Did i spend extra for false beleif

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kikling

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I recently bought a computer, and INTEL PENTIUM 3 , 550 mhz, 128 ram and 10 gig hard drive. The reason I emphasized PENTIUM 3 was that I could of got a Celeron processor for cheaper, but i heard that celeron doesnt support 32 but float. SO I spent more for the pentium. was it a smart move, or does celeron not really effect anything? Thanks
 
huh?

I don't know who told you that, but they are full of crap! There are only two differences between a P3 and Celeron
1) less on die cache
2) slower bus speed (66 vs 100)

On another note, you would have gotten more bang for your buck by getting AMD's new Duron.
 
I don't know who to believe. When I bought my Digi001 I found it was incompatible with the AMD Athlon, so I called about returning it and the guy said no problem and checked out Lexicon and they told him they haven't had much luck with the AMD line. I switched to PIII and have had no problems whatsoever. I'd say don't worry about money already spent and get on with whatever it was you intended to do in the firstplace.;)

Rock on!!!
 
I think Bear's right... I've read that elsewhere. But like Brahmb said, it's best to just get on with the recording. I'm using a PII 450 with 96M RAM and getting along okay (sure, I'd like more horsepower). You should have a pretty good setup if everything is configured correctly.
 
*******BULLSHIT DELETED********

The only difference between a Celeron and a PII is that the Celeron only has a 128K cache (300A and over) and they're *supposed* to run on a 66Mhz bus, as opposed to 100Mhz. However, since they've got a PII core, it's often easy to overclock them by adjusting the bus speed up near 100Mhz. This, along with their price, is what made the Celeron such a great buy. A celeron is ONLY a good buy if you're planning to overclock nowadays though...otherwise you're better off with a similarly priced PIII or PII. (e.g. a 500Mhz PIII and a 500Mhz Celeron aren't far apart in price)

The PIII 550 sells for around $139. But the best buy in PIII's looks to me to be 700-750 which go from $190-$230. It should kind of piss you off that for $40 more you could have had a PIII 650 Coppermine with 512K. And realizing that a DAW doesn't really require the advancements of the PIII, and that overclocking is fairly easy...you could've gotten a Celeron 600A for the same price as your PIII, and possibly overclocked it to somewhere between 750Mhz and 900Mhz. Pre-tested overclocked Celerons can be purchased also so you you don't have to worry about anything technical.

You probably didn't get ripped, but you were given incorrect information. An overclocked Celeron processor is a good way to start your DAW off at a great price, but your PIII is fine. Remember, a PIII will always be faster than a Celeron overclocked to match the speed of the PIII! (e.g. a PIII 600 will outperform a Celeron 400 overclocked to 600Mhz)

Slackmaster 2000

[Edited by Slackmaster2K on 08-18-2000 at 11:15]
 
I am sorry but anyone who would buy an AMD(knowing the problems) for a DAW must also enjoy Kicking themselves in the ass on the weekends as well.. What do you mean more bang for his buck bear. He would have shot the machine before he got it to work.. hence BANG!
 
huh?

Not sure what you are talking about - I've been running an Athlon setup for over 8 months with no problems at all.
 
I have also seen people buy a KIA and drive it with no problems BUT its not likely... ;-) If you know that something has problems at all its not right to recomend it. And if you dont know that AMD has many compatibility problems you must live in a cave... I am glad your system is working out for you though.. I just wouldnt wish all the problems they CAN have on anyone.
 
hee!

Well I know for sure that I don't live in a cave! You are right though, there can be problems, but it has more to do with MB & chipsets - the Athlon is fine. That being said I definitely would not recomend an Athlon system to a newbie building his on PC, however having one built by an experienced tech who knows what to look for will work fine. One of the reasone I stayed away from Gina is the problems they have with the Athlon platform - as much Gina's fault as VIA's and AMD's. Thats why I went with a Delta and have had no problems with this screaming system.
BTW - I took the money I saved by buying an Athlon and pumped up my memory to 256 - wow!
 
Slackmaster, you mention that a P3 600Mhz would perform better than a overclocked 400Mhz, *IF* money was no object would you build a DAW around an up todate proccessor, like a 900Mhz ??
 
