What to upgrade...CPU only (intel) or go for AMD land....

[Tekk]

K...I could upgrade my CPU (Get an Intel Celeron 800 RETAIL for $60) and then just get a slocket for my Abit BF6 board or is better to go for the Duron side of the market. If I do go AMD tho I will have to buy a good mobo which is over $100 and then with a Duron 800 or higher it will be over $150 easily. So I could get a celeron 800 NOW or should I wait and get the AMD stuff.

Just wondering if I will still see excellent performance from an Intel.

[SoopaStar]

the duron performs much higher than a celeron. The 800C only uses the 66mhz bus. The duron uses the 200/100 bus. I think the duron has better cache too. Can't remember off hand. But, i fyou were wanting to spend money, and had the $150, I would save up a little more and go with a tbird.

Paul

[Hellmund]

The duron has 128kb L1 cache and 64kb L2 cache. The celeron has 32kb L1 and 128kb L2. The coppermine cely's have 256bit cache however whereas the duron has 64bit. Overall though the Duron does beat a celeron in pretty well all real-world apps, the advanced FPU on the duron is excellent for 3d graphics which is why they're the choice for most gamers.

[Dputiger]

If you want to talk cache, you need to remember--the Celeron cache is only 2-way associative, vs. the 16-way associative cache of the Duron--makes a big difference.

HEre's my advice:

Get a Celeron 533 and OC it if you want to go the Celly route--you'll get a 533 to around 800 Mhz, most likely, and it'll perform MUCH better then a straight 800 Mhz Celly. (unless this is the 100 Mhz part).

Even if it IS the 100 Mhz part, however, it just won't perform as well as the Duron.

The Duron 600 can beat the 100-Mhz Celeron in quite a few benchmarks.

So, its up to you. Your Celly will be an upgrade, but the DUron would top it.