In the PC speed stakes at the
moment, the big name is not Intel. Sure, they've shipped Pentium III processors
that run at most impressive clock speeds, but they haven't shipped a whole
lot of them - the faster P-IIIs are in short supply. They're hard enough
for big system manufacturers to get hold of, let alone regular people.
AMD, on the other hand, has
been pretty much meeting the high demand for its Athlon processors. Which
are faster, and cheaper.
An Athlon will slightly outpace
an equivalently clocked Pentium III. Even the new, faster "Coppermine" P-IIIs
(designated with an E after their model name, or an EB if they use the new
133MHz Front Side Bus speed) can't quite catch an Athlon. And although Athlon
supplies have also suffered occasional shortages of one model or another,
they're generally easily available all over the place to ordinary consumers,
as long as you don't want the very newest models.
At the moment, the "very newest"
Athlon is the recently announced one gigahertz (1000MHz) part. AMD made
a
big production out of hitting the 1GHz mark, but that big round
number is actually no more significant than, say, the arrival of the year
2000. The 1GHz Athlon has no significant architectural differences from
previous versions, and is only as much faster than, say, the easily available
850MHz unit, as you'd expect it to be from the clock speed.
And fast it may be, but cheap
it is not. The top-end processors in a given range always deliver considerably
lower performance per dollar than the low-end models, and so it is with
Athlons; AMD's 1,000 unit price to manufacturers for the 1GHz chip is a
hefty $RM450 per CPU. Consumers buying only one CPU, over the counter, can
expect to see an even more imposing figure on the sticker when the new processor
makes it to the retail market; here in Malaysia, you're talking well over
$RM1000.
Back in the real world, you
can get more modest Athlons for much more reasonable prices. Athlons are
all presently priced cheaper than equivalently clocked P-IIIs. The list
prices generally run about 20% cheaper at deep discount dealers, who may
or may not have stock, and may or may not charge reasonable shipping fees.
The P-III shortages, though, mean that people that actually have stock of
the Intel processors are usually the ones charging rather more for 'em.
Especially in the higher speed ranges, Athlons are drastically cheaper at
the moment.
Athlons use a special CPU connector,
"Slot A", which is mechanically identical to the Intel Slot 1 connector
but electrically completely different. This means Athlons need their own
special motherboards; upgrade to an Athlon from a system containing anything
but another Athlon and you're going to need a new motherboard. A motherboard
swap is a pretty serious procedure; if you're running Windows, it's unlikely
you'll be able to pull it off without reinstalling the operating system.
Then again, upgrading to a current
model P-III may require you to trade in your motherboard, too. Flip Chip
Pin Grid Array (FC-PGA) Coppermine P-IIIs can be used on various recent
Slot 1 boards by using an appropriate "slotket" adaptor , and all pre-Coppermine
P-IIIs are Slot 1 processors that'll also work on a plethora of motherboards.
If your motherboard, however, doesn't support the 1.6 volt supply that the
Coppermines want, you can't use one. And if you want to use a 133MHz Front
Side Bus (FSB) P-III, you'll need a motherboard that can handle it. Some
late model boards using Intel's old BX chipset can do 133MHz FSB passably
well. But BX boards aren't meant to run that fast, and overclocking the
FSB above 100MHz overclocks the AGP slot too, so many AGP graphics cards
won't work.
The only desktop alternatives
to BX for 133MHz FSB are Intel's own i820 and upcoming i815 chipsets - the
820's expensive and not a great performer - or Via Technologies' Apollo
Pro133 and 133A chipsets, a couple of boards based on. There are quite a
few good VIA boards out there, but it's still a new motherboard. If you're
considering buying, say, a 550MHz P-III and a new motherboard, you might
as well consider buying an Athlon and motherboard instead. Athlon boards
are around $RM400, versus around $RM300 for Coppermine P-III compatible
boards, but once you start talking faster, more expensive processors, that
difference is thoroughly eaten up by the money you save on the CPU. If you
can even find a faster model P-III to buy, that is.
Plenty of large and small manufacturers
sell whole built Athlon PCs, or will upgrade your machine for you. If you
pick this option, there's nothing special you need to know; an Athlon PC
works the same as a P-III one.
But if you decide to upgrade
your own machine, or build one from scratch, there are some issues that
make the Athlon special. You need to pick a couple of other components properly,
and you might also be interested to know that by spending a bit more money
and doing a bit of fiddling, you can make your Athlon a great deal speedier.