Celeron Sucks

If you have that extra money, do not even think about celeron. Its like buying a 4litre fuel injection turbo, but the air intake and fuel line is to thin to let enough gas through.
 
Money is always the object though. If I had unlimited cash, I'd buy one of everything. Seriously though, of course I'd buy the latest greatest 1Ghz+ processor if I was loaded, but I'm not.

Here's the secret to shopping for computer hardware....

Go to http://www.pricewatch.com for what we refer to as "street prices"...these are down-n-dirty as low as you can go prices, and are a good baseline.

Now you make a little table.

PIII
933eb - $660
850 - $426
800 - $286
750 - $235
700 - $195
650 - $175
600 - $169
550 - $139
500 - $123

Take a look at those prices. See the big price drops? Is it worth it to spend $660 on a 933Mhz PIII when you can get an 800Mhz for $286? No. And I'll tell ya why. For many years now, hardware has been ahead of software. That means that software will perform adequately on older systems, typically up to a year or two. Also, hardware prices drop every day as new components come to market.

So, the trick is to buy somewhere right before the biggest price increases. In this case processors between 700 and 800Mhz seem like the best deal (e.g. don't buy a 650 when a 700 is only 20 bucks more). Now in a year, the PIII 933 will be down to $250 or lower. I guarantee it. So you upgrade. You've now spent a total of around $500 for two processors, which is still cheaper than ONE 933Mhz processor today, AND you've got an extra processor to sell or reuse. So you actually SAVE money by buying slightly older hardware. The whole, "you gotta buy the latest greatest machine or it'll be out of date in a year" argument is both true and bullshit at the same time. :)

When it comes to digital audio, the faster the processor the better. Cache is relatively unimportant to realtime DSP, so an overclocked Celeron is really the best buy. BUT, if you're not into overclocking, the 700Mhz PIII is your best choice as I'm writing this.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Pre-tested overclocked Celerons, and PIII for that matter, can be had at pretty reasonable prices. For example,

533MHz FC-PGA Celeron guaranteed to overclock to 800MHz costs $185 including a suitable CPU fan.

700MHz Slot1 PIII Cumine guaranteed to overclock to 933MHz costs $320 including a suitable CPU fan.

The examples are from http://puicorp.com but there are several other companies that sell pre-tested CPUs so have a look around. I've only found one for us Europeans though, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/
 
Thansk for the input guys, and no I haven't got loads of money to burn either just trying to get views on the various processors to date, in early posts thye BX440 chip was mentioned as a must for harddrive recording and stability, does the later intel processors contain such a chip ?
 
The 440BX chip is not part of the processor, it's part of some motherboards. The motherboard "Asus CUBX" for example is based on the BX chip (and supports Coppermine (CUmine) processors, hence the name I presume). It seems that the BX chip is still king for DAW.
 
I recently posted some absolute bullshit to this thread and I appologize.

I recommended staying away from "E" processors because of the smaller cache.

Well, "E" actually designates the .18 micron technology (coppermine) and ALL of these CPU's have only 256K cache. All Intel CPU's after the 600Mhz PIII are this way, with 256K cache.

In a plot to confuse me, intel DROPPED the "E" on processors after the 600, and only use it when the processor is also a "B" (133Mhz FSB). So the only processors you'll see that are JUST "E" are 600Mhz and below. After that, they're ALL E, but some are specifically designated so if they are also "B", so you'll still see "EB" processors. Confused?

This is the 10th or so big fucking public mistake I've made in the past 3 or 4 months. Therefore my doors are closed. I will only speak when I know what the fuck I'm talking about in this regard....not when I "pretty much" think I might know. So if you notice I'm not helping much, it's not because I'm an asshole. My little piece of paper says I'm a "computer scientist"....what we really need around here is computer junky...or a salesman...somebody who does nothing all day but argue the differences between the 133 and 100Mhz FSB...a true geek who can keep up with this stuff. I'm just a programmer who's been duped into a bit of network admin and hardware work...I'm no hardware expert nor do I wish to be.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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