Difference Between CPU's?

hey, i e-mailled compaq about my pc asking about my cpu, they told me the best chip i could get for my motherboard is a 1.4ghz athlon, i'm running a 900mhz duron, i was wondering how much difference i'll notice, i'm guessing that an athlon is better then a duron as it is because i looked on ebay and i can get a 1.8ghz duron for the price of a 1ghz athlon, i got a 128mb graphics card, and around 600mb of ram, so the cpu's the only thing holding me back. should i upgrade to the 1.4ghz athlon, or will it not make much of a difference?

 

i lucked out on ebay and found a 1.3ghz athlon for like $30 and i use my pc for like games, and stuff like that mostly, and lots play a lil choppy, and i know my cpu is the problem.

 

900-1.4. A small improvement at best. You've got a swag of RAM which would be a better upgrade if you only has say 128.
Probably best to wait for a new Motherboard and processor using 1Gig of 3200 RAM, and MAYBE a better graphics card if your 128Mb card is only a low end one?

Your best option(s) for speeding up the current system would be a reformat and clean install. Update all your drivers, particularly Graphics and Motherboard. If you are running XP then install SP2 with has DirectX 9.0c, or update to this on an earlier OS. Do a complete defrag after updating the new system and you should notice a real improvement.

Second best option would be to update drivers as above. Install SP2 (XP) or DirextX. Clean out temp files. Run a couple of registry cleaners, and the registry defragmenter if you using an NT flavoured OS (see below) and finally defrag the system.

 

Hi,

I was just reading about Celeron vs Pentium on another site. It made me resolve to have a say. I am of the opposite opinion to Paul, I believe the upgrade would breath some new life into the beast. From a 900 Duron to a 1.4 (or even a 1.3) Athlon should just about double the performance of your CPU. For $30 or so I would go for it, even it was only going to stay around for not much longer, it would still make a good second computer or hand-me-down. It would also utilise the most your motherboard has to offer and if you are inquizative, when you are looking at upgrading, overclock it.

Paul's suggestion of a system rejuvenation should make sure your hardware is utilised to it's fullest. I might be able to think of a few others if you are interested.

(Hey Paul...over 30*C here yesterday. You still wearing your long underwear? )

Matt

 

I've done that - upgraded a PC from 950 duron to 1.4 athlon and it's VERY noticeably faster now, because, I think, the difference is an order of magnitude.
note my signature.

 

Got to about 16ºC here, and yes still running the lecky blanket

 

i got a 128mb radeon...9200? forget the number, and i installed win xp, defragged my pc, and did a bunch of other stuff a little while ago and did notice a decent performance boost, won the cpu on ebay, so now i'm just waiting for it to show up, thanks to everybody for the help

 

Fuzzy_C,
Please don't forget to post back with the results.

 

Yes, I'd be interested to hear the performance boost from the processor and not combined with newer graphics, and how much. Still think the increase from 900-1.4 won't be huge, but maybe a little better than "a small improvement at best. " If the 1.4 is an AthlonXP rather than an Athlon Thunderbird I originally assumed, then yes the improvement may be reasonably good.

 

Is there such thing as a 1.4 Athlon XP? I thought all 1.4s were T-birds. If this is true, keep in mind that the 1.4 T-bird is the end of the line for that "line" of cpus and that it was always known as a power pig and runs VERY HOT compared to its little brothers. Some mobos actually had trouble running it due to its power requirements back in the day. But to go from a Duron 900 to an Athlon 1400Mhz for $30. I'd do it in a heartbeat. It won't make you word process any faster but it could mean the difference between being able to play a game and not being able to. The Duron is a real featherweight.

Gary

 

I don't recall the exact speed, just better than 1.3; but it was an XP.

 

i'm not sure exactly what line it is, the item discription says

AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz 266 FSB CPU

*Here are the markings on the CPU*

A1333AMS3C

AXIA0129CPEW

S/N Y6629940030


so if anybody can tell from the markings info, otherwise i got no idea. i'll post here as soon as i get it and try it out, i already got a game to test it with, grand theft auto 3 runs a little choppy and slow, and with the mods i put on, it goes really slow, so i can test it both ways and see how much it improves each version.

 

A1333AMS3C

AXIA0129CPEW

That's the Thunderbird variety.

