Question for Celeron Users

[Nooyawkah]

I now use AMD, but at one time I was an Intel guy. At one point I had occasion to buy 2 computers from Dell, one a laptop for me and the other a desktop for a friend who had limited resources. I also cheaped-out on the laptop because it wasn't to be my primary computer. Instead of Pentiums, both machines were ordered with Celerons. I think they were Celeron 800s.

When we compared notes after about 3 weeks, both of us had sent the machines back to Dell to exchange for Pentium IIIs for more money. We both had the same complaint, they surfed the Internet painfully slow. Now we both had lousy 56K dial-ups, I understand that, and both of us are on AOL, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Have you Celeron users found that to be the case? If not, how do you explain what happened to us?



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They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
---Edgar Allan Poe

[iisbob]

Clumsy Dell technician's!?

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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iisbob

The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that will always be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful. -- Mark Twain.

[saphalline]

You didn't mention if the PentiumIII's improved your internet surfing speed! I'll assume that if you're "looking for an explanation" this was the case.

No, the Celeron is not a powerful piece of silicon in today's processor market, but it is better than the Pentium, Pentium MMX, and the AMD K6 series, which were all capable of surfing the net just fine. If Dell only swapped out you and your friend's Celerons for PIII's, then they probably made a few system tweaks in addition to that. The PentiumIII supports a higher overall system and the Dell technicians may have "unlocked the potential of your systems" which was there all along.

If, however, the technicians actually made a mobo change to support the PIII's then that would wholly explain the increased performance right there. Mobos designed for "toned-down" Celerons are inferior to those designed for the better PIIIs.

The last explanation involves supplying us a picture of your aura and a transcription of your last hypnotic suspense signed by a third-party witness. What happens is that your stress about changing processors (you and your friend's combined at the same time) sent a negative vibe to the network technicians at AOL, who then felt the need to improve the internet performance for your area. By the time you and your friend got your new PIII systems, they had already finished!

[Nooyawkah]

Actually, they sent entirely new systems. Dell sells systemd returned within the first 30 days as REFURBISHED.

The over all effect on Dell was that soon after these events, they returned most of their techs and got back replacements from India. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
---Edgar Allan Poe

[mjc]

One other and probably signifcant factor, was that the machines in questions had winmodems installed (software modems). A software modem can play havoc with a Celeron, consuming much of its resources...the PIII with its larger L2 cache is probably able to handle the demands of a software modem better.

I have a Celereon machine that was having a horrible time with the net...until I slapped an external modem on it (an all I can get around here is dial up). Getting rid of the software modem did things like drop CPU usage, got me a much more stable connection, increased download speeds and cured my dogs fleas.....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Nooyawkah]

I believe you're correct about the modems. When I cheaped-out on the cpu I did the same with the modem. When I bought the P III I also upgraded the modem to 3COM US Robotics. I liked that one so much I took it with me when I built my current system and put in a winmodem into the Dell I sold.

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They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
---Edgar Allan Poe