# Athlon or Pentium? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978 "2002-12-16T00:33:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/1 "2002-12-16T00:33:41Z")
OK, we’re in the market for a Christmas computer. Nobody here knows anything about them. Our computer needs as a family aren’t great – basically we use the computer for the 'net and for wordprocessing (all of us), very occasionally to work at home on Excel and such (my husband), for instant messaging (both kids) and a very little bit for computer games (my son.) That’s it. So I was looking today and found two likely setups on clearance at Office Max. One for $497 and the other for $749 after a mail-in rebate of $50. Both are very similar in specifics – 60 GB hard drive, 16X DVD rom drive, a similar modem, and software package, etc. The differences: the cheaper computer has an 1.53 GHz Athlon processor, a 40x cd-rom drive and 512MB DRAM memory. The more expensive has a 2.0GHz Pentium 4 processer, a 40x cd-rom drive and 256 MB DDR SDRAM memory. I don’t know what any of this really means. My question is, for our simple computer needs is the more expensive computer likely to be worth the $250 difference? Or would we be just about as happy with the cheaper setup? Jess ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/2 "2002-12-16T00:54:56Z")
For regular familly use and not heavy gaming or high end processing the athlon will do fine. I’m using the low end Athlon, the Duron and it handles everything I throw at it. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/3 "2002-12-16T01:23:35Z")
1.53 Athlon is roughly equivlant to a 1.7 to 1.8 P4 (it should be called 1700+ or 1800+ athlon) The extra ram should level the playing field. so the question is would you like to spend $497 or $749 (before rebates) to get for your purposes the exact same thing. ---
**Author:** ![deathawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@deathawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deathawk)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/4 "2002-12-16T01:24:49Z")
The Athlon you qoute has more memory than the intel & is way cheaper. More memory is good. Given your expected uses - no question, go with the Athlon. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/5 "2002-12-16T03:33:24Z")
Who are the manufacturers of the two different computers? Different manufacturers use different parts, the difference ususally being quality. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/6 "2002-12-16T08:23:38Z")
> [@](#): > > The Athlon you qoute has more memory than the intel & is way cheaper. More memory is good. DRAM vs. DDR RAM… hmm, it’s not so clear-cut a difference… ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/7 "2002-12-16T11:44:29Z")
I didn’t mention that both computers are Compaq. Thanks everyone – I was (being a basically cheap person) leaning towards the $497 job. There were only 3 of the cheap guys left, so I’ll be heading to Office Max as soon as as they open and, unless someone comes in with a major dissenting opinion, will buy the Athlon. Jess ---
**Author:** ![deathawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@deathawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deathawk)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/8 "2002-12-16T11:48:09Z")
**SPOOFE** : The geek in me agrees with you regarding DDR’s superiority with the right mobo combo. However, given her non-geeky requirements, I doubt she’d gain any real benefit in spending the extra $200. ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/9 "2002-12-16T11:59:51Z")
I’d go with the Athlon XP. It’ll be cheaper, and for her needs, probably faster. ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/10 "2002-12-16T16:09:47Z")
The other way to look at it is this: What else could you buy with that $200? Use that as the comparison between the two. Computer A for $497 + The Sims, Warcraft III and a subscription to the online Encyclopedia Brittanica versus Computer B for $700. Use the $200 for a PDA, or a better printer or a digital camera or ??? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athlon-or-pentium/142978/11 "2002-12-16T16:46:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\*DRAM vs. DDR RAM… hmm, it’s not so clear-cut a difference… \*\* I’d much prefer DDR RAM to DRAM and 256MB should be enough for the OP’s purposes. However, DDR RAM will only be really noticeable in gaming (depending on the game). Excel, IM, e-mail…you’ll never optice the difference. Personally I’m a big fan of Athlons over Pentiums anyway so I think the choice here is a no-brainer and go for the Athlon. If gaming is important and you expect to run high-end games (e.g. something more than Solitaire) then your choice becomes more unclear. However, for high-end games you’d likely want a different video card than you’re getting anyway (the nicest video cards will cost $300 on their own).