Which is better?

[quegyboe]

I currently have a Pentium III 550e CuMine Slot 1 processor on a 440BX motherboard and I am thinking of buying a Slot A Athlon 1 Ghz on a KX133 chipset mobo. Which is better? My PIII has on-die cache, (256kb), and I know the Athlon Slot A has 512kb's of L2 cache! I wanna know ASAP, thanks!

[quegyboe]

I take it I have been labeled or something? All the posts I make never get replies! What's with that?

[Tim-]

I don't know about the labeling part- I also don't know much about AMD stuff- it seems that they are a little faster in most instances, but they have definite heat issues to deal with. Clock for clock they are faster I guess. I still have a sour taste for AMD from years past that is tough to get past- maybe some day when the MB prices come down, or a dual cpu version becomes available I'll try them.

[Kurant]

Maybe I missed somthing here.

For the record, myself, I'd never even consider buying any AMD products. I wouldent even take it if it was given to me. I'm a Intel guy, AMD also left the sour taste in my mouth. They still have everything to prove to me before I'd even consider purchasing a sticker from them.

Second of all, if your going to switch from a PIII to a Athlon your going to have to buy a new motherboard. Have you seen the prices lately? Obviously your into overclocking or you wouldent be stumbling along aimlessly in these boards, like the rest of us. A slot A on price watch, 1 gig is still 274 dollars right now. For 274 bucks you can get a 1.2 gig thunderbird, and still save 10 bucks. Which will be much, much more overclockable. Not to mention clock for clock faster then any of the slot A chips. a 1 gig T-bird is 154 dollars on pricewatch, or were as low as 154 dollars. No idea what it is at the present time.

My suggestion is save the 100 bucks, get a t-bird, invest that 100 dollars into a really nice motherboard. And away you go.

Ugh. I still can't belive i'm suggesting you purchase AMD. I'm going to go play in traffic now.

[Mike]

I agree with Kurant. You don't want to get rid of the Intel PIII to get a Slot A CPU. Clock for clock, there is not much difference at all.
On the other hand, a T-bird Socket A would be a nice improvement over the 550 PIII.
But, you do have to look at Mobo prices for those chips. Any descent one is gonna cost ya.
I did just that, (went to AMD T-Birds for both of my home systems) and there are still times when I think my Intels of the same clock speeds were faster.
I guess what I am saying is, read all about it, and make the descision that you feel most comfortable with...
Ya, I know, thanks for nuthin