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P C T U N E U P S !
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Publisher: Jonathan Leger Issue #015
mailto:jleger@... # of Subscribers 895

======== This Week's Feature Article ================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Verses AMD : The Pentium III and K7 Collide!
=====================================================================

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-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------

*** NEW PC FOR $40 A MONTH! BAD/NO CREDIT IS OKAY ***
=====================================================

Did you know that 75% of Americans do not have what is labeled as an
"acceptable" credit rating? I find that kind of amazing! So 75% of
Americans have trouble buying anything on credit. Now, though, you
can get a new PC (bought, not leased) for between $40-$80 a month no
matter how bad your credit is! I was very impressed with this
company, and so I signed up as a distributor. Visit their web site
and see for yourself:

http://www.wondertek.com/unitech/

Editor, Jon Leger

-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------






------------------------------------
READER FEEDBACK ABOUT THE LAST ISSUE
====================================

[ This quote is regarding a reader who had some upgrades done on
his computer based on what he read in PC Tune Ups. ]

"Yesterday I had two 'locals' ( brothers at that) who switched disks.
Everything went perfect...and in an hour or so they did everything...
I am most happy, and I owe it to you and your newspaper! Again
many many thanks, I really mean it when I state that I have learned a
great deal from your periodical!"
--Paul de la Llama <llama3@...>


======== Feature Article ============================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Verses AMD : The Pentium III and K7 Collide!
=====================================================================
by Jonathan Leger

Let's face it, before the Athlon (or, K7), the Pentium III ruled the
high-end PC market in performance. It is still a very good, fast
processor. However, with the introduction of AMD's K7, Intel has
some real competition. This is proven by the fact that such large
computer manufacturers as Compaq are now offering the K7 in their
high-end machines.

Let's talk a little bit about each processor.

-----------------
Intel Pentium III
=================

Graphics
--------
The Pentium III has been redesigned so that graphics are much more
realistic and lifelike looking. Have you noticed on many games or
graphics programs that objects that are three dimensional are rather
blocky-looking? That's because the older processors were not able
to handle all of the information necessary to draw really life-like
3D images. The Pentium III has improved on its ability to render,
or draw, such images.

The bottom line to this is that going online is a faster, more
enjoyable experience, because the processor can draw all of the
graphics with ease. It also makes games more fun, because the games
that use very highly defined graphics can run more easily.

Speech Recognition
------------------
There are some really nifty programs out there now (such as Dragon
Naturally Speaking and IBM's ViaVoice), that can "learn" how you
talk, and type into your favorite word processor as you talk. This
takes some pretty beefy processing to move quickly, and the Pentium
III is optimized for speech recognition. So that's certainly a plus
if you don't type very well.

Speed
-----
At the time of writing this article, the Pentium III is available in
speeds from 400-733Mhz. Although the megahertz should not be all
that you look at, it does make a difference. So if you need the
special capabilities of the Pentium III, but don't need a really
high end computer, you can always purchase one between maybe 400-550
Mhz. If you're a big-time gamer or graphics artist, however, you
would want to look at the higher speeds.


---------------
AMD Athlon (K7)
===============

The long awaited K7 is really scoring some points with computer
enthusiasts, primarily because of the benchmarks out performing the
Pentium III in almost every aspect (see the Benchmarks section below).

Bus Speed
---------
What makes the K7 so fast? One of the things is the bus speed that
it runs on (up to 200Mhz and beyond--the Pentium III will run up to
133Mhz). Think of the bus speed as how fast your processor talks to
other devices in the computer (such as your hard drive, your modem,
etc.) Because the K7 can talk so quickly to other devices plugged
into the computer, it gets the information that it needs quickly, and
therefore doesn't have to sit around as long waiting for a reply to
start getting the work done.

The K7 speeds range from 500-750Mhz.

Speech Recognition
------------------
Like the Pentium III, the K7 has also been adopted by such voice
recognition giants as IBM's ViaVoice, and is making headway in many
other areas of software that involves "fuzzy logic" (making educated
guesses at results based on things that are not always exactly the
same, such as different people's voices).

Graphics
--------
I can't say it any better than did the Software Marketing Director
for 3DFX, a manufacturer of graphics accelerators for video cards:

"The raw power and performance of the AMD Athlon processor enables
increased floating point performance and dramatically enhances the
performance between the processor and the graphics accelerator. The
combined performance of the AMD Athlon processor and 3dfx's graphics
accelerators create a dramatic and vivid visual computing experience,
appealing to users that demand fast, realistic 3D performance."
--Al Reyes, Director of Software Product Marketing, 3dfx







-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------

*** NEW PC FOR $40 A MONTH! BAD/NO CREDIT IS OKAY ***
=====================================================

Did you know that 75% of Americans do not have what is labeled as an
"acceptable" credit rating? I find that kind of amazing! So 75% of
Americans have trouble buying anything on credit. Now, though, you
can get a new PC (bought, not leased) for between $40-$80 a month no
matter how bad your credit is! I was very impressed with this
company, and so I signed up as a distributor. Visit their web site
and see for yourself:

http://www.wondertek.com/unitech/

Editor, Jon Leger

-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------






-----------------------------------
Performance Comparison / Benchmarks
===================================

So we've read what the Pentium III and K7 are supposed to be good at,
now let's see how good they really are.

