Re: Celeron performance under linux
From: Dorothy Bradbury (dorothy.bradbury_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 10/12/04
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Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 21:01:30 GMT
Since you are moving from Windows to SUSE Linux, you may not
notice a huge difference with a Celeron - depends on what the app is.
A bit of history:
o S370 P3 Celeron Tualatin v S370 P3 = 256KB cache v 512KB cache
---- P3 architecture not very pipelined
---- so cache misses had less impact - and cache only halved
---- fsb on the Celeron is 100fb, on the P3 it is 133fsb
o S478 Celeron v S478 P4 = 128KB cache v 512KB cache
---- P4 architecture is deep pipelined
---- so cache misses have MORE impact - and cache now QUARTERED
---- fsb on the Celeron is 400fsb, on the P4 it can be 533 or 800fsb
o Later Celeron (eg, 325D) v Prescott = 256KB cache v 1024KB cache
---- P4-Prescott is deeper-pipelined than P4-Northwood negating the cache
---- however the later Celeron's have 533fsb v 400fsb of earlier - 10-20% faster
So the later Celeron's are better - and allow an upgrade path to P4 "later".
Later indicates some economic notes here:
o Celeron isn't a great chip -- AMD Athlon XP is very cheap, very quick
---- just choose quality h/w, memory & PSU as always
o Ebay chips are very cheap -- yes Celeron are, but so too are P4s & Athlons
---- Skt478 P4-2.66 on Ebay is £60-65 v new Celeron 325D £50-55
Celeron is good because it allows you to get a P4 later, when prices fall.
Athlon is good because it gives you P4 performance now, at a low price.
However, you mention you want to go Dell:
o Dell will give you a complete system with warranty & proven solution
---- Dell however will not provide support for Linux on it
---- Dell will also charge you ~£50 for an O/S you don't want
o Dell will use a proprietary case + m/b + PSU + even-drive-rails etc
---- so both upgrade & maintenance is somewhat higher
o Dell may also choose components not instantly supported by Suse
---- for example network card - so verify this is supported
Worth doing a Make or Buy re "what to buy":
o Price out a Celeron system, a used-P4 system, an AMD XP system & Dell system
---- also verify support/compatibility in Suse (eg, network cards)
o Price out the cost of future upgrades
---- Dell is limited -- so the LT 2-3x PC Total Cost of Ownership is higher v self-build
A lot of home CPUs spend a lot of time with the System Idle Process at 96-98% :-)
o OpenOffice, WWW & Shell are fine on a Celeron
o Linux requires less h/w for a given performance
A lot of people do daily tasks on a laptop, a P-M is quicker than a Celeron, but in
reality laptops tend to be half the performance of desktops - re HD I/O, memory &
even P-M falling behind a desktop P4M/P4 on quite a few computational tasks.
Interactivity tends to be maintained better on Linux than Windows.
A recent motherboard with embedded graphics may perform fine for those tasks,
since they are basically Office, limited animation on web pages & shell work. Saves $.
Whilst office apps would do ok with 256MB, frankly I'd aim for 384MB - which when
you price it out may well be too close to 512MB, so making the latter a better choice.
I'm also moving to Suse, having used earlier versions in the past:
o Windows upgrades are less cost-effective
---- particularly with 2 PCs, XP-Pro OEM £99
---- consider MSFT future "s/w renting model" - ST cash-cow, LT disintermediation
---- despite the lock-in attempts with Intel's "Trusted Platform Model" joining in
o Windows upgrades trigger secondary u/g with laptops in the chain
---- change the laptop, and the O/S changes - often forcing secondary h/w & s/w upgrades
---- no h/w drivers means you realise a larger loss as later Windows depreciate it more
---- s/w incompatibility even with Office versions forces a pricey u/g
---- repeat for Photoshop & other high-ticket items, £600 laptop = £1000 secondary spend
Gimp is not Photoshop 7, but Photoshop 4.1 was fine for me - except unusable on XP-Pro.
OpenOffice is not Office2000, but Office97 was fine for me - except Excel buggy on
XP-Pro.
I wonder if the MSFT renting model includes rebates for when it crashes...
-- Dorothy Bradbury www.dorothybradbury.co.uk for quiet Panaflo fans (free shipping)
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