Both were completely stable at the benchmarked speeds, and every speed below. At higher speeds, there was, of course, some instability, but we find it more likely that we d just hit the limits of our processors, rather than ran into some mysterious error with the stepping. Of course, we weren t running these at 1.13 GHz. It s possible, yes. So in answer to the original question, no, there s nothing to worry about.
Summary Let s start by making one fact perfectly clear.
At equivalent clockspeeds, the Duron outperforms the Celeron in each and every instance. Furthermore, our tests pitted the Celeron 600 against the Duron 600. Speaking strictly in terms of cost, it would have been more appropriate to compare the Celeron 600 to a Duron 700 or even 750, since they retail for about the same price. And it s entirely possible that the Duron 700 or 750 would overclock for an extra 50-100 MHz over the 600 MHz version used here, so keep that in mind. For non-overclockers, the Duron is the best option, hands down.