Not too different from what I've got.
Remember, mhz only have so much to do with the actual speed of the processor. Of course, you learned that with the Cyrix - but it applies to modern CPUs as well. Give me a Pentium III over a Pentium 4 for almost any practical application, for instance (except maybe in a computer used exclusively for recording... but then, do any recording programs have optimizations for SSE2?)
Anyway, my computer is a Celeron 466 (overclocked to 525), 128mb ram, 5400RPM hard drive. I have a 7200RPM SCSI drive that I'd like to drop in for recording at some point, but I've no controller card for it at the moment.
This is a more than adequate setup for recording. I believe the echo reporter said my computer's capable of recording a song with around 28 tracks. In reality, I believe I get around 20 without effects before I experience dropouts - but I don't recall, since it's rare for me to use more than 10.
Oh, another important thing - to keep your computer running at peak speed, remember that there are lots of tweaks you can do, and you should never overload your computer with lots of unnecessary software (half a million truetype fonts, ultra-customized desktop, 20 programs running in your system tray, etc). I've seen people take their brand new 500mhz+ systems down to the speed of my old Pentium 100mhz that way, and it ain't pretty.
Recording is one of the few areas in computing where you actually do get results from having a faster system. Buying fast computers nowadays is mostly nothing more than a pissing contest - I could rip out my Cellie and motherboard tomorrow and go and buy a 1ghz Pentium III, but the speed increase in applications other than audio ones would really not be all THAT noticeable. The day after that, I could rip out the PIII and get a P4@1.4ghz, and many applications would actually be SLOWER. It's the sad truth.
But anyway. The main benefit of getting a fast CPU is, you'll be able to add more effects to your tracks in real time. Reverb is especially taxing on a CPU. If I have reverb running in real time on five or six tracks, I risk dropout. So with a Celeron 700, you'll probably be able to have reverb on seven or eight tracks, give or take.
Of course, you can get around these difficulties by adding effects to your tracks destructively. You can always undo, but it's not as convenient as real time.
The Celeron is a very solid CPU. I'm just not sure how comfortable I feel recommending it. I bought my Celeron 466 the week it was released, and I'm not sure I would have done that if I'd known then what I do now about computer hardware.
Celerons can be highly overclockable. Apparently, the Celeron 700 can be overclocked up to 892mhz without any cooling modifications. I don't recommend overclocking though (even though I do it myself).
Have you considered possibly getting a Pentium III instead? They're really not that much more expensive, but the 100mhz FSB make them quite a bit faster. They also have 128kb more L2 cache. This week, the lowest price Sharky Extreme found for the Celeron 700 was $70, while the lowest price for the Pentium III 700 was $125. Heck, the Pentium III 750 is only $131!
I realize that you may not have a lot of money to spend, and $131 may seem like a lot to spend on a CPU. But this seems like a steal to me, considering that I bought my Celeron 466 for $169 in the summer of 1999.
The Celeron, again, is a very good CPU. But it doesn't seem to rate highly in the "bang for your buck" department.
For what it's worth, here's a review of the Celeron 700:
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/reviews/cpu/celeron_700/
I am a very very big supporter of putting together your own system rather than buying one pre-built. I do not like highly proprietary computers (such as Gateway or eMachines) at all.
Also notice that I didn't mention AMD. AMD CPUs give you a lot of brute speed for your money, but I question their stability in intensive applications such as digital audio. I've never owned an AMD chip, though.
I hope some of this information was helpful to you. Please, don't hesitate to ask any more questions that you might have.
