A really fast Pentium III, or an underclocked Athlon XP?

I've got some free upgrades for my server rig. Question is, which one should I pick?

Choice 1: Use the server's current Pentium III motherboard, and put in a Pentium III Tualatin Core 1.4GHz processor, and overclock it to 1.6GHz.

Choice 2: Put in the free Athlon XP motherboard and Athlon XP 2800, and underclock the Athlon 2800 to 1.66GHz, because the mobo doesn't officially support 333MHz FSB Athlons.

I've been browsing the net and hearing some pretty awesome things about the Tualatin core P3 and how they receive huge performance boosts from even small overclocks. Also, I heard that Pentium M (Core Solo) is just a Tualatin P3 with more cache and a quad-pumped bus.

So which would make a better server? P3 Tualatin at 1.60GHz or Athlon XP at 1.66GHz? Both CPUs have 512K cache, and both setups would have 1.5GB of DDR333 memory. I'm just as shocked as you are that the P3 board actually runs DDR333 memory. :)

When it comes to servers, it really depends on what chores you assign to it. RAM is usually more important than raw speed. I have a dedicated firewall PC, much cheaper to assemble than buying a readymade for the purpose, just using spares out of the discard pile, it's a P3 866 MHz in an Asus MB.

The Tualatin formed the starting point for the "Pentium M", and from there through one more step to the Core Solo.

One of the worst kept secrets from Intel was that the Tualatin 1.3 GHz was sufficiently more efficient than the early P4s, that it took a 2.1 (I think that fast -- long while ago now) GHz P4 to outrun it. I was already in the AMD camp by then, however, and didn't experiment with any of the sub- 2.5 GHz P4s.

Don't forget that the XP 2800 Barton is /was the ultimate K7, actually the equal of a 3 GHz P4 in gaming applications, at its native FSB (when you said 1.66 -- seemed wrong -- not 2.66 ?). I had FSB in mind, there.

Both would have 1.5GB of DDR333 memory (again, I'm as shocked as you probably are that this Pentium 3 motherboard actually runs on DDR 333 memory instead of SDRAM).

The underclocked AXP would only run at 1.66GHz. The 2800's stock speed is 2.08GHz (166x12.5). But the motherboard only supports 266MHz FSB Athlons, and 133x12.5=1.66GHz. And the 1.4GHz P3 would be overclocked to around 1.6GHz (152x10.5) on one of the nicest P3 motherboards I've ever seen.

Both have the same amount of cache (512KB) though I found out that the P3 actually has a faster cache (256 bits wide, while the Barton's is only 64 bits wide).

I would go for the Athlon XP.

Athlon XP > Pentium III > Pentium 4 Willamette.

And those Athlon XP's are just so new....

Who overclocks a server?.............X360PS3AMD05

Moi.

It's just that there was a guy on this forum (cummingspatrick I think?) who said that a P3 Tualatin overclocked to 2.0GHz would be as fast as a 3.0GHz P4. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but if it's true, then the P3 at 1.6GHz would be as fast as a P4 at around 2.53GHz. An Athlon XP at 1.66GHz would be identical to the Athlon XP 2000+, which was a bitfaster than a P4 at 2.0GHz.

That's why I'm really interested in this P3. Of course, I'm not sure how accurate that guy was. Anyone else ever own a overclocked Tualatin?

I just got to test the PIII processor today. Just dropped it into the server's current board and it fired right up. I won't be able to test the Athlon for a few more days.

Anyway, I got it overclocked to 1.6GHz without any problems. To isolate CPU performance, a friend let me borrow his 7800GS AGP card and ran 3DMark01 (since 01 is more of a CPU benchmark than it is a GPU test nowadays). So far, I'm very, very impressed with the Tualatin P3. This thing scored an amazing 18,200 in 3DMark2001. For the record, his P4 2.4 scored ~16,000 in the same benchmark. It's got good hard drive interface performance too, which of course is important for server use.

Again, I won't be able to test the underclocked Barton for a while, but I'm thinking that this P3 has more than what it takes to be my server processor. I might just take this upgrade; that way I won't have to put in a new mobo and copy of Windows.

