The Best overclock bang for the buck.........

[SilverBack]

I have been overclocking, tweaking, cooling, and generally spending a lot of money for a long time..
Right now, today, if you want the absolute best bang for your dollar, the 600 MHz Duron can NOT be beat at all.
If you look at my signature you can see what systems I have running. The Duron was the least expensive pc I have built since my Cel 300a at 504MHz.
You can find 600MHz Duron's on the net for $60 give or take a couple. Combined with a KT7 regular ( no Raid ) and you have the makings of a SUPER system.
I purchased my combo at www.mwave.com including a HSF for $215.00.
If you buy 133MHz ram the system is just awesome. BTW I have tried several different PC133 sticks including Kingston "Value Ram" it all works ( I didn't mix and match )
The Duron runs 5 to 8 degress C cooler than the TBird at the same MHz rating.
The voltage being used doesn't elavate the heat as much with the Duron either when overclocking.

Tips for overclocking the Duron.

Use a graphite pencil and connect all the L1 Bridges
Do the same for the L7 except you only do 3.. It should look like this:

I I I : : .

That will set the voltage of the Duron to 1.8 at default.
This will allow you to overclock the duron and it will let you keep this setting incase you push the limit a little hard and it doesn't finish posting. I found that for some reason the KT7 doesn't always hold the Votlage setting in BIOS in a failed BOOT.

That's basically it. Nothing hard.
The 600 Duron will run at 900MHz completely stable using 133 MHz ram ( hostclk+pciclk in BIOS ) at that voltage. I have done this with 3 Duron's so far...

 

[TuffGuy]

my (original)setup was pretty cheap/easy also. p3-700@1050 - $190. abit bf6 - $70. gorb - $15.

came out to ~$275.

put it together, turned it on, and it's been running since.

 

[bozack]

best bang for the buck is clearly the celeron 633 @ 950 deal going on at oniva/egghead if you get a decent chip which all have been so far.

boards are far cheaper than duron boards and the chips are very cheap too

 

[TuffGuy]

yeah, but you get a neutered p3. the cache really affects performance. the duron is better than the celermine if you're talking about the best bang for the buck.

 

[SilverBack]

Yep the Duron runs rings around any of the Cel's...

 

[rigor2]

$133.95 celeron @ 980 works with cheapo pc-100 sdram, known bx chipset!

This puppy is FAST for the $$$. you cannot come close to the performance in any way shape or form.

CPU carries 3 year warranty too!
No special power supply,
cooling, or pc-133 memory needed.

 

[TuffGuy]

duron runs circles around celermine. a duron 600 costs $60 and overclocks to 900-1000. celermine can't even touch it.

 

[bozack]

yeah but the duron boards are easily 60 dollars more than a celeron bx based board, not to mention the price of the pc133 memory

besides the only way you'll notice the speed difference is via synthetic benchmarks and fps tests, to the eye the celeron will seem fast, and is just plain fast-the cache does not effect gaming that much

 

[rigor3]

I think comparing a $133 dollar solution to a $230 solution isn't even in the same league. $100 is a considerable amount in todays system prices.

You could afford a duron 900 rig and a geforce 2mx

OR

a Celeron 950 rig and a Geforce 2 GTS.

Which would be faster in games.

nuff said.

 

[TuffGuy]

to sum it all up:

1) $duron+mobo = $celermine+mobo
2) duron whips on the celermine in EVERYTHING - games, apps, benchmarks, etc.
3) see #2
4) go to step 1

any questions?

rigor - what $133 solution? the celermine ALONE costs $133. the duron 600 costs $60.

 

[SilverBack]

The Duron's don't need PC133 memory either. You can use plain old PC100. Later you can get the PC133 OR DDR memory.
When the AMD 760 chipset comes out what ever AMD cpu you get will support PC1600 standard.
The P3 chips so at least can't do that..

 

[bozack]

celeron 633 78-80 bucks at either onvia or Buy.com
cheap older abit board, 60-80 bucks or cheaper via online sources
or like most people that post here use the bx board you allready have and any powersupply will work with the celeron


duron 700 60-70 bucks
mobo that supports duron 140-150
300w powersupply at least 30 bucks unless you want a fire

so you have at the most 160 for a new celeron 633 @ 950 default voltage and stock cooling or a slight voltage increase, or if you allready have a bx board setup you have a grand total of 80 bucks.

