950 duron vs 850 T bird

[WesMarden]

I am looking at both of these processors. Both are about 50 dollars at newgg. When shipping is added they are maybe 6 dollars apart with the duron being cheaper.

I am looking at the CPU database and the 950 duron will do 1050 to 1100 fairly easily. And the 850 t bird looks like it will do about the same. So which would give me the best performance for the dollar?

They will be going into a Abit KT7 raid and will have a dragon orb3 to cool whichever I choose. I have 256 of PC 133 ram, some generic brand from a local shop. Next pay check I intend to get some good stuff from crucial. Do you think I will notice a huge difference if I get an extra 256. Not really much into high end games or 3d rendering, but I am on the folding team. Right now my plan is just to replace my current MOBO, but I am thinking of putting it back together and an extra stick would be helpful for when I do that.

Happy Thanksgiving.:cool:

[Jon]

At only $6 difference I would go after the Tbird. Extra cache is worth it and F@H will like it much more.

[]-[itman]

I'll make this short and simple. T-bird.

[SickBoy]

850 Bird does 1050-1100 MHz? Nope, try again. The good overclocking steppings didn't kick in until around a GHz.

I'd probably still choose it over the Duron though, seeing as it's going to be going in an aging board anyway.

SB

[sealworx]

I would put my money on the Duron.

Although it has a smaller L2 cache size than the T-Bird, the Duron 950 runs on the newer Morgan code already. With that I think the Duron 950 is more overclockable than the Athlon 850. :cool:

[WesMarden]

Originally posted by SickBoy
850 Bird does 1050-1100 MHz? Nope, try again. The good overclocking steppings didn't kick in until around a GHz.
SB

Just going by the CPU database.

[JML]

sickboy- you don't think a 850 tbird will do 1050 or 1100? I have a 700 tbird that pretty easily hits a 950, w/ watercooling a 1000

[Christoph]

If you're at all new to playing with the innards of your comp, get the Duron. TBird cores are very delicate, whereas Duron cores can take quite a beating (my Duron core's got a crushed side and still works fine, but a similar incident killed a former TBird of mine).

[Bimmer318i]

Hmm, I'd probably have to say the T-bird too, althought I love the durons, and are you sure the 950 duron runs on the morgan core???..If so, it may be the better alternative, as the morgan core duron's clock up fairly well. And about the core?..
I think It is just easier to damage a t-bird as there is somewhat more to damage, But I don't think that either core is tougher than the other..
I have 3 t-birds and have had 4 durons, and if you're careful you shouldn't have a problem messing with either. (and mind you I take out my cpu's pretty much every week for one reason or another)...

Well hope that helps...all reallly depends on the morgan core thing..

I'll go see what I can find out and let you know..

Abirinder..

[Bimmer318i]

Well, From what I've gathered the original 950 Duron's and in every review I've found have been of the spitfire core, not the Morgan, the 1 gig is where teh Morgan core started, as I originally thought, whether the core has filtered down in the last couple months is a possibility...but I have seen no mention of it..
so there's some information..

Abirinder..

[SickBoy]

950? Morgan core? nope. Morgans are at 1 GHz+ and I think even some 1 GHz chips are Spitfire.

The old cores for the TBird maxed at just under 1 GHz aircooled - hence even though an 850 is 150 MHz faster than a 700, since they were fabbed about the same time, the OC potential is pretty similar. If you're lucky enough to get a newer stepping in an 850 I'd say you might get 1050 or 1100, but I'd say that would be a stretch without voltmodding.

I have a friend with an 800 TBird that does 925 stably under stock voltage... and it takes over 2 volts just to get that thing to post at 1 GHz! (We tested the chip in my setup)

Anyway... I'd still try to get your hands on a Morgan of about 1 GHz. If you can find a 950 Morgan (core looks different, has a 5 letter stepping code, eg AHHAA), pounce on it. That thing is good for about 1.3. Otherwise if it's between a Spitfire duron (of pretty much any speed) and a TBird, I'd still choose the TBird. Save the nice, newer, faster MHz processors for more modern equipment.

SB

[Hangman34]

My 850mhz maxed out at 1gig on the Abit Kt7a-R I had before got this set up and it had a corner chipped off ran fine til MB died so when I bought this board could not resist buying new Chip. Think with a voltage mod I could have got a little more but not much.

[Maximus Nickus]

My old T-Bird did 1.1 @ -0.5V!!!! And 1200 @ Default never did get higher though as the board only had 109FSB!!! (Jetway 663AS pro) and I had to mod it to get a higher multiplier, anyways the fan fell off and its dead now...sob...

[FullOfSlack]

My green core 750MHz T-bird has been at 1100MHz with just aircooling for allmost a year now. With only 1.85 vcore. I must have gotten a good one.

[Christoph]

I wish I could do that with my XP 1600+. I'd be able to get it over the 2 gHz mark.
Nice OC! What's the stepping?

[Maximus Nickus]

Yeah but you have to remember that slower cpus will oc further...

[Slychilde]

Is it possible to wait a little bit longer to save up the money for a morgan 1ghz or 1.1? If so, go that route. If not get the t-bird all the way. Cache=good.

[Christoph]

You can get morgan core Durons right now. Just go to pricewatch.com, click on CPU and type "morgan" into the search field directly above the CPU prices. You can get a 1 gHz for US$ 83 shipped or a 1.1 gHz for US$ 92.75 shipped.