need some quick advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matt M
  • Start date Start date
M

Matt M

Looks like I'm going to be broke for about a year while my wife goes
back to school. I was planning to upgrade my motherboard and cpu at the
end of the year but just can't afford it now. I'm currently running a
Abit KG-7 with a AMD Socket A Athlon 1.4GHz processor with 784 megs of
PC2100 ram and a Radon 9500 Pro video card, so about the only cheap
thing I can think to do is max out the processor and hope the system
holds me over until 2005.

Do you think it would be worth it to max out the processor on this
board? And if so, which route should I take:

AMD Socket A Athlon XP Palomino up to 2100+
or
AMD Socket A Athlon XP Thoroughbred up to 2000+
 
There is little performance difference, since the speed difference
is only 66 MHz between the 2. The heat generated will be about
10 watts less for the Thoroughbred. However, I don't think you
will see much of a speed upgrade from the 1.4. I'd go with the
lowest overall cost one.
 
Matt M said:
Looks like I'm going to be broke for about a year while my wife goes
back to school. I was planning to upgrade my motherboard and cpu at the
end of the year but just can't afford it now. I'm currently running a
Abit KG-7 with a AMD Socket A Athlon 1.4GHz processor with 784 megs of
PC2100 ram and a Radon 9500 Pro video card, so about the only cheap
thing I can think to do is max out the processor and hope the system
holds me over until 2005.

Do you think it would be worth it to max out the processor on this
board? And if so, which route should I take:

AMD Socket A Athlon XP Palomino up to 2100+
or
AMD Socket A Athlon XP Thoroughbred up to 2000+
Click to expand...

If you live in AZ, NV, TX, CA and OR look for a Frys in-store specials.
They'll run a ECS K7S5A Pro boards + XP 2000 - XP2400 bundles from $70 -
$100 about every other week along with more expensive mb + cpu combos. It's
like gettng a m/b for $20 above cpu cost.

Store locations
http://shop1.outpost.com/{Pwz0ZzMM1U7yYs1rzqX9CVrm5XHXgmdU2hR7EoM9ELEpu56Ubk
f9|1902959087376929149/184095263/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1|-132994362250
0760139/184095265/6/7001/7001/7002/7002/7001/-1|1057813607999}/template/help
/index/FE30/Service3/Assistance/Middle_Topics/D2StoreHours
 
JK said:
It depends what is being run. The Athlon XP supports SSE, which improves
performance greatly in some programs such a Photoshop.
Click to expand...
Actually I'm running both Photoshop and Illustrator (I was considering
also running Premiere, but this system really isn't fully set up for
video editing). Would I see enough of a boost to make it worth the
money? My system runs fairly good now, but it seems like every year my
freelance Photoshop projects become larger and larger.
 
If you are using a motherboard with 266 Mhz processor that runs at 133 X 2
=266, then the best processor is the Athon XP2400+ I do beleive. Sometimes
flashing the BIOS can help things out a bit and allow a slightly faster CPU
to be recognized and used.

You could bank your money till October when the Athlon 64 CPU's and the new
Intel CPU's with the 1Meg of L2 Cache memory comes out. This should lower
the price of current processors. Also if you wife goes to school you may
get a really big Tax Return. Claim the one-time HOPE Education Credit while
she is going to school.

When processor prices come into play the price drops over time. This is why
waiting is better sometimes.

You would probably get better results with a NForce2 motherboard if you can
swing the funds for it. They have an excellent opportunity for faster RAM
and faster Processors. An Asus A7N8X may be a nice investment. When the
New Athlons come out they will need a NForce3 motherboard, the the price may
drop for the motherboards too! The price for an Asus A7V266-E motherboard
was $140.00 but has dropped to $50.00 in about a year and a Half. I would
expect the NForce2 boards to drop in price considerably by Spring when your
income tax comes back.

Make sure your wife sends in a FASFA Federal Aid for Studen Financial Aid or
something like that. The earlier you send it in the more likely the State
you are in will come up with addittional funds. Dont underestimate funds
for Women and minority scholarships if either apply.

http://www.theregister.com/content/3/31673.html

http://www.asus.com/news/2003/20030630.htm

There is a lot of change coming in the wind. ATI is developing integrated
video for the new P4 motherobards based on the new PCI Express Video Card
Ports. This will be a very radical change in motherboards.
 
Bit O. Data said:
If you are using a motherboard with 266 Mhz processor that runs at 133 X 2
=266, then the best processor is the Athon XP2400+ I do beleive. Sometimes
flashing the BIOS can help things out a bit and allow a slightly faster CPU
to be recognized and used.
Click to expand...
Actually, according to their website I am limited to either a Palomino 2100+
or a Thoroughbred 2000+. I think I will end up waiting though, the slight
speed increase just isn't worth $66 (even though when I run Photoshop with a
large file I have problems running other apps at the same time).
 
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