I am considering buying a PC with an AMD 120 or 133 K5 clone.  Is there
any reason I should go with an Intel Pentium as opposed to the AMD K5?
The only information I have about the K5 is that it is slightly *more*
efficent than th Pentium in general operations, and slightly less
efficent in floating point operations.  Is there something I'm missing,
or should I go ahead and get the K5 based machine?  If I get the K5 I
will save about 100.00 wich is sigificant to me.

11 responses total.

I am given to understand that the AMD clone chips are pretty good.
I have no firsthand experience with one, however.

I've been using a K5 for a few months.  Good chip.  No problems with it.  It
*is* a little slower at floating point.  Quake isn't as cool as I would have
liked.  Definitely go with the 133.  Linux even recognizes it.

I stated my affinity for AMD's in an earlier item, and I'll say go with the
K5, or if your board can handle it, a K6. I think the 166MHz chips are in the
<$150 range now. Also, AMD's chips are much more suitable for "overclocking"
than a Pentium. I've got a 5x86-133MHz that I run at 160MHz with no problems,
a K6-200MHz running at 233MHz, and a K6-233 that I will soon push to 266MHz.
check out "Tom's Hardware Guide" at http://www.tomshardware.com for more
info on overclocking your CPU. Pay special attention to the caveats! You don't
want to let the genies out of your chips!

Indeed.  Some of the higher speed mods require a liquid nitrogen cooling
system be attached to the CPU.

        I saw a K6,I think 200, in todays paper for 106.00.

Re: #4: There's a company called KryoTech http://www.kryotech.com who makes
R-22 cooling units for overclocked CPUs. They had a K6-266 running at 375MHz
at the Fall Comdex show. I think the thing is basically a small refrigerator
packed into a tower case. It cools the CPU to -40C (or F for you non-metric
people). 

It's a peltier device.  A solid state heater/cooler.  Send current through
it one way and surface A gets hot and surface B gets cold.  Reverse the
current flow and surface A gets cold while surface B gets hot.
 
Quite inefficient, expensive and they can't transfer much heat.  The only
way for one of those to cool a K6-266 to -40C is if the CPU is off or if
they have peltier devices stacked 10 deep and are throwing lots of watts
into it.  (I don't recall what the conversion efficiency is, but it's 
pretty poor.)
 
In other words, one would be better off with a large heat sink that has
huge fins and  a fan to force air through it.  Thermal coupling grease
between the heat sink and CPU is also *very* important, though often
neglected.

nope, it's actually a mechanical refrigeration unit built into the base of
the tower. To quote their website:
"Kryotech's patented -40C cooling system is based on standard refrigeration
components developed by Kryotech. The cost effective and reliable system uses
an environmentally friendly Freon replacement to remove CPU heat and increase
CPU performance." 

        So can you store your beer in an unused bay?

And you could put a cooling loop in the bottom of the CD ROM tray and
then really use it to keep your brew cool!  ;-)

I missed the mention of R-22 in item response #6.  (BTW, R-22 is NOT one
of the new environmentally friendly freons.  It is nicer than R-12 tho.)
A 1930s technology mechanical refrigeration system is a better choice than
a current generation peltier device.

        Don't forget you have that fancy motorized cup holder.

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