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View Full Version : AMD 'Athlon' or 'Thunderbird'?


Rodie
November 21st, 2000, 17:09
Is the AMD Thunderbird processor the same thing as the AMD Athlon? The reason I ask is because we're thinking of getting a new PC, and we're looking at a bunch of different vendors (gateway, dell, compaq, and a local place called DIT Computer

On their website at http://www.ditcorp.com/systems/systems.htm, they give you two options for AMD. Either a Duron, or a "Thunderbird". I've heard of the Duron, but I've never heard of a Thunderbird, only the athlon. Is Thunderbird just another name for it?

Just so you know, we haven't firmly decided getting an AMD-based system. We're probably leaning more towards Pentium III, or maybe even Pentium IV when it becomes more avaiable. I doubt we'll get PIV though since it's really overkill (The base speed of the PIV is 1400 mhz! Who the hell needs that for a home system?)
Technics
November 21st, 2000, 17:27
I myself prefer athlon got a longer life span.
Remy Canad
November 21st, 2000, 19:07
I lean twoard a overclock celeron or an atholon. Excpicaly becuase of the new ddr ram that the t-birds support. The pentium IV has to use rdram wich is too expincive.

The duron is a cheaper atholon. Just like the celeron is to the PIII. A thunderbird is just an atholon with more cache. All new atholons are thunderbirds. If you get an atholon make sure its a t-bird.
stu
November 21st, 2000, 21:58
Originally posted by Remy Canad
A thunderbird is just an atholon with more cache.


Thunderbird Athlon actually has less cache than the Athlon classic, 256KB vs 512KB.. the thing is the thunderbird's cache is on die, and is running at full clock speed which is better, vs the the athlon classic who's cache is running at 1/2, or 1/3 of the cpu clock speed.

right now, Duron (64KB cache) is the cpu with the most bang for the buck...
Remy Canad
November 21st, 2000, 22:32
yeah I know that, me is just too tierd to read what I am saying. :)
stu
November 21st, 2000, 23:01
Originally posted by Remy Canad
yeah I know that, me is just too tierd to read what I am saying. :)

yeah, but if you posted that at a hardware forum, you'd get your --- slapped left right and center so bad by all the AMD fans out there...