whats the difference

[munkeyboy123]

im gonna get a motherboard of some kind and some brand dont know yet. but i see the p4 2.4 ghz for like $160 or more and then i see the 2.4 celeron for under $100 and im leaning toward the celeron becuz i dont have the money for a p4 and i dont see whats the big difference any ways and im not too informed about amd processors i wouldnt mind getting one cuz thats what i have now but all this 2200+ is confusing and i dont know which are good or not and its easyer to understand intels but give me and info and or good deals. if u give me a good deal try to get one where its just the processor or the processor with a motherboard motherboard needs 8x agp.

[Starfury_2260]

i'd say get the athlon xp 2500+ and a abit nf7-s with a good heatsink and fan and OC

[slinky]

well with just a 60 dollar difference the celeron isnt that attractive imo. if the 2.4 you have in mind has 800mhz fsb, go for it. all that needs is a P4P800 or IS7 (btw both of these have 8x agp).

[beppodmime]

If you're thinking Intel, and you plan on gaming with the rig for a time to come, I'd recommend one of the "C" stepping 2.4GHz P4's (the ones running at an 800MHz FSB) way before I'd recommend a Celeron. The Celeron is a neutered P4, and there's a reason why they cost alot less than a similiarly rated P4. Stop believing that MHz are the be all end all rating for processor speed, and you'll be able to figure it all out for yourself.

The differences between the Celeron and the P4 lie in the amount of L2 Cache on the chip, and the maximum working FSB speeds the chips can use. The 2.4GHz Celeron only has 128KB L2 Cache, whereas the P4 will have 512KB. Also, the 2.4 GHz Celeron can only work with a max FSB of 400MHz (quad pumped, really 100MHz) and the P4 2.4GHz C processor will work with an 800MHz (quad pumped again, really 200MHz) FSB. This is all pretty confusing, due to the inclusion of all the marketing numbers Intel and friends usually throw into the equation.

Ignore MHz numbers. Celeron 2.4GHz are not the same as a P4 2.4GHz. And then there's AMD. If you weren't confused before, brace yourself. This is going to be fun.

AMD processors work a little differently than P4's. AMD decided when they were developing the Athlon XP that they were going to go with a processor core that had a shorter instruction pipe, which means they can't really push the MHz up on these chips, but make them able to execute more Intructions Per Clock cycle. Basically, think of the P4 as a chip with a loooong, narrow highway, and the AMD Athlon XP as a short, but very wide highway. Both can (arguably) hold the same amount of cars, but AMD needed to find a way to market these chips. Take the 3200+, for example. It runs at an actual clock speed of 2.2 GHz. But, people looking to build a fast machine, at least people who aren't the general hardware enthusiast, will look at the clock speed of the chip, compare it with the fastest offering from Intel, and assume that Intel's chip is MUCH faster, based on MHz alone. So, in order for AMD to sell these chips at a higher premium, based on the actual speed of the processor when compared to the P4, they came out with the Performance Rating system, which takes into account the amount of L2 Cache on the chip, the working FSB of the chip, and the actual clock speed and figures that it will perform as well as their older Thunderbird chip at the rated clock speed on the package. Basically, a 3200+ will perform as well or better than a 3.2 GHz Thunderbird core Athlon. So, that's why Athlon XP's are rated, and their actual speed isn't pushed as the selling point. If you were building the fastest of the fastest system, and your options were an AMD chip at 2.2 GHz or a 3.2GHz P4, you'd just buy the P4, pay the extra cash, just because it's an astonishing 1GHz faster. Well, in reality, the fastest P4 is maybe 5-15% faster than the fastest Athlon XP, depending on the benchmarks used.

My advice is either go with an Athlon XP 2500+ and a good nForce2 motherboard (as Starfury suggested), or go with the 2.4 "C" stepping P4 and a good Springdale motherboard, as Slinky suggested. I personally would go with the AMD setup, and use the extra cash saved to spend on other components, like a good video card, or a fancy set of speakers.

