Budget CPU Review at AnandTech

[Dyyryath]

MrTRS sent in a link to a big CPU review over at AnandTech that many of you may find interesting. They're comparing several 'budget' processors looking for the best price/performance ratio. Here's an idea of the processors they're testing:

Processor	Price
Intel Pentium 4 1.8A	$120
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2083MHz)	$88
AMD Athlon XP (Barton) 2500+ (1833MHz)	$86
Intel Celeron 2.6GHz	$85
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2000MHz)	$68
Intel Celeron 2.4GHz	$68
Intel Celeron 2.2GHz	$67
Intel Celeron 2.0GHz	$65
AMD Athlon XP 2200+ (1800MHz)	$63
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1466MHz)	$56
AMD Duron 1.6GHz	$41

The complete article can be found here.

Looks like a good read for anyone trying to put together an inexpensive crunching box (or ten).

[FoBoT]

nice article

stay away from the Celeron at all costs; however, what is troublesome are the number of retail customers who are faced with the decision between a higher priced 2.6GHz Celeron system and an Athlon XP 2200+. We would highly encourage system vendors like Compaq and eMachines to shift their low-end focus to AMD if their customers are of any importance at all. As we've seen through our extensive benchmarking, the Celeron's performance is truly dismal; so while Intel is quite competitive in the mid-range and high-end segments, their value processors are inexcusably slow compared to AMD.

so the 1.6Ghz Duron is $42 at newegg, half the price of a 2400+

hmmm.....

seems the plain XP is dead, either go cheap with the new duron or jump to the Barton 2500+

[magnav0x]

You think a Duron 1.6hz would out perform the XP equivilent?

[excaliber]

I've heard it doesnt stack up, because of the less L2 cache. But thats just what i've heard.

[PCZ]

If you want a PC for DC projects dont buy a duron.

The performance is awful.
In Lifemapper it takes a duron 3 times longer to do a WU than an XP at the same clock speed.
The same happens in DF,F@H etc.
Durons are crippled by the small L2 cache {64k)

[JTrinkle]

Get the 2500+ Bartons ... I have 2 of them and both run at 3200+ (2.2 ghz - 11 x 200) at stock voltage with very quiet Zalman 7000A al-cu HSF's
Neither runs over 100F (38C) under full 24/7 load

$85 CPU (2500+) & $35 HSF (Zalman) = $300 CPU (3200+)

-JT

PS: Those heatsinks are huge and will not fit all motherboards
I had to redrill the power supply mounting holes up 1/4 inch to get it to fit.

[Anteraan]

I'll second the 2500+ Barton recommendation. Mine is also running at 3200+ speeds with no change in voltage and 43 C with the retail HSF. In fact, it hasn't shown the slightest issue with the O/C yet. With the mobo and RAM I have, I'm considering pushing it even a tad farther, just for exploration purposes. The upgrade from my 2000+ chip is amazing. At stock speeds the difference wasn't a whole lot, but this chip is a fantastic overclocker (despite being multiplier locked), and that's when it shines. It has to be the best $90 I've ever spent in computing.

Better yet, I'm building my second this wkd.