VisorCentral.com - Need to pick a geeks brain (CPU Questions)

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Posted by rclayton on 10-19-2000 06:24 AM:

I am upgrading an older PC of mine...more like replacing it but using a few of the parts I can.

Anyway, I have decided to go with an AMD processor. But I am confused regarding the Athlon and the Thunderbirds. I can't find any information regarding the Thunderbird chip on AMD's site. I assume the Thunderbird is a new chip, but what is the improvement? As far as I can tell just a larger cache.....am I missing something.

I need advice on what to get, and Athlon or Thunderbird. I have been looking at a 650MHz Athlon for $99, and the motherboard I was going to get will support up to 1GHz (but not Thunderbirds) should I want to upgrade that later. I haven't purchased my motherboard yet, so no problems there.

Anyway, if someone can help me out either here on by email, I would appreciate it. I'll try not to be too much of a pest....but hardware was never my strong side.

Thanks in advance......I just can't work on this 200MHz, 64MB RAM, piece of turd anymore.....LOL.

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Posted by ziggy_34 on 10-19-2000 06:39 AM:

Athlon, Thunderbird, and Duron

From what I understand, Athlon was the first in the "K7" Family. The Thunderbird is the New Athlon and the Duron is a Pentium Celron type processor. The Thunderbird and Duron use a Socket type connector. The orginal Athlon used a Slot design.

See http://www.amd.com

Posted by rclayton on 10-19-2000 06:43 AM:

Yeah, like I said, I can't find anything on AMD's site regarding the Thunderbird chip........but I do see mention of 1.1GHz Athlons just being released.....so I assume if I buy a board that supports 1GHz+ Athlons, I should be okay.

Any ideas on pros or cons regarding the Slot A and Socket A? Is one better than the other, or just time to change the design again? LOL

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Posted by olendorf on 10-19-2000 01:53 PM:

I think you really should look into the Duron. They have a 800mhz chip that is really fast. Best bang for the buck today.

Try http://www.pricewatch.com to keep an eye on current prices.

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Posted by yucca on 10-19-2000 06:12 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by rclayton
Yeah, like I said, I can't find anything on AMD's site regarding the Thunderbird chip........but I do see mention of 1.1GHz Athlons just being released.....so I assume if I buy a board that supports 1GHz+ Athlons, I should be okay.

Any ideas on pros or cons regarding the Slot A and Socket A? Is one better than the other, or just time to change the design again? LOL

Slot A = Old Athalon processors

Socket A = New Thunderbird Athalon and the Durons

Now for the warning - we are very close to seeing motherboards using the new AMD760 chip set. Motherboards with this chipset should offer substantial benefits for AMD's newer CPUs (especially the >1GHz). The best new feature is support for DDR-SDRAM as a replacement for PC133 SDRAM (both of which outperform RDRAM - a technology that Intel's CEO now admits was a bad bet). If you can wait a few weeks, you should be able to get one of these babies; and the new motherboards perfectly compliment AMD's new 1.2GHz Athalon CPU.

For the best bang-for-the-buck, get a Duron (the slowest of which eat Celerons for lunch) on an ASUS socket A motherboard. Note that the Duron is now available at 800MHz.

For more on hardware trends, overclocking and benchmarking, see - http://www.tomshardware.com

Posted by rclayton on 10-19-2000 06:39 PM:

Thanks, that's the info I was looking for!

I probably get a Duron to start off, and then when I have more cash will get a TB......

I won't be buying the MB for a few weeks anyway, still waiting for some ebay auctions to close. I was planning on getting a MB that used the AMD chipset...I have been reading about people having problems with the VIA chipset and certain soundcards and video cards.....

So, thanks again! You helped me out.....

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Posted by sowens on 10-19-2000 07:48 PM:

quote:

yucca writes:

Now for the warning - we are very close to seeing motherboards using the new AMD760 chip set. Motherboards with this chipset should offer substantial benefits for AMD's newer CPUs (especially the >1GHz). The best new feature is support for DDR-SDRAM as a replacement for PC133 SDRAM (both of which outperform RDRAM - a technology that Intel's CEO now admits was a bad bet).

Don't forget the 760 will also support multiple processors.

Just image, a dual 1Ghz Thunderbird box.

[NOTE: Would have used a "drool" smilie, but one doesn't exist.

]

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