VS.

250 max if you need the ps
you will obviously need the board and chip since the duron is a new product compaired to the old bx standard.

hmm so there alone your talking a 90 dollar difference-hmm seems like there is no real competition between the two when talking bang for your buck, a celeron solution isnt much slower in real world performance and it is close to 100 dollars cheaper, which you can put towards a new videocard

 

[TuffGuy]

gigabyte mobo can be found for $100. a 300w power source is advised for any power system, including p3. a standard 235w or 250w will do fine, so that argument is null and void. so, let's recap. duron 600, $60. mobo, $100. total - $160.

this is pointless. you could make a case for p3 vs duron, but not for celermine vs duron.

you have no argument. you're debating what the cheapest system is. the title of the thread is "the BEST overclock bang for the buck...", not the cheapest oveclock for the buck...

 

[rigor3]

sorry. I just bought:

read again:

soyo mobo $38 overstock.com
celermine 633 $80 onvia.com
msi6905 slotket $15 (onvia.com)

All prices shipped.
Cpu is the retail with full 3 year warranty.

Please show examples of your duron (with multiplier settings) mobo for $100. I will buy one right now if you can and eat my words.

 

[sleepdragon]

well.....what if you need to upgrade???
with socket a mb...you know you can upgrade to faster duron or
even a t-bird...

with bx board...you are pretty much stuck with celeron...
i rather pay a little extra for a good board and not have to
worry about getting another board in near future...

plus...duron blow celeron right off the chart at same clock rate..
and there is no guarette the celeron you got can oc at 100mhz...

 

[bozack]

The whole point of this thread is bang for your buck, since most people somwhat interested in computers try to stay up to date, one must assume that their previous setup was an intel bx based solution since the k6 line was pretty much a waste of time, at least from the gamers perspective.

And one could even speculate further that if the user is budget conscious then their system was a celeron solution, esp. a 300a @ 450

Which would lead one to the conclusion, if someone is looking to "save money" and have a considerable upgrade why on earth would they waste extra on a sub standard 100 dollar unproven piece of crap motherboard that has the potential to be ridden with problems instead of keeping their tried and true system and just adding a budget cpu upgrade, which will be considerably faster than their current setup and while it wont be as fast as the alternative, the speed will only be noticed in heavy multitasking or as everyone here likes to place faith in, synthetic benchmarks.

Sure if your building a new system a duron is a decent path to follow, however as to speculate its longevity in terms of upgrades is something I would rather not do.

People allready have bx boards that work, and work well at that. Why go out and buy a 100 or a 150 board that will run a processor that gets hotter than a toaster oven? is the performance gap worth that much? I think not.

If put in the position I would either buy a celeron 633 or just go balls to the wall and get a serious machine rather than wasting my time with a duron setup.

But that is because I allready have a system with which I am happy for the most part and I don't want to waste my time working with another low budget solution such as a duron.

also to comment on that last post, with an i815 board your not limited to only a celeron and even with a slot 1 bx board and slockets you are by far not limited to anything. The bx platform has been and still is one of the most user friendly to this day. Amd's board support on the otherhand is quite the opposite

 

[nate hancock]

Nice pissing contest guys! It looks like the race is pretty close between the two. Obviously, a lot of it comes down to brand loyalty.

Silverback- I am with you, I just received an mwave combo deal for an A7V, Duron 650 and gan for about 238 bucks. It's my first system and I look forward to getting it to go.

I for one am glad to be getting something other than Intel for reasons that get discussed here all too often. That appeals to many but not to others and there's no real right or wrong on that. The IBMS certainly have a good record which gives a lot of comfort to others. And the 60-80 bucks we are arguing over would get eaten up it someone picks a different video card, case, hard drive etc. If we are so polarized over CPUs that could happen on other components, too. Even the choice of vendors eats into that, as many people find that the cheapest price doesn't always get the best service (and maybe expensive shipping rates).

