I wanted to know whether it was worth upgrading from 2xP3 850@1Ghz to 2x P3 1.3Ghz or to just start a new rig with a dual athlon mobo and 2x Athlon MPs (or XPs modded to MPs).

I only wanted to know because intel are stopping production of the Pentium 3 soon, and wondered whether it was worth upgrading yet.

But then again it may be some time until Intel kill the P3, because the P4 is hardly a server chip, is it?

This is one of the problems I am facing - to upgrade or build a new rig. I currently have Dual PIII850s@1Ghz, but would like maybe some more speed in the near future.

Do i :-
A. Upgrade to higher speed PIIIs, before they are discontinued
B. Scrap the whole lot and go dual athlons
(C). Win the competition Prize

It all depends on your money situation I believe the Pentiums are way overpriced, but if you have the money then I say go for it. I like my Athlon, and I don't plan on changing unless Intel does something drastic to change my mind.

Personally, the prize wouldn't be a bad deal at all

When was the last time you checked prices. Sure the higher clock Pentiums are still expensive but compare them with the current AMD higher spec processors....

• Palomino Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60Ghz, 256KB, 266Mhz, Socket A) $195.00
• PENTIUM 4 1.6GHZ PGA478 400MHZ $135.00
• PENTIUM 4 1.8GHZ PGA478 400MHZ FSB $183.00

Source : http://www.3dspotlight.com/prices.shtml using pricegrabber

So the prices aren't that different at the momemnt if you compare P4 Ghz against XP PR...

The northwoods are a bit more expensive than the old P4 though.

I try to base price on performance also. When I see a Athlon XP 1600+ performing at the same level as a P4 2.0G and I see a price difference of 96 for the XP and 269 for the P4 then I see a difference. I know it's not an ethical way of thinking, just how I look at the situation.

Like your last post shows your Athlon outperforming a 2.0 P4, that's just ridiculous. My 1.4 nonoverclocked also easily outperformed P4 at 1.6 and 1.8.

I do give Intel a little props, they finally eased up on the prices a little.

Also, one last thing, are you moderators eligible to win the prizes??? If so my vote goes to you. I must say I've tried to weild what little computing knowledge I have, but you are far superior than anyone else I've seen. Who knows maybe I can pick up the graphics card, that wouldn't be too bad of an upgrade from a GeForce 2 Pro!!!

Well I would think of it like this...
Do you need ATA133 support and USB2.0?
Does your current rig use SDRam?

If the answer to these questions is yes and if the chipset that your dual board uses is old then I would be tempted to upgrade to a dual Athlon solution as you could upgrade your memory as well to DDR266 or 333.

If you don't really need ATA133 and the other new technologies coming out on the new boards today then a couple of P3s at a higher speed might be worth looking at. Also my decision would depend on whether or not my existing board supported the faster P3s and could do a nice overclock on them...

In the end if you go down the road of faster P3s you could end up with a dual CPU system that totals more than 2.6 Ghz but dual is better peformance (pipeline and parallel both) so it would give you a really fast system, but if the rest of the system (memory, graphics card etc) isn't up to it then the system will be a bottleneck to your break neck speed dual CPUs...

Not really a clear "Yeah that will do you", just my thoughts if I was considering an upgrade

I myself am waiting on either hugely overclockable AMD XP Thoroughbred or the 64bit CPUs to appear...

PS: Cheetah, I would say Informed more than knowledgable
And I believe moderators are eligible

Hot off the wires:

2xP3 1.26GH = $426 dollars according to Pricewatch

2xAthlon 1.4G = $170 dollars

2xAthlon XP 1700 = $200 dollars


You make the choice Personally, I'm biased for AMD, but I also have my reasons, don't I.

Geez they must be a rare commodity.
For the price of 2 x P3 you could almost buy an entire system...

S2460 TigerMP AMD-760 MP 4 DDR DIMM 2 32-PCI
4 64-PCI ATX AMD Athlon MP dual processor
motherboard = $225 (not the cheapest price)
UPDATE $179 on pricewatch

2xAthlon XP 1700 = $200 dollars

$425 (or $379 plus DDR memory) but you would need to get some DDR memory so it would be a little more expensive but probably a better investment in the long run...

Anyone know anything about any other Dual Athlon Boards i.e. Asus, Gigabyte etc.

I myself am an Abit man, as I like the oveclockability, bit AFAIK they haven't mentioned a Dual Athlon Board Yet.

Just been reading the latest article at Anandtech.
There is a page about Asus releases at CeBIT 2002 and it mentions new Dual Athlon boards...

Asus CeBIT Dual Athlon board at Anandtech


Anandtech also talks about Gigabytes dual board and MSI's offering

I believe the Tyan Dual board is the only one that is available at this time.

Asus have the new A7M266-D board listed on their site so I guess it must be shipping now or soon.

Thanx Guys. I think I might upgrade my PIIIs, stick with them for a while, and then get a Dual Athlon mobo eventually (or AMD Hammer when that comes out in SMP configurations).

The Asus model A7M266 is £20 dearer than the Tyan Tiger MP Dual Athlon in the UK (£188 exc VAT).
The current MSI K7D Master Dual AMD Athlon Mobo DDR is £174.00 exc VAT.

But it is probably more overclockable

Here is a good article on the Dual Tyan Tiger MPX motherboard. Some of you looking might want to check it out.

http://www.viahardware.com/tigermpx_1.shtm

Here's another comparison of an Intel and AMD dual mobo:

http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q1/0203131/index.html

Check TigerDirect.com and other websites selling new & refurbished items. You may come across an even better deal, and you may just be able to pick up extra ram and other peripherals at a discount. For the price of the Pentiums, honestly, I'd also go with twin AMD's. But I'm also biased. I've had nothing but trouble with Pentiums. I threw the last two old ones I that fried on me off the (second story) back porch--motherboard and all.
Good luck & may you make a wise decision!
-Jim.