most perfermance for your $$$

[lagvoid]

im planning on getting a new computer and am having a hard time deciding on what to get. should i get a duron800 for around $80 or a tbird900-1gig for twice as much? this is mostly going to be for gaming.

1. would there be a big difference?
2. should i just go with a duron for now until prices drop more once ddr comes around

can anyone please point me in the right direction
thanks

 

[err]

Get it now, there's no better time to get a cheap Duron 600 that can do 900 easily. Couple it with MSI board and you are good to go

eRr

 

[AdamK47]

P3 650 at 1.02GHz.

 

[snow patrol]

Yeah, although you might not be so lucky as Adam to get your FSB all the way to 157Mhz

Another vote for the Duron here.

 

[acenuts]

Duron. Period.

 

[paulip88]

Best price/performance ratio would be an OCed Duron 600/650 on an MSI board. You may get more speed from a PIII or TBird, but in terms of value, you can't beat the Duron.

 

[lagvoid]

for the duron, would I be able to oc it that much just from the motherboard or would i need a gf? what was that one article about where anand was showing something with connecting the dots?! heheheh im kinda lost

 

[paulip88]

No gfd's are needed. What you need to do is get a mobo that had multiplier adjustments (like the MSI K7T Pro2a) and connect the bridges on top of the CPU. Its about as easy as it sounds.

 

[cdrakejr]

Tech-Report has a new review up comparing the 700MHz Duron and Tbird. Has lots of benchmarks including overclocking. Good review to help with your question.
Their conclusion is the same as most people, Duron is hands down winner in price/performance.

Digit-Life has a review comparing 8 of the most popular Socket A motherboards. Another good read to see what's out there.



ReviewFinder is a great source for reviews of all categories of computer gear.

AthlonMB has a link on their home page to Overclockerz Store which sells overclocked Durons. A Duron overclocked and pre-tested at 1000MHZ goes for $69.99.
I haven't ordered from them, so can't say how they are to deal with. Maybe someone else can post their experience with them.

Good luck!

Edit: AthlonOC also has a good review comparing Duron and Tbird.

 

[jsbush]

It`s just got to be the Duron! That thing is just amazing!

 

[Renob]

your talking spending $49 more on a t-bird 750 and the last 6 t-bird 750 systems I built did at least a gig and 4 of them did 1100mhz so If it was me I would spend the 49 bucks and have the real deal......a month from now you will be wishing you had spent the $49 BTW all systems were built using the abit KT7 and good ram.....Mosel Vitalic

 

[mechBgon]

For gaming purposes, don't forget that it's not a CPU question, it's a CPU+video card question, at least if we are talking about action games. For flight sims, focusing on the CPU would be a good idea. Just keep the big picture in mind, you wouldn't want to spend all your money on just one part of the CPU/RAM/Video combo.

I got a good buy on a GeForce2 GTS 32Mb at thechipmerchant.com, for what that may be worth. My system is using a Duron 650@840MHz and it seems just fine.

edit: doh, thechipmerchant has raised their price... not such a killer deal anymore, sorry...

 

[lagvoid]

thanks for the feedback. i need to look into that one article about unlocking the cpu by connecting the bridges or something

 

[Ulysses]

You mean this?

 

[lagvoid]

Thanks a lot Ulysses!! I went looking for that article forever! I couldnt find it because I was trying the older article about unleashing athlons... something like that
thanks again