If you need any more clarification, or any help in deciding which motherboards or processors will suit your needs, send a PM my way. You may want to let us all know what kind of tasks you are going to be using this system for, i.e. gaming, media encoding, whatever. As far as where to purchase components, I'd recommend Newegg over most others, based on price and reliability of their customer service.

[WingWizard]

Great explanation beppomime. Just to add an extra something, the new p4 2.4ghz "c" is an EXCELLENT overclocker

[Darthgary]

Even on stock the 2.4C will hit over 2.8 Ghz

200 Mhz quad pumped 12X multiplyer = 2400 Mhz
If you raise the FSB to 234 and let the multiplier at 12X of course DAMN P4 lol, then you would get 2808 Mhz frequency, And that wopping 200 X 4 bus would be 234 X 4 = 936 Bus.

And that would be very easy to do on stock HSF with the 2.4C.

[munkeyboy123]

hrmmm... i had already made my decition on which toherboard and probably which processor, for yalls information im gonna be using this for intense gaming such as half life 2 and doom 3 when they come out of course but i needed an 8x agp for that reason. ive looked at the amd 2500+ and im going back in forth on if i want it or a p4, but i need to know what is cache? dont u need to clear it every once in awhile.and i dont know how to overclock and i dont know if i wanna, i havent bought anything from new egg but ive heard alot and i mean alot of good replies, i normaly buy my stuff from tigerdirect.com so i dont know if anyones shopped there , but id like to hear more thanx

[beppodmime]

Cache, when you're speaking in terms of processors, are small chunks of really, REALLY fast memory, that the processor uses to store the information or instructions that the prefetch logic on the chip thinks will be used sometime in the near future. Basically, the processor makes an educated guess as to which instructions are going to be coming up soon, and loads them from the RAM into the cache. On older processors, the L2 Cache usually resided on a separate add-on board that you plugged into your motherboard, and later chips had moved the cache closer to the CPU (to speed up transfers between CPU and Cache) by creating a card with the CPU and Cache on it (old Socket 1 and Socket A boards) and nowadays with technology where it is, they are able to build it into the CPU, where the cache works at the full speed of the CPU it's inside of. I'm not entirely sure as to what the difference between L1 and L2 Cache are, so I'm afraid I can't go into much further detail, as I'd probably just steer you in the wrong direction. More cache is never a bad thing, although depending on the program or programs you run, more could not make much of a difference at all. I'm sure someone here can either link you to an explaination, or explain it a little better than I can, but someone else should either be able to link you to a better explaination (BTW, there's also a L3 cache, used in server class processors, but what that does, I have no clue, haven't read up on it at all yet), or give you a better one themselves. And what you're thinking about with Cache, is the temporary files your system creates on your hard drive to store recently accessed web pages or documents. Same principle, but not related, and you don't have to clear the processor cache.

And if you're thinking of doing hardcore gaming, depending on the game involved, the 2.4 P4 and the 2500+ XP aren't going to prove much different either way, and you'll be better off spending the money you save going with AMD on a better video card. I'll tell ya right now, if you cheap out on your video card, you definately won't be playing a very reasonable game of Doom3, no matter what processor you're using.

Just curious, which motherboard did you pick?

[munkeyboy123]

wel i dont plan to skip out on my video card ill tell ya that im thinking about a 9600 pro or someting like that maybe nvidia but probably not, the motherboard i was gonna get was the FIC AU13 its 95 dollars and supports 8x agp 3 ram slots and 333mhz fsb. i have another question , i was looking at ram and i plan to get a 512 stick of something but i wanted pc3200 but thats at 400mhz fsb, yet my motherboard and processor run at 333,hz, should i just go with pc2700(333mhz fsb) or could i go with the pc3200 or would it not make a difference. im only getting this motherboard cuz i know the brand well and its what i have right now is a fic motherboard, so i know i can trust em i think but if u can find me a more dependable one for cheaper that has the same thing tell me thanks.

[munkeyboy123]

what does oem mean?....can i buy one?..... im asking becuz i saw the athlon xp 2500= on newegg. retail for $90 which is a good price but it said oem? alot of things say oem? is that something speacial and i cant buy unless i have something or can i just go out and buy it.