Pentium, Athalon, Celeron... What are the major differances?

[Zapp Brannigan]

Now I know that Pentium is the best, and Celeron is probably the lowest, but where does Athlon fit and what really are the differances between them all?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Centrifuge]

Well, calling pentium the best is a matter of debate. Athlons are made by AMD, and often peform on par or better than Intel's pentiums.

The Celeron's are Intel's lower end processors, similar to AMD's Duron.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I am buying a laptop with an Athalon 2400 prossecor, what is that comparble to in a Pentium?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Originally posted by Zapp Brannigan
I am buying a laptop with an Athalon 2400 prossecor, what is that comparble to in a Pentium?

Its about a P4 2.0ghz 400FSB.

 

[Gainy]

...but it runs some applications as if it was a 2.4ghz Pentium...

P4 ---> Amd Athlon
Celeron ---> Duron

They are not exactly the same, but it's the same principal. I'm guessing that the differences between the P4 and the celeron would be the width of the data bus, but I don't honestly know.
As for the P4 and the Athlon, they're pretty much the same (except the older Athlon fans were a bit dodgey) With athlon though, the model 2400<whatever> won't run at 2.4ghz

 

[Sodapop]

It won't run at 2.4 Ghz, but since it works more per cycle, it's about the same. It won't be the same as a 2.4C though, since the 800 Mhz bus does make a difference. And the naming scheme of the Athlons XP is about correct until the P4C series with the 800 Mhz bus, even if the actual speed make them sound slower.

And it's spelt Athlon for god's sake

 

[HAND]

Celerons are bad..i know, I have one! Its just for standard apps word processing etc...undemanding stuff. I recommend AthlonXP/64 myself.