Durons and T-birds and XPs oh my! And KT333?

[Mercutio]

Looks like the price difference between the Duron 1.3GHz, T-bird 1.33GHz and an XP1500 (1.33GHz) is something less than $25.

In the name of delivering value, I'm wondering which is the best choice.

The Duron is theoretically slower, right? Still limited to a 200MHz bus? But probably the coolest choice (and therefore less needful of a noisy fan) as well?

The T-bird is awfully inexpensive for a 266MHz-bus CPU. Hot, for sure, but also fast.

Will the XP be faster than the T-bird? Cooler? Or is the expense due solely to its name? If the XP is faster... is there a noticeable difference?

While I'm thinking about these things...

There's not really a price difference between KT266A and the KT333-class boards. I know the only real difference is the theoretical support for PC2700 DDR memory (and theoretical support for ATA133, it appears), but I'm also seeing things like USB2.0 ports on KT333 boards that DO make them appealing. KT333 will probably have a short lifespan, of course. Should I just be thinking of KT333 boards as more feature-packed KT266As? Or is there some other drawback I'm not seeing?

 

[CougTek]

With the very low prices on the Athlon XP these days, the only Duron I'm still using is the 1GHz flavor. For people needing anything more than a 1GHz Duron, I switch to the XP.

The Thunderbird as been out of the game for me as soon as the XP came. The Thunderbird produces too much heat for my liking anyway. The SSE instructions of the XP make it slightly quicker than the Thunderbird in most games. I don't really care about Office applications speed because it's been a while since I have heard someone complain that his system wasn't quick enough to load MS Word (except Tony and his K6-III love story ;-)).

Should I just be thinking of KT333 boards as more feature-packed KT266As?

That's how I see them. The KT333 is mainly a solution for overclockers and computer enthousiasts at large. Here, the KT333 mobo are ~25$CDN more expensive than their older KT266 siblings. I won't buy a KT333 untill that different vanishes, unless I have to build an overclocked box. I haven't seen enough USB2 devices to care about that port yet. Ask me again in a year.

 

[James]

Will the XP be faster than the T-bird? Cooler? Or is the expense due solely to its name? If the XP is faster... is there a noticeable difference?

Yes, yes, no, and probably, depending on what you do.

The main advantages of the XP chips is that they run cooler for a given speed, and consume less power. The TB 1.3GHz has pretty much the same heat output as the XP 1800+. The XP will be faster at a given clockspeed than a TB because it has a full implementation of SSE, which is particularly useful in things like DiVX encoding and what have you. It also has some other new features whose names I forget but rest assured, they're nifty and will make the sun seem that much sunnier, the birds sing a little bit sweeter, blah blah blah etc.

 

[Mercutio]

$25CDN is barely a difference at all. For me the difference is something less than $10US between Gigabyte's KT266A and KT333 boards. Sure, that adds to the final cost of the product, but I'm looking at USB2.0 as a considerable increase in the value of what I'm delivering (The RAID version of the KT333 board adds firewire ports as well, which is the only reason I started looking at it to begin with), particularly since "big boys" like Dell aren't really offering it yet.

Unlike USB, which existed for years before I actually saw a USB device, I started seeing USB2.0 devices immidiately after the interface was finalized. Big electronics stores are selling USB2 CD-RWs (full speed 32- and 40x drives) and external disk enclosures already. There's a decent market for that stuff, one that I understand completely.

I'm vacillating here. New chipset potential bugginess versus pretty decent improvment in functionality.

 

[CougTek]

$25CDN is barely a difference at all.

Hey, not that I really care about the "canadian" part of our dollar, but it's still not a mexican pesos. Soon, it will, but not yet so keep a little respect for our currency. ;-)

 

[Mercutio]

I'm just as willing to dismiss a $10US price difference between boards in my area.

$10 is the difference between brands, not the difference between major features like RAID or USB2.

 

[time]

I agree with CougTek's assessment. Duron 1000 has a nice round number

James is right as usual, but the "other new features" he mentioned include hardware prefetch, which is by no means trivial. You're more likely to see a performance boost from that than Screaming Sindy Eloping.

Finally, Skallas proved over at SR that the Morgan Duron uses virtually the same power as a Palomino at the same clock. So again, there's little point going over Duron 1000. That will save you about a third of the power compared to an XP1700, enabling the use of smaller/older/cheaper power supplies and cooling.

 

[Buck]

enabling the use of smaller/older/cheaper power supplies and cooling.

How small, how old, and how cheap?

 

[time]

How small? Whereas only one 250W PS appears on AMD's approved list for XP1700+, 18 appear on the list for Duron 1000.

How old? Obviously AMD does not bother to retest old power supplies with newer CPUs. Anything on the approved list for Athlon 800 would be good. Realistically, most 300W less than 2½ years old and many 250W from the last 2 years should be okay. But an approved one is always preferable.

How cheap? I dunno, $20-25?

Almost any cooler with a 60mm fan would be adequate for a Duron 1000. And some with 50mm fans, such as GlobalWin's FNP-50. Price? $5-10.