Disclaimer: this review is intended for computer layman who have a very good understanding of the terms used throughout this review, and a broad understanding of main board and processor technology.
Groan, sputter, grind, and wait. Groan, sputter, grind, and wait. Groan, sputter, grind, and wait. This was the state of my old PC. Despite the fact it had an AMD K-6 250Mhz processor (CPU), and 96MB of Ram. Before I moved into my current digs, o lived in a very old house, which had dirty electricity. As a result my primary workstation started losing time (at least and hour a day), slowed down after a few hours of operation, and gave me several GPFs a day! We wont even talk about what it did to my monitor, television, VCR, and cordless phone!
After a year of torture at the electrodes of my PC, I decided enough was enough, and started planning next system. The new workstation I decided after much deliberation would be based on Intels Pentium processor (Pentium III to be exact). So in addition to a new motherboard, video & graphics cards, I set out to find the best processor for my money; I did not want to spend more than $200.00 for the processor because I wanted to keep the total cost for the new system under $500.00 total. The processor I chose had to meet these minimum requirements: 1. At least 500Mhz clock speed; 2. 100Mhz FSB; 3. Slot 1 plug-in; 4. Manufactured original /w a three year warranty; and 5. Cost less than $200.00. Since I knew I wanted a Pentium III, so the only decision to be made was the clock speed of the processor. I chose a Pentium III 550Mhz for $181.00 from on-line merchant Mwave.com (www.mwave.com).
Pentium III processors have now broached 1.0Ghz, and are fabricated in various speed below that in both
100 and 133 Front Side Bus (FSB); i.e. 600Mhz, 667Mhz, 700Mhz, 733Mhz, 750Mhz, 800Mhz, 850Mhz, 866Mhz, 900Mhz and 933Mhz. But I saw no need to spend the extra money needed for a slight increase in performance given the amount of Ram I have installed in the new system. I believeand have born out through experiencethat the speed of any computer is highly influenced by the amount of Ram installed in it; so if I had chosen to install 128Mb or more Ram in my new system I probably would have opted for a more powerful processor.
I mated my new
Pentium III 550Mhz processor with an Abit BE6-II 100 FSB motherboard. The processor came in a shrink-wrapped box emblazoned with the Intel logo and colorings. Instructions for installing the processor were non-existent however, which was surprising, but I had little trouble installing the chip; although I admit having problems trying to figure out how the locking arm on the Slot 1 expansion slot worked! The processor came equipped with a small fan attached to the outside of the chassis, which is another reason I choose it. The fan power connector fits neatly onto a connector on the motherboard, and its speed is tracked by the bios, as well as add-on software provided by the motherboard manufacture; nice touch!
This is a fast processor! Applications execute in mere seconds, and in most cases in 5 seconds or less; yes I have timed them. And the speed at which I access the Internet has increased dramatically! Pages, which used to take up to a half a minute to load, even with DSL, now take again, mere seconds to load! MPEG and AVI video, once fuzzy, choppy and slow to load, is now clear, smooth running and loads in seconds! I am duly impressed by this processor, and I regret I did not purchase one of these babies before now.
The same software add-on that allows me to track the CPUs fan speed, also allows me to monitor the temperature of the CPU. To date the temperature of the CPU has not exceeded 50 degrees and averages 45 degrees. Via the motherboard BIOS (this motherboard is great!), I can over-clock the Processor in increments of 1/3 nominal FSB clock speed; 33.33Mhz if I wish. I have yet to do this, because I am concerned about shortening the life of the CPU. But no pain no gain as the saying goes, and I may try it this weekend, to over-clock the CPU just to ascertain if the increase in performance warrants the risk incurred.
Conclusions: I am glad I choose this processor over other offerings by AMD. I currently run AMD processors in various flavors, on three other computers (including a server) in my home network, and while they have always preformed flawlessly I have noticed a slight performance drop-off as time and new software releases float by. Perhaps it just my imagination, perhaps not, but I think I will slowly convert all of my PCs to either Celeron or
Pentium processors. Can you say 1.1Ghz?
I think I received a quality product for the money I spent. Although I would have spent less money for a comparable AMD offering, and some test claim better performance, I am happy with my purchase. However time will tell if this was truly a good buy or not; stay tuned!
* Please check out my review of the
Abit BE6-II MOTHERBOARD: http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-7D25-27867C18-39901FD4-prod5.
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