Advice please : Athlon2800 or 3200

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seeker

About to replace my PIII 500 with either a 2800 or 3200 system.
Question is will I see a drastic difference considering it's £100 more
expensive, or would I be better spending the £100 on say a DVD-RW.
It's obviously going to be a massive improvement either way over my
old system.
If I go for the 2800, when prices drop will a 3200 chip simply drop
into the same socket for an easy upgrade.
Thanks in advance.
 
seeker said:
About to replace my PIII 500 with either a 2800 or 3200 system.
Question is will I see a drastic difference considering it's £100 more
expensive, or would I be better spending the £100 on say a DVD-RW.
It's obviously going to be a massive improvement either way over my
old system.
If I go for the 2800, when prices drop will a 3200 chip simply drop
into the same socket for an easy upgrade.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Don't bother with either mate.
Spend £65 on the XP2500 and immediately up the FSB to 200MHz (from 166Mhz) =
instant XP3200
 
Don't bother with either mate.
Spend £65 on the XP2500 and immediately up the FSB to 200MHz (from 166Mhz) =
instant XP3200
Click to expand...

And hope it remains stable :-) If it does then fair play go for it.
I've seen enough machines that either a) had occasional crashes
becuase they were overclocked or b) keeping them cool/upgrading memory
cost a signinficant amount of the price difference and it wasn't worth
the faffing around.

I would go for the 2500 myself though and get the DVD-RW and if you
have anything left buy extra memory. If it overclocks bonus, if it
doesn't that speed difference between the 2500 & 2800 aint that much
and you could always buy a 3200 in 6 months to a year for the price of
a 2500 :-)

I use a 1500XP and there is SFA that it can't do that I have found up
to now.
 
Baguss said:
And hope it remains stable :-) If it does then fair play go for it.
I've seen enough machines that either a) had occasional crashes
becuase they were overclocked or b) keeping them cool/upgrading memory
cost a signinficant amount of the price difference and it wasn't worth
the faffing around.

I would go for the 2500 myself though and get the DVD-RW and if you
have anything left buy extra memory. If it overclocks bonus, if it
doesn't that speed difference between the 2500 & 2800 aint that much
and you could always buy a 3200 in 6 months to a year for the price of
a 2500 :-)

I use a 1500XP and there is SFA that it can't do that I have found up
to now.
Click to expand...


Honestly though it is a rare XP2500 that can't cope with 200 x 11.
Very many can manage this at default voltage and those that can't typically
require no more than 1.75V (we're talking for 24hrs Prime95 stable).
The increase in temperature running at these speeds/voltages is not massive
although £10-15 spent on upgrading the heatsink & fan (from the standard
retail package's one) is advisable.
Further, the price difference between a decent stick of PC2700 and PC3200
RAM is not so significant as to be a real issue IMO.
 
On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 15:06:06 -0000, "nightic"

Honestly though it is a rare XP2500 that can't cope with 200 x 11.
Very many can manage this at default voltage and those that can't typically
require no more than 1.75V (we're talking for 24hrs Prime95 stable).
The increase in temperature running at these speeds/voltages is not massive
although £10-15 spent on upgrading the heatsink & fan (from the standard
retail package's one) is advisable.
Click to expand...

I'd upgrade the fan from the standard one simply becuase its such a
PITA to fit the AMD HS :-) I preferr the "lever" type locking
mechanisim rather than just streaching over that metal strap. I get
nervous that I'm going to slip and gouge a chunk out the mobo :-)

I've had and know of too many people who have had bad experiences with
overclocked AMD machines so make it worth the hassle anymore.
Further, the price difference between a decent stick of PC2700 and PC3200
RAM is not so significant as to be a real issue IMO.
Click to expand...

Yep I'd agree with the price difference for memory not being too much,
unless you already have 2700 and have to ditch it. If its new memory
I'd go for the fastest I could afford to safeguard it for the future.
 
Further, the price difference between a decent stick of PC2700 and PC3200
Yep I'd agree with the price difference for memory not being too much,
unless you already have 2700 and have to ditch it. If its new memory
I'd go for the fastest I could afford to safeguard it for the future.
Click to expand...

Ack!
I`ve just ordered...

AMD AthlonXP 2500 [1.83GHZ 333] RET, Item Price = £60, Quantity = 1
ABit NF7-S , Item Price = £70, Quantity = 1
Chieftec Dragon Blue , Item Price = £39, Quantity = 1
Kingmax "Turbo" 512Mb 2700 Fast DDR, Item Price = £55, Quantity = 2

I won`t be able to overclock the 2500 with 2700 memory then?
Maybe if I don`t open the ram packaging Aria would be kind enough to take it
back and replace it with 3200?
Damn, I thought I hadn`t messed up and made all right choices this time!!!
 
uselesses said:
Yep I'd agree with the price difference for memory not being too much,
unless you already have 2700 and have to ditch it. If its new memory
I'd go for the fastest I could afford to safeguard it for the future.
Click to expand...