Has anyone compared any realistic data (i.e. Anands or Toms) on Q3 benchmarks for both rigs, in overclocked and non-overclocked forms, with the components for the actual test units?

 

[sleepdragon]

why compare duron to celeron????
although their price range might be the same...their performance is no where close...duron perform very well at same clock speed as to P3....

well..here is my current system..

system 1...asus p3v4x, p3 600 oc 800 at default voltage, 256mb pc-133 sdram, g400 32mb dh, mx300,
system 2...asus a7v, t-bird 750 oc 1100, 256mb pc-133 sdram, asus 7100/t, sb live....

cost for this 2 system are about the same...yet i got much better performance from my t-bird system...that's why i moved the g400 to p3 system...b/c with my t-bird and asus 7100/t..i got kicking arse 3d performance...

 

[TuffGuy]

rigor3 - mobos with duron 600 and fan - starting at $153
the gigabyte one comes out to $167 at unitedmicro.com. you ordering one yet?

this is a waste of my time. Mhz for Mhz, the duron rocks the celermine and is half the price. if your talking pure Mhz, then the celermine can hang. but if you're discussing processing power per MHz, you have no case. the duron has a 200MHz fsb, the celermine a 66MHz fsb. the duron has WAY more cache as well. so how is a celermine better?

 

[TheRealBuzz]

well here in norway you pay almost the same for a duron as for the t-bird... nobrainer then.
anyway.. for me i guess the celery was the most cost effective upgrade. just flashed bios on my bh6.. popped in the celery 566 and oc'ed to 850@1.5V. no problem.
besides.. DDR boards are around the corner.. P4 around the corner... why use a bunch of money on an expensive cpu and a new mobo now?

 

[sleepdragon]

t-bird 750...$160..and i am running at 1100 right now..
for $160...you can only get p3 600...which oc to 800 and still can't compare the performace for t-bird at 1100...

if you want to talk about duron vs. celeron...you can get duron for less than $80 and most likely it will do 850 or better...duron at 850 beat celeron at 850 by plenty...and celeron 566 cost at least $80 if not more for a pre-tested chip since there is no guarette all celeron 566 will oc...

 

[bozack]

yeah the prices of the processors may be the same or even less in the case of the duron, but there is more to a system than the processor alone, why you people cannot see that is beyond me

as the real buzz said....why waste a bunch of money on parts that you don't need when you can just pop in a new chip and be good to go?

why would I buy a new motherboard and a new chip when I can get a chip that will work with my old motherboard and perform much better than what I am currently using now?

my motherboard is stable, my setup is where I want it to be, why would I want to go and change that? for another sub standard processor like the duron?

if I was going to bother getting a new board along with a new cpu I would go for the higher end solution not for the economy solution again that is for sure, but if I am just getting a cpu why not get the cheapest/best solution for the time being untill new stuff comes out-which is where the celeron comes into place, works with my old stuff and performs much better than waht I am currently using

however if your starting from scratch then that is a different story.

how about this

best bang for your buck if you have a bx board

celeron 633

best bang for your buck if you don't have anything yet or nothing you want to keep and are a cheap ass

duron

 

[TuffGuy]

Bozack - the title of this topic was NOT best upgrade option. it was best overclock bang for the buck. it takes a 1000MHz celermine to even compete with a 800MHz duron. and i did say compete, not BEAT.

<<best bang for your buck if you don't have anything yet or nothing you want to keep and are a cheap ass.>>
you have no point whatsoever. why do you think most of us overclock instead of just dishing out the money for the better processor?

and only a cheap ass would get an inferior chip like a celermine, just to be able to use their old bx board, ie - you.

 

[bozack]

ok tuff guy---even still the motherboards for the celerons are a better deal and all in all the systems are cheaper, easier to overclock unlike the durons, and are pretty fast, so fast that to the naked eye a user would probabily not know the difference between the two.

but your just so in love with your new duron that you cannot see anything else, however I would most likely be the same way.

 

[samrush]

So much constant Celeron knocking by AMD owners gets so irritating. This Celeron rig wasn't expensive and in games and benchmarking whipped the pants off an Athlon 800 by a very long way....
keep things in perspective, please