In <[log in to unmask]>, on 07/16/99
at 10:00 AM, Uzi Paz <[log in to unmask]> said:
>I need to assemble a non expensive PC for someone, so I thought
>of either K6II-400MHz or Celeron 400MHz. I understand that the
>AMD is better but that the Celeron can be put on a standard
>slot-1 motherboardwhich means that if she wants to upgrade to
>Pentium II or III, then it is possible. I guess that my
>preferences is for the AMD as when she wants to upgrade, probably
>none of the existing motherboards will be relevant.
>Now I have to choose a reasonable non expensive motherboard for
>the k6II.
>Life is easier for me if I choose Celeron, but I guess that my
>decission to go with the k6II is correct. She will use the PC for
>Internet, and for file manipulations, and perhaps also for
>simulations (research). Most of the sellers here don't know which
>is the company that produce the SDRAM, so I guess that the
>motherboard has to work even with the cheap 100Mhz RAMs.
>Any recommendations?
>Uzi
I have to dissagree with your choice of processor. The new
(non-300) Celeron has a cache and is comparable or better than the
K6-2 with the same clock. A bigger issue is the use of the
processor for research simulations, AMD's floating point
implementations are significantly slower than Intel's.
Celeron's use Socket 370, not Slot 1. Many motherboard
manufacturers include a Socket 370 adapter card with their Slot 1
boards. THe K6-2 uses the Super-7 socket, and it is upwardly
mobile to the K6-3 but that is the end of the line.
Also, "cheap 100 MHz RAMs" may give you some grief. SDRAM specs
are a bit shaky these days. "Officially" PC100 is a spec set by
Intel to insure that conforming SDRAM will work with it's
processors at 100MHz. It has an access time spec of 8 nS!!! The
stuff marketted as 100MHz is spec'd at 10 nS. It will work with 95
MHz busses, which is why AMD is selling an odd speed K6/2-375
selected for that grade. Worse, even places like FRY's are
advertising 10nS units as PC100. Sometimes the 10nS will work just
fine on a 100MHz bus. Good if you are building a game machine, but
not good if your friend is doing serious stuff, where an
occasional undetected woops can have long term consequences. If
you want to save money, go with a Celeron 366, which uses a 66MHz
bus. It will not be a screamer by today's standard, and the gamers
will snicker, but it will work all the time. Again note that if
you put in non-PC100 (real) memory, she'll have to replace it if
she upgrades to a 100 MHz bus.
jan lambert
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