BatchFile Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 I'm looking at two candidates for our art room PCs which are being replaced soonish. Price and spec are identical apart from processor; one has an Intel Celeron E3300, the other an AMD Athlon LE 1640. Which way would you jump? I've always been an AMD fan myself (I've still got my K5-75 at home )
vikpaw Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 No Brainer : Athlon. Celeron is like 'special'. 1
Michael Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Between those two the Athlon is the quicker processor.
EduTech Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 I would go with Athlon to be honest as it is quicker and celerons are not really that great now for schools, we have Pentium D's everywhere at the moment.
sonofsanta Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Celeron is such a dirty, dirty word. Trying to get rid of all mine this summer, if they'll accept the reasoning behind my budget bid. They're both pretty outdated processors though, can you not get an Athlon II x2 215 or something similarly recent?
BatchFile Posted February 10, 2010 Author Posted February 10, 2010 I'd agree with all of the above, having always been an AMD man, but then I read this:Budget CPU for Enthusiasts: Intel Celeron E3300 Processor Review - X-bit labs, hence this thread!
kevbaz Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 im guess as its fr an art room your going to be using photoshop or the like?
tmcd35 Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 They be mighty cheap processors. Are machines based around a low end Pentium Dual Core or Athlon X2 really that much more? Also I wouldn't expect machines built around these processors to be particuarly blessed in the memory department. Considering they are for Art could you not twist someones arm for axtra couple of bob per machine to get a little better spec?
Tallwood_6 Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 I'd go AMD but they are very budget processors especially for an art dept.
BatchFile Posted February 10, 2010 Author Posted February 10, 2010 They'll be on XP pro and their use isn't particularly heavy - they should be fine... Significantly better than what they've got now anyway! It's these I'm looking at - I like the SCL stuff SCL Online - Sahara A - AMD Athlon LE 1640 2GB DDR2 250GB No ODD
dgsmith Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 (edited) Celeron has a bad reputation in the past, however the new generation are actually quite good - i'd favour the E3300 over the AMD you mentioned (it's the same as the Core 2 except it has less cache, but even at 1MB cache that is acceptable for the price). However, Intel also have the Pentium Dual-Core E6500 which is clocked at 2.93ghz, 2MB cache, 1066mhz FSB and comes in just £10 more than the E3300. If you on a wafer-thin budget (I know how that feels), i'd definately go for the E6500. The CPU is something you probably won't change once it is in, as opposed to ram which can be increased anytime. Neither are particularly outdated processors as mentioned above (the Celeron uses the 45nm technology which itself is now 2 years old, however the CPU itself isn't that old and scores higher in speed). Just my 2p. [Edit] Sorry just realised you are looking at pre-built PCs rather than self build. I'd still take the Celeron though. As far as I know, the AMD is only single core with 0.5MB of cache, whereas the Celeron is a dual-core with 1MB cache.. [/edit] Edited February 10, 2010 by dgsmith
EduTech Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Yeah we have the E6500 CPU's in all our ICT Rooms.
Jamo Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 PassMark Software - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs From the passmark charts the celeron is indeed faster. But yes it is still Celery.
Tallwood_6 Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 They'll be on XP pro and their use isn't particularly heavy - they should be fine... Significantly better than what they've got now anyway! It's these I'm looking at - I like the SCL stuff SCL Online - Sahara A - AMD Athlon LE 1640 2GB DDR2 250GB No ODD Cheap but no OS and Asrock motherboard, havent had great experiences with them in the past or at least after a couple of years of use.
sonofsanta Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 (edited) They'll be on XP pro and their use isn't particularly heavy - they should be fine... Significantly better than what they've got now anyway! It's these I'm looking at - I like the SCL stuff SCL Online - Sahara A - AMD Athlon LE 1640 2GB DDR2 250GB No ODD Seems like you can get better for not much money at all - Novatech do an Athlon II X2 system with 2GB ram for about £15 more ex. VAT, that comes with the mouse and keyboard as well, unlike the SCL system (and an ODD). If you talk to a sales guy there as well they're usually happy to go out of their way to help you - I know they will install any software/images you send to them for you, to save you the hassle of doing it when you get your delivery. Edited February 10, 2010 by sonofsanta Price wrong - a computer for £15 would be nice...
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