# Athalon and Duron processors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2000, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450 "2000-10-26T17:09:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/1 "2000-10-26T17:09:39Z")
Whats the difference between these two AMD K7 processors? All I know is that the Duron is cheaper but supposedly the same “backbone” of the Athalon… whatever that means. Help? ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/2 "2000-10-26T17:20:04Z")
The Duron has 128K level I cache and 64K level II cache. The Athlon has 128K level I cache and 256K level II cache. I believe other than that they’re pretty much the same (although the Athlon is available at higher clock speeds, up to 1.2 Ghz; the Duron tops out at 800 Mhz for now). Note that although the Duron’s level II cache is 1/2 the Celeron’s level II, its level I is 4 times that of the Celeron, so altogether it’s got more cache than the Celeron (and blows it away; in fact, it even blows away a Pentium III of the same Mhz rating in various benchmarks). Note that this only applies to the Socket-A (“Thunderbird”) Athlon; the older Slot-A Athlon has 512K cache, but it runs at 1/3 the processor speed. The thunderbird’s cache runs at the same speed as the CPU. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/3 "2000-10-26T17:42:40Z")
Thats exactly what I was looking for. Thank you Frog! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/4 "2000-10-26T17:56:37Z")
Some of the Thunderbird Athlons are coming out of the Dresden fab. This subset of T-birds, known as “blue cores” for the color of the die, use copper interconnects rather than aluminum ones. Blue cores are thought to be able to overclock better and have better durability. [PCNut](http://www.pcnut.com/cool/combo3.htm) certainly seems to think so. They’re selling 750 MHz blue cores pretested to run at 1+ GHz. About half of the Thunderbirds and all of the Durons come out of the Austin fab and use aluminum interconnects. That doesn’t mean that Durons won’t run way out of spec, too. It seems that about 50-75% of them will run at 900 MHz or greater, regardless of their rated speed. With the memory bandwidth issues that high MHz chips are running into these days, lots of L2 can count for a lot. A T-bird seems to do about 5-15% better than a Duron at high speeds, depending on the benchmark. Whether that’s worth the enormous price differential between the two, well, that’s a matter for you and your accountant. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/5 "2000-10-26T18:58:06Z")
I wouldn’t call it a **huge** price difference; according to Pricewatch an 800 Mhz Athlon will cost you about $50 more than an 800 Mhz Duron. And about $50 less than a Pentium III-800EB. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/6 "2000-10-26T19:08:50Z")
I have a friend who has relatives in the US and he is wondering how much P3 800eb’s are and how much Athlons etc are. He is hoping that they are cheaper than here in the UK (they usually are) and is going to get his relatives to bring a couple over if it is worth it. He used to use a company called Chipsmart, in Texas, but they seem to have disappeared. Any links to Texan outlets would be much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/7 "2000-10-26T19:08:54Z")
Actually, I double checked - it’s only a $30 difference between Duron & Athlon. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/8 "2000-10-26T19:16:55Z")
Casdave - have him check [http://www.pricewatch.com](http://www.pricewatch.com) or [http://www.shopper.com](http://www.shopper.com) for the best prices. Pentium IIIEBs are about $200 + shipping, Athlon 800s start at around $130. ---
**Author:** ![techchick68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/9 "2000-10-26T19:21:45Z")
casdave, You don’t need to buy local. A company that I have been dealing with since 1997 (they have been in business since 1989) called DHE Computer Systems recently opened up a full ecommerce site at [http://www.pcbuynet.com](http://www.pcbuynet.com) . I don’t know if the pricing will be excellent but thought you might want to check it out. They built my two machines, my father’s machine, several machines for my client including a $15,000 server (includes Terminal Server software). I have been pretty happy with everything I have purchased from them. Some of what they sell off the site ships directly from places like TechData who I used to use when I was selling software and hardware, so the cost is lower. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/10 "2000-10-26T19:32:29Z")
Oops, you caught me with my OC glasses on. I was considering the differential between say, an unmodified T-bird 950 and a Duron 600 overclocked to 950. That’s about a $180 difference, enough to pay for an Abit KT7 RAID, which I am currently drooling over. It was a bad comparison anyway, since with a little bit of work you could maybe squeeze 1.05 - 1.1G out of the T-bird 800. That would make a T-bird a sweet deal over the Duron. Incidentally, the database at [http://www.overclockers.com](http://www.overclockers.com) makes several mentions of T-Bird 750’s shipping with 800 cores. AMD’s yields are just phenomenal right now, so they’re _underclocking_ their lower-end chips via the multiplier. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/11 "2000-10-26T21:55:11Z")
the atholon competes w/ P111 and the duron competes with the celleron ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athalon-and-duron-processors/38450/12 "2000-10-27T05:40:24Z")
thanks for the links