to 500 to a PIII 500 (now OC'ed to 560) and the difference is really
quite remarkable. The PIII internal optimizations really do make a
difference (and seem to more than make up for the 1/2 speed cache
compared to the Celeron).
There's a few things you need to look at before you decide, though. Is
your existing memory PC100 memory (for 100Mhz FSB)? If not, you'll
have to replace it to use the PIII. If it's PC66 memory, you can
probably get away with overclocking it with a Celeron to 75 or 83Mhz
FSB. Also note that if you have IDE drives, you may (probably will)
have to slow them down to overclock your FSB to 75 or 83Mhz. I have a
BH6, and it has limited FSB and AGP/PCI divider options. Again, when I
was able to go to a full 100Mhz FSB with the PIII, and re-enable UDMA
on my hard drives, the difference was *very* noticable. Also note that
at the standard FSB settings, the PIII has a 100Mhz interface with the
memory, and the Celeron only 66Mhz. Again a plus for the PIII.
It really depends on what your long-term purchase options are. If you
have PC100 memory now, and could get another 64mb soon, I'd go for the
PIII, without a doubt. If you're willing to go through the OC'ing
hassles, and this is the only upgrade you can do for a while, the
Mhz, so you might even be better off getting a pretested 366 or 400 and
OC'ing them to 550/600 respectively. That would give you the 100Mhz
FSB and allow you to use standard AGP and PCI bus settings. Believe me -
messing with your IDE drives to get them working at 75/83Mhz is a
*** (especially since you can kill your data if you push too far)!
Just FYI (and I know this isn't a 100% reliable benchmark):
This jibes with what I see in games, though.
BTW what's your video card? You don't want more CPU than the card can
display. I've got a V3-2000 running at 172Mhz (took a heatsink on the
back, and fans front and back to do it, though).
HTH!
Kendt
Sent via Deja.com http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Before you buy.