CPUs

Hello all,

I'm considering a new PC and I'm not sure what CPU to go with, Pentium 4 or an Athlon chip. Can someone explain the differences between the various Athlons, ie Duron, XP, Thunderbird? Thanks for any comments.

 

Just read an article in PC World mag last night comparing the new P4's against the AMD XP's. Seems like the XP running at 1600MHz out performed the P4 2.2GHz - and were about $300.00 less.

Duron - AMD's answer to the Intel Celeron, low price, low performance.

TBird - Last generation hi performance chip, equivilant to the P3 & P4 line.

XP - The newest hi performace chip, bigger/better/faster than previous versions.

How technical of an explanation do you want? You might check out here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/

 

The Athlons' edge over the P4 is mostly a result of the AMD chips having more Instructions Per Cycle than the Intel cpus. So, as it turns out, Intel's advantage in clock cycles (Mhz) doesn't make up for their lower IPC.

I just saw a reference to an article that stated that the new Duron 1.3Ghz chip outperformed the Pentium 4 1.6Ghz cpu in several benches - wild stuff!

 

That's why AMD started its new naming scheme. i.e. my XP1600+, while bettering an Intel 1.6, actually clocks at 1.4. They were winning in performance, but people were still buying ghz, so they renamed their line-up.

 

Hi ugar69,

Just a couple of points if you decide to go AMD. First, if you're not an overclocker look for a motherboard with an AMD chipset (actually an AMD northbridge and a VIA southbridge) they have a better history of stability. Secondly, if you are into overclocking and feel you need a motherboard with the VIA chipset, choose one that ends with an "A" such as KT266A. Seems that VIA uses their customers to debug the initial release of a chipset and the subsequent release with the "A" designation is much more stable.

Good Luck,
Tin

 

Thanks for the replies and the info. After researching things, I think I'm going the AMD route. I may even build my own using a Shuttle AK31A Skt A VIA KT266A motherboard. The last box I built was using a Cyrix 686 P-150+, so you know it's been a while! Wish me luck!

 

Good luck

 

Good Luck

Nice to see yet another person opting for "intel outside"