The point of a server is reliability, so overclocking makes no sense.X360PS3AMD05

200MHz won't make it any less stable. After hearing that the Tualatin core really takes advantage of any extra bus speed is what prompted me to do it.

AMD XPLouieV13

I'm not sure anymore. I just ran the CPU-dependant 3DMark01 on it with a fast graphics card to isolate CPU performance. The fact that it easily beats my friend's P4 2.4 with the same card convinces me that the P3's faster than anXP 2200+.

Of course, I may be totally wrong, since I haven't tested the XP yet (and I will in a few days). But it seems unlikely, since the 2200+ is supposed to compete with the P4 2.2.

As long as you are planning an Overclock of the P3, be sure not to shortchange the XP 2800 by underclocking more than it absolutely must (remember, an NF2 Chipset automatically locks the AGP/PCI, so overclocking the rest is a breeze -- then again maybe your donor wasn't kind enough to include that model MB). But "overclocking" an XP 2800 from 266 MHz upward isn't going to do anything except run it faster and faster, to the limit that the BIOS will take it, and DDR 400 is the same cost, or even less, than DDR 333.

{I have a "backup" PC on the work table today with an MSI mainboard, the K7N2, with nVidia's NF2 chipset, and an XP 2800, with two 512 MB Kingston HyperX DDR400 DIMMs in it, that I am about to start up (Radeon 9800 XT). I had it running faster than the core speed of an XP 3200 in a DFI LanParty MB that just moved on into the great electronic beyond -- and no idea what killed that one.}

The point of a server is reliability, so overclocking makes no sense.X360PS3AMD05

I dont think you even know what a server does. Nor do I think you know what a server is. Overclocking it makes it faster just like anything else. I run a LAN here at home. One server is a file sharing server with 500gb HD space. Its a Athlon 2500+, and my firewall is a P3 800MHZ 2gb ram DDR333. A slight overclock isn't gonna mess it up. Nothing makes sense nowadays.

Who overclocks a server?.............X360PS3AMD05

I do

As long as you are planning an Overclock of the P3, be sure not to shortchange the XP 2800 by underclocking more than it absolutely must (remember, an NF2 Chipset automatically locks the AGP/PCI, so overclocking the rest is a breeze -- then again maybe your donor wasn't kind enough to include that model MB). But "overclocking" an XP 2800 from 266 MHz upward isn't going to do anything except run it faster and faster, to the limit that the BIOS will take it, and DDR 400 is the same cost, or even less, than DDR 333.

{I have a "backup" PC on the work table today with an MSI mainboard, the K7N2, with nVidia's NF2 chipset, and an XP 2800, with two 512 MB Kingston HyperX DDR400 DIMMs in it, that I am about to start up (Radeon 9800 XT). I had it running faster than the core speed of an XP 3200 in a DFI LanParty MB that just moved on into the great electronic beyond -- and no idea what killed that one.}

Kiwi_1

The Athlon motherboard is based on a VIA chipset, and the BIOS lets me take it up to 149MHz. At 149 MHz, the 2800+ runs at 1.86GHz. I suppose at this speed, it would be about as fast as an Athlon 2500+ (or maybe 2400, since the FSB isn't as fast as the 2500's 333MHz).

I got to test it out today. At 1.86GHz and with the same 7800GS video card, the Athlon was a tad faster than the P3-S at 1.60GHz in 3DMark01 (P3 scored 18,200, Athlon scored 18,500). Maybe the Athlonis limited by the VIA chipset, which I heard is nowhere near as good as the NF2 chipset?

Both destroyed the 2.4GHz P4, which scored only 16,000. But then again, the P4 is a perfect example of what happens when you ask the marketing team to design a CPU rather than the engineering team. :P

So while the Athlon at 1.86GHz is a tad faster (2%? lol) and has a cooler name, I think I'll choose the P3 upgrade, since I won't have to install a new mobo and reinstall Windows.

Thanks for the info and advice.