1.7Ghz PIV vs 1Ghz PIII

[Frank_Rizzo]

I guess this has been asked before.

I'm wondering about the performance increase from changing from a

1ghz PIII
256Mb 133 SDRAM
20GB IDE

to a
1.7ghz PIV
256Mb 133 SDRAM
20GB IDE

The way I see it, the 1.7Ghz is 70% faster processing than the 1Ghz. Does that sound feasible?

I know the RAM is naff for a PIV but that's what it comes with.

The server is being used for some bigger MySQL databases. I guess increasing the RAM to 512Mb will help too.

[martinibuster]

Not 70% increase. Those Ghz numbers can be misleading.

There's a bottleneck on the motherboard that's relieved on the latest p4's which help out it's performance.

I think that the performance upgrade is more around the 15-30% range, depending on what you are measuring (i.e, Photoshop blur action, an mp3 encode, a video processing, or just plain number crunching).

The gain will differ depending on what you are measuring.

PCWorld & PC Magazine are excellent magazines and online destinations for geeking out on this kind of thing.

[vibgyor79]

Hardware test sites like AnandTech and SharkyExtreme are much better options. You will be able to make up your mind after reading the benchmark results of the two processors.

PIV has a different architecture all together and is supposed to be great for 3D gaming, CAD design, video editing etc. If you are using your computer for internet/office apps, you may stick to PIII processor itself.

[lazerzubb]

Update to a 512ddr ram or something else instead, it will help the performance much more.
(Sorry a litle bit of topic)

[caine]

Get away from the Intel's.

Move over to the AMD XP's

Would suggest something along the lines off:

XP2100+ (266MHz) above this is the higher spec chips, and ddr ram, quite a bit more expensive.
Crucial 256mb DDR266 * 2 very good ram
HDD Maxtor 60gb 7200 ata133 cheap quality hard disk, very stable, bought over 8 of these now, no complaints, stay away from the IBM Deskstar's, off 6 of these i have bought, 2 have gone down

Far better kit for probably the same amount of cash.

As to the bottleneck, its the BUS I/O = 33Mhz. You ain't doing anything about that.

[vibgyor79]

What would a shift from Intel to AMD platform entail? Purchase of a new motherboard?

[Frank_Rizzo]

Well until the price of leased lines come down I have to stick with what the 3rd party webhosters can supply

The best spec for the ones I'm with now is the 1.7GHz. I'm asking them to source a better spec but I just know they will try and sting me. e.g. Asking for an extra 256Mb (what we talking, 40, 50 bucks purchase outright?) and I'm surely they'll insist the monthly cost increase by that very amount!

Crazy that here in the office I could rig up an overclocked AMD 2800+, 1GB Dual-DDR, Raid beast! Just haven't got the internet connection to let it fly.

[Frank_Rizzo]

Yeh, those deskstars were (are) bad news. I had to send 3 back too.