Pentium or Celeron

[kenz]

Fianlly decide to replace the old Pentium 2 PC. Appreciate views on new PC for general home use. Main use - surfing, music and a few docs/spreadsheet for kids homework.
I am going to continue with Win 98 unless I see a major reason to change to XP, which I cannot at the moment.
What is the experts opinion, Celeron or P4 - would like to know which way to plunge.
Regards

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There's no future in tomorrow - it'll soon be a thing of the past

[old_kid]

Hi Kenz:

I wouldn't go with P4 in your situation - Once in a while Intel comes out with a "pushing the envelope" processor that is geared more towards the future and ends up making a later version scaled back to accomidate current technology - P4 is one of those - the potential is great but running WIN98 and home use applications using a P4 is a little overkill.

Celeron should do fine as well as a mid speed AMD - the prices per 100MHz of CPU speed begin to curve upward past XP1700

Of course - if you like to strut around and brag about your "rig" and quote all those impressive stats and it's worth a few hundred more bucks - go for it - by the way I just bought a new rig it's a ....... hahahahaha I'm serious - a P4 - But I run a business, fairly large data bases, Web design, networks, etc
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

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Good Judgement comes from Experience - Experience comes from Bad Judgement

[saphalline]

Well, you could go for the new Celeron based on the P4 design. It has less cache and lower speeds, but it's the same mPGA 478-pin architecture. Also, it's the same price as the old Socket 370 Celerons.

In all actuality, however, the price difference between an integrated Celeron machine and an integrated P4 machine (with a slower 1.6GHz P4) is about $100 at most. P4 mobos are also about as cheap as any other, and going with a cheaper DDR system (vs RDRAM) will not only get you a lot more performance but also doesn't cost much more than regular SDRAM. Add to that the fact that most computer cases and all new power supplies are P4 ready and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go with the older Socket 370 technology.

It's your choice in the end, but now that there's a new P4-based Celeron, what do you think will happen to the other one?

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"No, we do not gnaw on our kitty." - Dr. Evil

[old_kid]

All good points Saph:

I obviously agree because that's what I am buying

But I am doing so with some caveats

1. Even though the majority of P4's are coming out with DDR there are some questions pertaining to 4X CPU bus speed and DDR RAM 2X speed being compatible - RDRAM is actually more compatible but mucho more expensive

2. Even though there is talk of Quad DR Ram - what about the chip set

3. Intel's history - going back to the 8086, 286, 386 Processors all were later scaled back to smaller Address & Data buses because they were new and a little ahead of established hardware & software technology

But hey - with today's rapid changes - this discussion will probably be obsolete by next week - LOL http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Good Judgement comes from Experience - Experience comes from Bad Judgement - but bad judgement is more fun!!

[iisbob]

Interesting to note that in the latest test of Intel's newest P4 2.53 GHZ cpu w/the 850G 533FSB system vs. a 4 month old AMD athlon XP 2100+ ( 1.7 ghz) w/ddr 266 FSB-the new P4 barely beat the allready older Athlon by just a couple of points.

So why waste your time and money on an Intel chip?


When for a lot less you can buy an Athlon Xp-w/ddr memory support that will far outperform any standard RDRAM/Pentium system.





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iisbob

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.-Mark Twain

[kenz]

Thank you for your advice. I had not considered the Athlon - I think I should. Before it was between 2 - now its 3 - hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Thanks


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There's no future in tomorrow - it'll soon be a thing of the past