Low on cash,Should i still upgrade?..

[Guest]

I`ll start by saying,Dont laugh at me!,i`m running an old p3 500@560 on a via ax63 mobo (slot-1) and have seen a few p3 800`s and up (slot-1) still around the place but they arnt as cheap as oposing athlon models (still??)what i want to know is if its better to just get a (slot-1)p3 and just chuck it in or get a TB 1ghz along with a new mobo?
thanx

Its not broken until i say its broken!...

 

[Guest]

I would get an Athlon

 

[Guest]

Thanx for replying so quick (i only posted the question 1hr ago)i dont think i gave enough info though,if i go the slot-1 p3 860 it`ll set me back $400 australian,but if i go the athlon route the chip will only be about $300 but i will need a new mobo so i`ll be looking at about $500 australian all up,do you still think it`ll be much better going the athlon? also i can put a new chip in my mobo but installing a new mobo is somthing i`ll find quite a bit harder and maybe beyond me.
thanx again.

Its not broken until i say its broken!...

 

[Guest]

1) well I think it would be much easier to sell the p3 + mobo than the cpu alone.

2) The athlon 1 Ghz is way faster than p3 800 and therefore you dont have to upgrade in 6 months again.
I dont know about the prices DownUnder but where I live, you can get a 1,2 Ghz Athlon for almost the same price as a 1 Ghz athlon. maybe 1,2 Ghz would be even better.

 

[Toejam31]

I have to disagree with jenspetersen. (But let's not make this a flame war, boys and girls!)

There really isn't that much difference in speed between an 800MHz processor and a 1000Mhz processor ... not in real-world applications. The Thunderbird will beat the P3 at that clock speed in several (perhaps most) benchmarks, but benchmarks don't mean very much except for bragging rights. And if you wish to overclock, it's probably easier to overclock the P3 than an Athlon, mostly because the P3 is a cooler-running processor.

Either one will be more than sufficient to run almost any desktop application you care to install, including games.

The real deal is ... you've got a limited amount of cash to spend, and I can also see that you wish to upgrade with a minimum of fuss and bother. Neither one of these platforms leaves much room for upgrading in the future, due to the Slot/Socket, so that's not really an issue. If you want the ability to upgrade in the future, you should save your money and purchase an AMD/DDR platform, which would be your cheapest and most viable option from that viewpoint, currently ... or wait for the P4/DDR.

You said yourself that it will be cheaper to just buy the P3 than to purchase the Athlon and a new motherboard. So that's the way I would go if I was strapped for cash.

Here's an interesting article for you to read that might help you decide: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1252&p=1" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1252&p=1</A>

You'll see that the Athlon is the superior processor in several respects ... but not by much. You'll just have to judge for yourself if getting one is worth the extra money. Personally, I think that if you set two computers side-by-side, one with the Athlon 1GHz, and the other with, say, an 866Mhz P3 ... you'd be hard-pressed to see any difference in speed with the naked eye.

Toejam31

<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>

 

[noko]

I disagree that the PIII is easilier to overclock, on the Athlon you can easily set the multiplier to overclock or change the FSB. On the PIII you have only one method and that is FSB. FSB tweaking can cause problems with everything else in the machine. Many people who bought the 1ghz T-Bird have overclocked to 1.4ghz plus, has there been anyone who can take a 1ghz PIII and overclock it to 1.4ghz? (I am not taling about the new Tualatan). Keeping the T-Bird cool is really not to hard if you do some homework.

 

[peteb]

bet advice for you - assuming you have PC133 memory which is dependent on all your options anyway.

Keep the board, get a 700mhz PIII and run it at 133 or higher FSB. The chip will be stable get a reasonable cooler (easier here possibly if you get a slocket converter and a 370 fc-pga 700 cpu) and up the voltage a smidge until it is stable. Whole package will cost you less than US$150 and you'll end up with a 933 or 1G PIII to extend the life of your system out whilst you save up for something bigger and better in 1-2 years when you really need it and can afford it!!! Oh yeas - by doing this you don't need to worry about re-installing your system or anything like drivers etc! My recommendation...

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details

 

[Croaker]

You could even go cheaper. A celeron 700 is $46.00 us. I have one overclocked to 1050 at 1.80v on a asus p3v4x. A real P3 would be faster but for the cost it is good.

 

[Ncogneto]

That probably won't work in this case as the person has a via based chipset board and not the intel bx chipset. The best upgrade path is the Athlon, presuming he can sell his current components at a respectable price ( everybody always seems to forget this part of the equation). Now, if he had an intel bx chipset board, then things might be different indeed.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[peteb]

don't be too sure about that - I'm typing this on a cuv4x VIA based system with a PIII700@1036(148FSB) with crappy generic PC133 running at CAS2 at full 148Mhz)

It's been running Seti for 118hrs so far and system uptime over 120hrs.

Via systems have their faults, but if you get the right boards and install them properly I don't have problems. Admittedly I am not using the world's greatest and most obscure range of peripherals but I think I'm a fair user.

Pete.

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details

 

[Ncogneto]

Before I made my post I did a little research there are two versions of the board he mentions the ax63 and the ax63 pro:

<A HREF="http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/ax63.htm" target="_new">http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/ax63.htm</A>
<A HREF="http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/ax63pro.htm" target="_new">http://www.aopen.nl/products/mb/ax63pro.htm</A>

Now as you can see it would appear that the pro version supports the 133 and above fsb while the non-pro version does not. As he did not state he had the pro version this was the basis to my post.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[peteb]

I'll confess I did the same, but only found the pro 133FSB one - not the non 133...

-* This Space For Rent *-
email for application details

 

[Guest]

get an athlon together with a cheap (but good) motherboard.
should set you back $200 USD.

<font color=blue>Your Mouse moved. WINDOWS NT must restart for changes to take effect. Restart Now? [OK]</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

yes asslawns are good prosheshors

 

[Guest]

BUY AMD...you get big tax refund