The following are benchmark comparisons for you to get an idea of how
these two processors stack up to each other. I know that you may not
know exactly what the numbers mean, but that's okay. Just remember
that, for those results that say LOWER MEANS FASTER, the lower the
number, the fast the processor, and for the others a higher number is
faster. I've included a benchmark on Windows 98, Windows NT and a
couple of programs that will give you an idea of how these two
processors are doing in real-world situations.


Software Title:
Adobe PhotoShop 5.0

Results: (In seconds)
[LOWER MEANS FASTER FOR THIS BENCHMARK]

AMD Athlon 750 =========================== 68.9
AMD Athlon 700 ============================== 72.8
Intel Pentium III 733 ============================== 87.5

==-==
Software Title:
AutoDesk AutoCAD

Results: (In seconds)
[LOWER MEANS FASTER FOR THIS BENCHMARK]

AMD Athlon 750 =========================== 18.8
AMD Athlon 700 ============================= 19.1
Intel Pentium III 733 ======================== 19.2

==-==
Software Title:
Quake III Demo002

Results: (In frames per second)

AMD Athlon 750 =========================== 83.1
AMD Athlon 700 ======================== 81.9
Intel Pentium III 733 =================== 82.6

==-==
Software Title:
Windows NT (Ziff-Davis Winstone 99 Business Benchmark)

Results:

AMD Athlon 750 =========================== 41.4
AMD Athlon 700 ======================== 40.8
Intel Pentium III 733 =================== 41.3

==-==
Software Title:
Windows 98 (BAPCo's SYSmark98)

Results:

AMD Athlon 750 =========================== 287.0
AMD Athlon 700 ======================= 279.0
Intel Pentium III 733 ================== 283.0


Remember, these are real-world results, how fast the processors are
when running real live applications. The benchmarks for the hardware
by itself, however, are very different, with AMD's K7 winning
hands-down over the Pentium III in the graphics arena. Why are the
results different in real-world tests? Because not all software is
designed to work specifically with the features of the Athlon that
make it faster than the Pentium III. As that software becomes more
available, though, the real-world benchmarks should rise accordingly
in favor of the Athlon.

-------
Pricing
=======

Okay, so the Athlon is a little faster in the real world than the
Pentium III. But what does it cost? The answer may surprise you:
it's less expensive!

I visited PriceWatch.com and looked for a variety of speeds for the
two processors. Here are the average results. Keep in mind that
this is only the cost of the processor by itself, nothing else.
Knowing the prices of the processors helps you see how the total
system cost will be effected by the processor.

AMD K7 550 : $253.00 - $271.00

PIII 550 : $310.00 - $325.00
--------------------------------
AMD K7 600 : $382.00 - $409.00

PIII 600 : $417.00 - $437.00
--------------------------------
AMD K7 700 : $641.00 - $679.00

PIII 700 : $777.00 - $869.00
--------------------------------
AMD K7 750 : (TOO NEW)*

PIII 733 : $789.00 - $969.00

* Since the K7 750 is so new, the price has not yet shown up at
PriceWatch.com, but given the comparisons of the other processors,
you can reasonably assume that the K7 will be less expensive than
the PIII.

----------
Conclusion
==========

The Pentium III is still king when it comes to marketing and
popularity, but the K7 is really turning some heads now. The K7
requires its own special motherboard (of which there are a steadily
growing number), and so is probably a little harder to find in the
stores, and significantly harder to find repair people who are very
skilled in working on the machines. The Pentium III, however, has
been out for quite some time, and because of its popularity was
immediately studied by the techs, so it is well known.

In terms of performance and pricing, however, the K7 is looking more
and more like the way to go.


************************
UPDATE FROM LAST ARTICLE
************************

In the last article it was stated that the K6-2 is available up to
speeds of 450Mhz. Well, that has changed. AMD has released its
latest K6-2 processor that is available at 533Mhz. So the home
users and lower end business users can get more speed without having
to jump into the PIII or Athlon price range.

----------------
About the Author
================

Jonathan Leger is a partner in United Technologies, a computer sales
and service firm engaged in cutting-edge technology such as wireless
LAN networking, traditional LAN networking in Windows workgroups, and
custom database programming.

Please direct all questions and comments regarding this issue, or any
suggestions for subject-matter that you would like to see appear in
PC Tune Ups to:

mailto:jleger@...?subject=WTU_Feedback


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-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------

*** NEW PC FOR $40 A MONTH! BAD/NO CREDIT IS OKAY ***
=====================================================

Did you know that 75% of Americans do not have what is labeled as an
"acceptable" credit rating? I find that kind of amazing! So 75% of
Americans have trouble buying anything on credit. Now, though, you
can get a new PC (bought, not leased) for between $40-$80 a month no
matter how bad your credit is! I was very impressed with this
company, and so I signed up as a distributor. Visit their web site
and see for yourself:

http://www.wondertek.com/unitech/

Editor, Jon Leger

-----------------------[[[ ADVICE FROM JON ]]]-----------------------






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