AXP 2500+ and 2600+

[payam]

Which is better for Gentoo Linux with compiling etc...

Athlon XP Barton 2500+ (1.83GHz) 512KB
or
Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2600+ (2.08GHz) 256KB

I know that when compiling, having more cache gives a huge boost, but I also know that AMD set their rating system to be able to give relative performance gauging between processors with different cores (initially Thunderbird vs. Palomino, but now apparently Barton vs Thoroughbred). The 2500+ Barton has more cache, but a slower clock speed than the 2600+ Thoroughbred.

I only question AMD's model numbering system because it is based on benchmarks done on a WINDOWS machine, and this is going to be a LINUX machine -- more specifically, I'm running Gentoo Linux which will be doing a LOT of compiling, so I'm not sure if the applications that AMD was benchmarking with will be the apps that I'm running.

I only ask because I have the opportunity to swap my 2600+ Processor with a 2500+ Processor with no costs.

BTW it'd be great if someone had a benchmark comparison compiling, say, Mozilla or the Linux kernel with two identical systems with the two different processors.

Thanks in advance, and let the discussions begin
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Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08GHz 333FSB 512KB, Biostar M7NCD Pro nForce2, 1GB Crucial DDR 333, EVGA Geforce FX 5600 256MB, Hitachi 180GB 180GXP

[bonsaikitten]

The difference between these two processors should be small, even unnoticeable.
I assume that the 2600+ will be faster due to the faster processor clock, but apart from testing a compile I'm not aware of any means to find out.

Don't worry about compile times, as soon as your base system is up and running all compiles are just background processes ...

And if you really absolutely have to have faster compile times, use an XP 3200+ or s multi-processor system