Ack!
I`ve just ordered...

AMD AthlonXP 2500 [1.83GHZ 333] RET, Item Price = £60, Quantity = 1
ABit NF7-S , Item Price = £70, Quantity = 1
Chieftec Dragon Blue , Item Price = £39, Quantity = 1
Kingmax "Turbo" 512Mb 2700 Fast DDR, Item Price = £55, Quantity = 2

I won`t be able to overclock the 2500 with 2700 memory then?
Maybe if I don`t open the ram packaging Aria would be kind enough to take it
back and replace it with 3200?
Damn, I thought I hadn`t messed up and made all right choices this time!!!
Click to expand...


Yep, they will, just cancel the RAM within 7 days of it's arrival and return
it unopened.
If they have yet to dispatch your order you maybe able to pre-empt this and
upgrade to PC3200 now.
 
nightic said:
take time!!!


Yep, they will, just cancel the RAM within 7 days of it's arrival and return
it unopened.
If they have yet to dispatch your order you maybe able to pre-empt this and
upgrade to PC3200 now.
Click to expand...

I'd do it. The price difference is small, but you have more options in
terms of overclocking and reusability in other systems with the faster
memory.
 
jeffc said:
I'd do it. The price difference is small, but you have more options in
terms of overclocking and reusability in other systems with the faster
memory.
Click to expand...

Can`t I just have the cpu fsb higher than the memory with the NF7?
Even on this QDI Advance intel via board i got here i can underclock the ram
FSB of 133 by 33mhz??
Argh!! Its already been dispatched it says.Guess i`ll get it tomorrow and
decide wether to send the memory back or build my new PC with the 2700.
 
Can`t I just have the cpu fsb higher than the memory with the NF7?
Even on this QDI Advance intel via board i got here i can underclock the ram
FSB of 133 by 33mhz??
Argh!! Its already been dispatched it says.Guess i`ll get it tomorrow and
decide wether to send the memory back or build my new PC with the 2700.
Click to expand...


You can but not really ideal as asynchronous operation (as you describe) has
been shown to be more detrimental to performance than running the FSB and
memory clocks at a lower overall frequency but with syncronicity (as far as
Nforce 2 platforms go that is).
 
uselesses said:
Argh!! Its already been dispatched it says.Guess i`ll get it tomorrow and
decide wether to send the memory back or build my new PC with the 2700.
Click to expand...

Don't lose too much sleep. You'll have a fine system, regardless.
 
And hope it remains stable :-) If it does then fair play go for it.
I've seen enough machines that either a) had occasional crashes
becuase they were overclocked or b) keeping them cool/upgrading memory
cost a signinficant amount of the price difference and it wasn't worth
the faffing around.
Click to expand...

I'm running 2500+ @ 3200+ on 3 or 4 boxes. They run rock solid and
stay on 24/7. Using ASUS, Chantech, and Biosstar mobos.
 
Baguss said:
b) keeping them cool/upgrading memory
cost a signinficant amount of the price difference and it wasn't worth
the faffing around.
Click to expand...

2500+ £60/70 3200+ £300+

What sort of cooling can you get for £300? ;-) You need good cooling for the
3200+ anyway.
 
Baguss said:
Yep I'd agree with the price difference for memory not being too much,
unless you already have 2700 and have to ditch it. If its new memory
I'd go for the fastest I could afford to safeguard it for the future.
Click to expand...

I managed to overclock my Samsung 2700 stick to 3200 no probs...
 
uselesses said:
AMD AthlonXP 2500 [1.83GHZ 333] RET, Item Price = £60, Quantity = 1
ABit NF7-S , Item Price = £70, Quantity = 1
Chieftec Dragon Blue , Item Price = £39, Quantity = 1
Kingmax "Turbo" 512Mb 2700 Fast DDR, Item Price = £55, Quantity = 2
Click to expand...

I'd recommend TwinMOS ram
 
jeffc said:
Don't lose too much sleep. You'll have a fine system, regardless.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I upgraded from 133mhz FSB to 200Mhz FSB. It is a little quirkier
but to be honest there i little difference. I think my system is mostly
limited by hard disk speed so next I'll be going for a stripped raid
array...
 
tHatDudeUK said:
Agreed, I upgraded from 133mhz FSB to 200Mhz FSB. It is a little quirkier
but to be honest there i little difference. I think my system is mostly
limited by hard disk speed so next I'll be going for a stripped raid
array...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.
I used the 2700 ram and it all overclocks ok.
Running at 3200 and 200 fsb fine through all tests :o)
 
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