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[font size=1" color="#FF0000]LAST EDITED ON May-12-02 AT 09:24PM (GMT)[p]Why are Duron processors cheaper than other AMD processors?

Also, where did you see the $60 Duron/MBoard combo, Xotor?
 
>Why are Duron processors cheaper than
>other AMD processors?

The Durons have less cache than its Athlon counterpart. This results in slower IO and overall speed. However the Duron is still very worthy when it comes to normal use. It has been benchmarked against processors such as the Pentium 4 and in some cases it beats out some of the lower (but higher frequency) P4 CPUs. Durons are a steal when it comes to value.

>Also, where did you see the
>$60 Duron/MBoard combo, Xotor?

www.pricewatch.com my friend. If you want the cheapest prices, go there. CPU was ~$30, so was the motherboard. I would consider researching the chipsets, RAM and motherboards before diving in on the cheapest board. You may want more features and better overall speed. I suggest checking out www.tomshardware.com for benchmarks and reviews.

-Xotor-

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Thanks. I was checking out CPU/MB combos on PriceWatch, but I didn't think about checking prices on the components separately.
 
>Thanks. I was checking out
>CPU/MB combos on PriceWatch, but
>I didn't think about checking
>prices on the components separately.

You'll also want to get a decent fan for the CPU, especially if you're planning on overlcocking the Duron (Durons are good for overclocking). CPU/mobo combos usually don't come with decent fans. The Durons don't generate as much heat as the Athlons, but when overclocked they can get hot. Check out a site like www.coolerguys.com for cooling supplies.

-Xotor-

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[font size=1" color="#FF0000]LAST EDITED ON May-13-02 AT 10:30PM (GMT)[p]I'm not really into tweaking, so I think a combo might be the best idea for me.

I've been looking at some of the lower-priced 1GHz Duron combos on Pricewatch, but I haven't found any reviews on Tom's Hardware for any of the boards. Do you have any recommendations?

UPDATE: I was able to find a review of the Chaintech 7AIV2 MB which is very similar to the 7AIA listed on Pricewatch. The review was mostly positive with one of the biggest drawbacks listed as poor 3D performance due to an on-board TNT2 chip. I believe including an AGP port instead of the on-board video would take care of this problem and make a significantly more viable choice. What do you think? Considering that I'm primarily going to be using the computer for games, should I forget the Duron idea all together? I've heard it has poor 3D performance.
 
>Considering that I'm
>primarily going to be using
>the computer for games, should
>I forget the Duron idea
>all together? I've heard
>it has poor 3D performance.

Okay, this tech stuff is all WAAAYY over my head. BUT.... I do have one of these Duron things. Duron 800 mhz, 256 meg RAM, Savage 3 Graphics card. I haven't had any problems with 3D stuff..... (well, except the starting movie for the Sims doesn't work once I got the house party expansion) So I don't think there's any problems. But uhhh..... As I said, this is all WAAAY over my head, so Xotor can probably tell you otherwise.

*Sits back and waits for Xotor*

[link:users.senet.com.au/~dbschah/|DarkUnderlord]
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>I'm not really into tweaking, so
>I think a combo might
>be the best idea for
>me.

If you're a true gamer, you'll try to squeeze every last frame out of the hardware you buy.

>I've been looking at some of
>the lower-priced 1GHz Duron combos
>on Pricewatch, but I haven't
>found any reviews on Tom's
>Hardware for any of the
>boards. Do you have
>any recommendations?

You'll be getting a motherboard that supports PC133 RAM, so make sure you get a motherboard with the VIA KT133A (note the "A") chipset. You do not want the plain KT133 as it is slower, much slower.

Everything else is your preference, note that CNR slots are worthless as there are *no* cards for that slot, even now. Make sure your motherboard has an AGP 4x or above slot, and I'd suggest making sure there are at least three DIMM slots for RAM.

You want to get a decent amount of RAM. 256 megs is about minimum nowadays, I'd suggest maybe 512 megs depending on what you do. It is so cheap it is worth it, but invest in Micron RAM, not the bulk-bin shit around that has errors in it.

>UPDATE: I was able to
>find a review of the
>Chaintech 7AIV2 MB which is
>very similar to the 7AIA
>listed on Pricewatch. The
>review was mostly positive with
>one of the biggest drawbacks
>listed as poor 3D performance
>due to an on-board TNT2
>chip. I believe including
>an AGP port instead of
>the on-board video would take
>care of this problem and
>make a significantly more viable
>choice. What do you
>think? Considering that I'm
>primarily going to be using
>the computer for games, should
>I forget the Duron idea
>all together? I've heard
>it has poor 3D performance.

I've never bought Chaintech. The quality brands are (not in any particular order: MSI, ASUS, Abit, SolTek and Soyo. Everything else is not usually even benchmarked.

If you're getting a video card, you should, with your limited budget, get a Geforce2 MX 400. It has 64 megs of RAM, only costs ~$40 and will run most games at acceptable framerates (RTCW runs just fine for me).

-Xotor-

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What about PC Chips? (http://www.pcchips.com/index2.html) I've heard some good things about them from other people. I've also read some good reviews of the SiS 735 Chipset they use. Depending on how much money I get for graduation, I might be able to get an Athlon XP 1800+ bundle with one of their motherboards. Only $130 plus shipping.
 
>What about PC Chips? (http://www.pcchips.com/index2.html)
>I've heard some good things
>about them from other people.
> I've also read some
>good reviews of the SiS
>735 Chipset they use.
>Depending on how much money
>I get for graduation, I
>might be able to get
>an Athlon XP 1800+ bundle
>with one of their motherboards.
> Only $130 plus shipping.

The VIA KT266A chipset is better than the SIS. SIS lost their chance to dominate the market by not producing enough boards.. VIA took the lead. You'll need to buy DDR memory as well, try seeing if you can get some of the 333mhz RAM, but make sure you at least get PC2100 RAM that has CAS latency of 2, not 2.5. The difference is 5% to 10%, which is a lot.

But enough of this, I've already done my research and have bought my machine, so I don't keep up as much as I used to. You'll have to read up on what is good yourself.

-Xotor-

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[table width=200" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0][tr bgcolor=#000000] [td style=font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: bold; color: #FF0000; text-decoration: none]PAS:[/td][td align=left" valign="top" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]  [/td][td align=left" valign="middle" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; color: #FF0000]People Against Stupidity[/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 8px][td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3] [/td][/tr][tr bgcolor=#000000" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; color: #FFFFFF] [td] [/td][td align=left" valign="top" colspan="3]"Ignorance is excusable. Stupidty is not."[/td][/tr][/table][/div]
 
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