Which is best for overclocking, Athlon or Duron?

[jspenc3]

Thanks for the info. I was leaning toward that board myself. Don't know if I'll use the RAID, but it will be an option if I need it. Also, does the non-raid Abit KT7 have UDMA100? I didn't see it on one of the spec sheets I saw.

Another Q, did they lower the Durons to .18 micron when they went to copper?

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-Jay

[Indiana]

Originally posted by jspenc3:
Don't know if I'll use the RAID, but it will be an option if I need it. Also, does the non-raid Abit KT7 have UDMA100? I didn't see it on one of the spec sheets I saw.

No, the non-RAID KT7 doesn't have ATA100, just ATA66 (as any other board with the VIA 686A - and that includes most KT133 boards). But it really doesn't matter cause you won't notice a big speed increase with ATA100 against ATA66. If you want high HD speeds go for RAID. If you want to do anything that reqiures high HD-throughput like video-capturing, it's simply a must.

Another Q, did they lower the Durons to .18 micron when they went to copper?

The Durons are said to all have aluminium interconnects, even the new 800MHz blue ones. So no copper Duron ('till now).

Don't know if the excellent oc'ing capabilities of my Duron800 are due to AMD changing something with those faster models or if I was just lucky.
Perhaps some Duron700's would overclock equally well, don't have one to test.

[Greebe]

The Mushkin PC150 HSDRAM is only certified to PC133 spec when run on athlon MB's.
I doesn't appear to work any better than Crucial PC133 "7E" mem.

[Alfie]

Asus A7V motherboard
Duron 600 @ 950mhz

Having used both the Tbird and Duron,
The Duron is the more fun of the two as far as overclocking.
The Tbird I have is 700 @ 900mhz.
Thats the ceiling on it.
The two Durons I have(both 600mhz)have overclocked to 1 gig on one and 978 on the other.
The one gig mark proved unstable,hence backed down.
Considering the 600mhz is discontinued,but still available,the price of $50.00 is to good to pass up.
The Asus A7v motherboard is the one with the udma 100 controllers built in,giving you the option of running up to 8 ide devices.
On this board look for w\o sound,multipliers on board.
The highest ceiling I've seen for Durons is about the 1 gig level,regardless of default mhz.
Therefore spending extra for the higher mhz seems impractical.
Overclockers.com has a database for cpus and their overclockabilty worth checking as a source. http://www.overclockers.com/

[spoogenet]

Not sure about the process on the Durons.

As far as DDR goes, that's something that might really be worth waiting for. Again, what are you looking for? Bang for your buck, bang, or is the almighty dollar (or whatever currency you use) the king?

If you want good performance, DDR will potentially help you out a bit, but might want to get some good benchmarks for that. However it'll probably cost a pretty penny more, maybe making it not worth it for your case.

b

[jspenc3]

Guess I'm getting too cought up in this decision. Even if I combined all these ram/md/processor idead it's still simply a matter of 10-20% speed increase, and most software doesn't need a 1gig system as it is...

Think I'll just stick with a 700 Duron if ya think my chances are just as good as getting close to 1 gig as with a 750 and save the $15.

As for the board, I'll probably go with the Abit KT7 regular. Don't think I'll need the raid and since UDMA100 is moot, it should work great. Is this a better board for oclocking than the asus? (The Asus needs modifications to oclock, right?) Plus on ocz.safeshopper it's $20 cheaper...Anyone have experience buying from them?

Two final questions...
1) I think my current power supply is only 250, do I need a bigger one to run at 1gig?

2) I have 128 PC100 right now (not sure on specs), any chance it will work at 1gig or do I need pc133? Prob get the memory anyway, but figured I'd ask...

Thanks guys, this forum rocks!

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-Jay

[spoogenet]

Not sure about your memory, but IIRC Athlon rigs are pretty picky about memory (I assume Durons as well). Might want someone else to give you a better idea.

And you're probably going to need a hefty power supply to run an Athlon/Duron. I would recommend going for a 350, but don't just base your decision upon wattage. A high quality 250 W can outperform a low quality 350 W in terms of supplying the necessary current to any given rail. Make sure you get a quality PS or else you will probably regret it later. Not sure which brands are top rated these days, I think a search of the fori will turn up a couple threads in the past dealing with Athlons and power supplies.

b

[Himself]

Ram is only important if you want to overclock, any PC100 will do otherwise. 250W supplies are good enough, it depends on the gear you have in the box.

[Greebe]

Not all PC100 (or even PC133) will do. Athlon MB's a finicky of the memory put in them. I tested two PC100 generic sdram modules that had Micron chips on them and they would, spontaniously reboot/ crash the OS etc...then I tried another set of generic memory, this time PC133 (again with Micron chips) on it... still no go. My conclusion, chips that couldn't pass testing and crappy pcb's.

This isn't to say Micron memory is crappy, nope, as that's exactly what I have (Crucial "7E" mem). Difference being who made them.

[Himself]

I, and several other people I know use generic PC100, non brand name memory, no problems, perhaps you are talking about slot A instead of socket A?

[Greebe]

Nope, this was on an A7V and KT7 MB's

[Himself]

Let me know where you buy your ram then, so I'll know not to go there.

[Greebe]

That's a problem around here... no higher end computer stores and OCing is the devils work.

I buy some items from www.microx-press.com (they're 10 min away) but most of the time thy are higher than if I bought direct (Crucial). Just about everyone else charges far to much for the junk ware they bid.