backwoodsbum's Full Review: AMD Duron, 1.3 GHz (D1300BOX) Boxed Processor
I'm a tightwad...OK, I admit it...are you happy now? In all seriousness, I'm the type of guy that is always looking for the best product at the lowest cost. With the Duron, I believe I have found the processor of my dreams. There are numerous websites with benchmarks comparing the Duron processor to it's competitors from Intel, so I'm not going to bore you with a lot of numbers. Instead I am going to tell you my opinion of the Duron based on real world experiences.
First, a little background on me so you will know where I am coming from. I have worked in computer operations for the last 16 years, and I work with PC's on a daily basis. I have built several PC's and have upgraded or repaired more than I can count. Lately most of my experience has been with PII, PIII, Celeron, and Duron based machines and of the bunch, the Duron is by far my favorite. My current PC is based on an ABIT KT7 motherboard with a Duron 650 processor overclocked to 950mhz. The Duron processor is an overclocker's dream, with most processors being able to run at speeds 50% greater than the marked speed after the L1 bridges have been reconnected with either a #2 pencil or with conductive paint. Some Durons can run successfully at speeds greater than 1 ghz! Overclocked to these speeds a Duron gives performance on par with processors costing 3-4 times as much. I call that a bargain!
For those of you not interested in overclocking, the Duron is easily a match for Celerons of the same clock speed. My nephew has a Celeron 650 and I clocked my Duron at 650 to compare the two and my machine was substantially faster. Both had similar configurations with the only major difference being the motherboard/processor combo. The Duron based machine booted faster and loaded programs faster. I also have a PII-500 at work and while I have never had the opportunity to test these machines side by side, I feel that the Duron is the better of the two.
No for the down side. The Duron is a heat monster! I have a full tower case with a 120 mm fan in the side of the case blowing in and a 120 mm in the top sucking out. I have a Globalwin Fop32 fan/heatsink combo on the processor, and with all this the temperatures are barely tolerable. And the noise created by all these fans is very annoying. Even when clocked at it's default speed of 650mhz the Duron still produces more heat than anything from Intel. If you want to use a Duron, plan on investing in a good fan/heatsink combo. For a hardcore PC enthusiast the heat issue is easily overcome by adding more fans or fans with higher air flow, or by water cooling, but the average user who has no idea what is going on inside the case might have problems with the heat generated by this processor. Over time the high temperatures the Duron produces could lead to a shortened life span, but at the price of this processor, that really isn't an issue for most people. All in all, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Duron processor.
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