Duron.

[chris64]

I've seen Athlon XP 1800+ and mobo combos for $89.99 at fry's so why not upgrade it and get a few hundred more for the system.

[jrock]

Go for the Duron every time. It was meant to compete with the high-end celerons, and easily whoops them everytime. I love Durons, especially the 1.2, I have three of 'em. They can do just what EvilRick says: whatever you throw at them. The PIII doesn't stand a chance without even factoring in the matherboard.

[crouse]

I have a p450 and just finished building a 1.3 gig duron machine. The only real difference I notice is the 1.3 seems ALOT faster. I can still do the same things with both machines........at least for what I do......... it's just twice as fast on the newer machine.

But my p450 is still a workhorse ......... and still used everyday

[fyxxer32]

My 2 old AMDs, a 400, a 450, are still chugging along . The 450 I use for my business stuff, creating invoices, faxing invoices, record keeping. The 400 I mainly use for experimentation. And of course they are both running UD . So's my 1.0 Athlon, my play machine.

John Prophet , I think its all in what the "peeps" want to do with their machine. Of course you can't predict the future. And cost enters into there too. I remember my first pc was a 586, a good learning machine, on just how to use the darned thing. I'm still learning!!

[DanU]

Regarding upgrade paths, if it's a 440BX board, the fastest processor that may work with it is the celeron 950 with a slotket adapter if necessary. Post the mobo model and I'll try and double check that .

I just checked pricewatch and the celly 950s are going for about $45. The slotket adapters go for around $10.

[John Prophet]

Asus P3B-f

Old review http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardw...reviews/889/1/

Evidently it is a 440BX board.

So how high can I go with a celly and a slotket? I guess it depends on how high the multipliers will go?


In a way it would be cool to suggest a celly for an upgrade path due to the 250 watt power supply which would run a celly no problem but may perhaps balk at a Duron, cd burner, agp vid card etc.

So this begs another question...a celly with its more limited cache...how much higher in speed do you have to go to overcome the P3-500 better cache?

In other words between a 600celly and a P3-500, maybe Id take the P3...

JP

[John Prophet]

I looked this all up before but couldnt remember it...but it seems like this board would go to at least P3-850 and I did run across this site where some peeps are giving the specs for their server and it lists my P3B-f board and a P3-850. http://www.lomag.net/servers.php

So if this is true then there is a little upgrade room here after all.

JP

Found it here on Asus (non-intuitive) site http://usa.asus.com/inside/Techref/images/tr12.jpg

Mine is Rev1.04 so it goes up to at least 8.0 multiplier

[John Prophet]

Cool...also found this on asus site for Celeron support Celeron 850/900/950/1000/1100 just needs latest BIOS

http://usa.asus.com/inside/Techref/celeron850-1100.htm

So that helps me have a little more selling power as far as it having upgradability.

JP