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CONCLUSION: Ok, the numbers and the graphs say that the Duron would be a formidable competitor of the Celeron. With the Celeron's bandwith limited by its 66 MHz bus, the Duron is expected to cross the finish line evertime it is pitted against the low-cost Intel cpu at the same MHz rating. On the other hand, the Thunderbird, with its bigger L2 cache, is also in a position to give a similarly rated Pentium III a tight race to the finish. With the 3-stage pipelined floating point unit in the Athlon/Duron family of processors, Advanced Micro Devices has made sure it corrected the weakness of its previous products, particularly the K6-x line. The results show an overclocked Thunderbird 700 can provide very good gaming and office application performance. But would Duron and Thunderbird make a good alternative to the Intel processors if we talk about the cost? As of this writing, Duron 600 sells for about P4,000 ( or about $89 @ P45 to $1), while
you can get the Celeron 600 within P4,700. On the other hand, Pentium III 700 is available
for about P10,300. We don't know yet the actual selling price of the Thunderbird 700 but
you can expect it to be more than a thousand peso less than a Pentium III at the same
speed. Yet, there are few available motherboards for AMD's socket A processors at this time. So far, there is the MSI K7T Pro, the FIC AZ11, and Asus A7V motherboards. All of these motherboards sell for around P7,000, give or take a few hundreds. So, in the end, it could cost you P11,500 for a Duron 600 + Asus A7V (which sells for P7,499). For a comparative Celeron processor and a good motherboard (BX-based), you would have to spend about P10,000. If you would prefer the VIA Apollo Pro A-based motherboard for a Celeron-mobo combo, you may even cut your spending to less than P8,000. Looking at the cost, it would hurt your pocket more---at this time---to build a Duron system, compared to a Celeron-based one. But getting a Duron system at this time may also be a good decision in the sense that a good socket A motherboard would accomodate faster AMD processors in the future, like the 1.1 GHz Thunderbird or the 750 MHz Duron AMD released just recently. Just like AMD's problem in the initial release of the Athlon, lack of motherboard support would dampen enthusiasm over the new socket A processors. Once motherboards for socket A processors become available in the market, at a better price, cost-conscious Filipino computer buyers----who know only Intel---may fonsider getting a Duron or Thunderbird system. ----- Roy Pelovello #####
ADDENDUM: As I was finishing this review, I got word that a socket A motherboard from Abit would be available in the country in the middle of September, while two other socket A mobo--from Elite and Redfox--would also be available shortly. I'll post the news as soon as I confirmed the availability of these mobos. ------ same |
Athlon 550 vs. PIII 550 review Elite 2-in1 Motherboard Review
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