 

Fuzzy C - now you are going to have to pray a little and hope your MoBo chipset will handle a 133 mhz (266) CPU - AMD made em' both ways - 100 mhz and later, 133 mhz. Hopefully, you've got a KT133a or something similar. And, if not, although one can change the speed and multiplier on better MoBo's, I doubt that Compaq ever used a MoBo from that era which would permit you to manually set it - so keep your fingers crossed.

As to your question on markings -
A1333AMS3C
A=Athlon, 1333=1,333mhz, A=(C)PGA, M=1.75VCore, S=95o C, 3=256KB L2 Cache, C=266mhz (133x2)
AXIA0129CPEW
AXIA=Code (stepping) later chips went to 5 letters
01=Year of mfg
29=Week of mfg
CPEW = Haven't got a clue on this one

Note - this puppy runs a bit on the warm side compared to most other Athlons, so make sure you have a good CPU cooler when you switch out CPU's.

 

Just because the newer chip is almost 2x as fast doesn't mean he'll get twice the performance. Other factors such as the chipset on his MB and amount of memory installed plays into the equation.

 

how can i change the mobo settings to help the performance of the chip? i just got it and popped it in, i didn't notice much of a speed difference, but i notice an amazingly huge difference in long term type stuff, like if i have a download going at over 100kb/s, i used to open a program and it'd take about 20 seconds to open just because the download program was using all my cpu resources, but with the new one, i currently have 2 150kb/s downloads going and i opened some other programs and they opened instantly, like 1 to 3 seconds, same when i have lots of programs running, with the new cpu, i haven't noticed a big speed difference, but i guess i'll be able to check that out when i re-install a couple games, i uninstalled them all cause my old cpu had a hard time running them and i needed space. just with the performace difference i've seen so far, i'd have to say that it was worth the money.

and as for the cooling, all i have right now is the stock fan and heatsink, i don't have much money right now, and what should i get, like just a bigger fan or something? since i haven't gotten a new fan or anything yet, would you say that i should only keep the pc on for a few hours then power off and let it cool down? i've never had to deal with overheating or cooling so i don't really know the ins and outs.


edit: i think i just figured out why there isn't much speed increase, i ran an amd cpu program and it says the cpu is only 1.003ghz, tried a program called cpu id and it told me the same thing, but i know for a fact the chip is 1.333ghz what might be causing this?

 

Fuzzy_C, GOOD STUFF getting it there, you probably wouldn't find an experienced technicnician that would show you how to do that for the price you paid (worth it just for the experience ).

I won't go into detail about how AMD rate their CPUs but a 1300+ is equivalent to a 1300mhz Intel Pentium (or better, hence the plus), but the acual Front Side Bus setting will be lower . I just started the AMD cpuid program on this machine, the "Processor Speed Test" reads 1,468mzh although the "Processor Name" is AMD Athlon(tm)XP 1700+. AMDs run at a lower FSB speed, but the processor achieves the same speed as a higher rated Pentium...anyway, I think your settings are correct for your processor. The others might confirm this. (Edit: found that the "plus" system applies to Athlon XPs, does not apply to the Thunderbird).

Cooling: most PC cases allow a spare section for extra fans to be added. For a "tower" case it is at front -> bottom, at the back it is at the top (draw cool air in at the front, blow heated air out at the back). See if you can add additional fans, otherwise replace any existing fans with "better" ones (the better ones will state the CFM rating, that is, the Cubic Feet per Minute rating.

Get Everest (in my signature). You should find temperature readings in the Motherboard -> Sensor section, I would not panick if the CPU temp is a little over 50*C. Don't always trust the software (Everest) readout, there should be temperature readings in the BIOS settings.

The test will probably come with those games you are going to load.

Matt

 

mattman - His T-Bird is 1.333 actual mhz - it was first, Palaminos & then, Thoroughbreds where AMD started the "+" nomenclature. His problem is that he's running a 266 chip (133x2) at 100mhz - thus the "less than expected" speed reading - solution is to change the FSB speed or the multiplier. Not sure if his motherboard will permit any manual changes - if no, then he needs something like SoftFSB.

Fuzzy_C - you need to get into your BIOS to see what can be done a per the above.

 

Thanks Rockster, yes, did some research and found out about that. If not 133fsb X 10, could try 100fsb X 13, if changing the multiplier is possible.

I was never into overclocking, but I seem to remember a trick about overclocking the thunderbirds by shorting connections on the chip itself using pencil carbon. Any possibilities for Fuzzy_C there.

I really should not get involved with this CPU speed stuff, but I have been getting more interested lately and will have to do some research .

Matt