Are you happy with your Duron?

[Urinal Mint]

I'm getting ready to do a cheap upgrade to my existing setup (C300A @ 450) because I'd like to be able to play Quake3 and Counterstrike without the game slowing down when I get in a big area with some gunfire.

Right now I'm looking to do a good motherboard (Asus A7V133) and an inexpensive processor for now (until I have a reason to get a 1.33ghz Athlon). So I'm looking at the 800mhz Duron, and I'm wondering if it has enough horsepower for everyone's gaming rigs. I don't need (or want) the fastest gaming rig around, but I definitely want something that won't frustrate me when I'm trying to play.

I have a TNT2 Ultra now which I plan to keep using for a little while, what with the new Geforce2 MX boards being announced yesterday and the uncertainty of Radeon drivers, I'm willing to wait a little while. The video card is a separate issue... I know my TNT2U is serviceable until either ATI fixes their driver issues in Win2K or until NVidia learns how to make a board with superb 2D graphics at 1600x1200 res.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[ForeverSilky]

I have a duron 600@1ghz and love it.

 

[Urinal Mint]

Did you connect the L1 bridges to overclock that chip, or did you simply jack up the voltage and FSB?

 

[AmigaMan]

I have a stock Duron 800 on an MSI K7T Pro and I'm very satisfied. The only thing holding me back is my Voodoo3 3000, which will be upgraded soon to a V5. I think you'll be pleased with the upgrade, but as you have pointed out, the video card would be the next thing I would upgrade.

 

[Adul]

800 Mhz duron will do more then fine for you. My bro is very happy with his, and gaming is not a problem at all.

 

[Whizzy]

Got myself a Duron 700 this week and placed it on a KT133a board.. needless to say.. i'm cruising at 1 GigaHertz..

Fast ? You bet !!

 

[Boonesmi]

yup i love the duron. i have 3 running as we speak

 

[Miraluka]

Running Duron 800 @1007 since January on MSi K7T Pro2-A with Voodoo3 2000. Nice improvement over my Celery 300a @450 on Abit BE-6.

 

[Rifter]

I love mine, duron 700@945.

 

[EpsiIon]

"Did you connect the L1 bridges to overclock that chip, or did you simply jack up the voltage and FSB?"

If he just jacked up the FSB, he was the luckiest sonofagun the tech world has ever seen. A pure FSB OC with this processor would require him to reach a bus speed of 166MHz DDR. That's almost 333Mhz (a 60% overclock). I've never heard of that with a AMD FSB...

 

[Doggiedog]

I have an OCed Duron 950 and it is great. In fact, I think it is faster than my main PC which is a 1Ghz Athlon Classic.

 

[Urinal Mint]

Epsilon:

Thanks for clearing that up for me . I knew the Athlons had to be bridged in order to OC them correctly, but I wasn't too clear on whether the process was the same for the Durons.

Now I see the light... I wonder if Fry's carries conductive pens?

 

[nortexoid]

just use an ordinary HB pencil...should work fine if u're not constantly touching/fondling/caressing your CPU

also, if u want that cpu on that board, u're gonna have to unlock it if u want to run 133mzh fsb, which is why i assume u'd choose that (overpriced) board anyway...

thus, in all likelihood, if u're unlocking the bridges u might as well overclock it, and if u're overclocking it, u might as well get a 700 or 750 cpu (whichever is cheaper) as they tend to overclock to speeds identical to 800mhz durons...

 

[Urinal Mint]

Instead of that "overpriced" motherboard, what do you suggest?

I'd rather have a motherboard that I can drop a 1.5ghz athlon chip on in the future (read: 9 mos.) and still use rather than waste $110 on a KT133 board, then another $150 on the "new-fangled" motherboard when the time comes for that 1.5ghz chip.

Capiche?

 

[Urinal Mint]

Well, I took the plunge... punched up mwave.com and ordered the Asus A7V133 and a Duron 800 for $230 shipped. The motherboard will serve me well in a processor-only upgrade in 9 mos to a year, I feel.

Anyhow, don't burst my bubble, it took me a lot of guts to build a new system!

 

[Athlex]

I bought a Duron 650 and an MSI K7T Pro2A running the chip at 900 with a cheap heatsink to crack RC5 and it's running beautifully. One thing- if you plan on overclocking it with multiplier settings, don't use a pencil. It works at first, but won't last. Good luck with the upgrade!
ATX

 

[gtd2000]

You won't be disappointed - Duron 700 @ 950Mhz on a KT7A here

 

[Agar]

I'm running my Duron 600@1045 (9.5x110)
Running 24/7, 100% stable

I paid that chip ~65$. Can you say satisfied?

 

[Nerd]

I have a Duron 800. I have a feeling I'm going to be upgrading pretty soon. Something is holding me back, I don't know what. My gaming fps are very slow, and things are very slow. I think I'm going to purchase a ghz T-bird pretty soon.

 

[carmat4]

Running a 700 Duron, on a MSi k7t Pro-2A since January. It's great, i just wish i could OC it.

 

[gtd2000]

Alphanumeric,
could it be that Voodoo Banshee/Riva 128 card?

 

[LukFilm]

I love it, why woudn't I, going from 600MHz to 1GHz

 

[heng1028]

see my sig

 

[rbV5]

Even my Duron 650/650 is a real performer...games, applications, everything until I try to capture highest quality mpeg-2 with my AIW Radeon, not quite enough juice, although with a little fiddling.....

 

[Hossenfeffer]

I built a system for my dad using a Duron 600 that I got for around $40. As the prices start coming down, he can easily put in a 1.2 T-bird or higher for a huge boost. Provided the Hard Drive's a decent speed and you're not uber-anal about fps in games, a duron 600 will do ya swell. Can overclock easily and safely to 700-800 (or 900-1000) for a extra boost. I'm recommending duron's to everyone I run into. True, the average joe on the street thinks I'm selling something and runs away, but that's not the point.