Processort Upgrade question

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Paul

I have a Thunderbird 850Mhz (not overclocked) on a Abit KT7A mobo and want
to upgrade the chip. How much faster is a Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00 Core) than
my current chip and is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks
Paul
 
I have a Thunderbird 850Mhz (not overclocked) on a Abit KT7A mobo and want
to upgrade the chip. How much faster is a Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00 Core) than
my current chip and is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks
Paul
Click to expand...


Depends on what you use your computer for I guess.
 
I have a Thunderbird 850Mhz (not overclocked) on a Abit KT7A mobo and want
to upgrade the chip. How much faster is a Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00 Core) than
my current chip and is it worth the upgrade?
Click to expand...
850Mhz vs. 2000Mhz +SSE instructions. It's more than twice as fast. But
you can get the same speed out of any tbred B core cpu. An under $50 1700+
modified to a 2100+ by cutting L3 & L5 will work the same. yes, it's worth
the upgrade. What isn't however IMO, is getting a new MB if yours is
running fine. Reconfiguring all the OS's, drives, etc. is a pita, and I
can't tell the diference performance wise. Others will disagree with a
passion I'm sure.:-) New MB's are cheap though. If you need an extra 3-5%
then go for it.
 
Paul said:
I have a Thunderbird 850Mhz (not overclocked) on a Abit KT7A mobo and want
to upgrade the chip. How much faster is a Athlon XP 2400+ (2.00 Core) than
my current chip and is it worth the upgrade?
Click to expand...

If either you or someone you know are the technical sort, you could unlock your
CPU and run the front side bus at 134mhz with a 7x multiplier & a 2nd cooling
fan during summer... that being if your motherboard can run at that speed and
lets you set the multipliers manually, mine doesn't. I've got a 850 too, and
they overlock pretty well.
My guess is you're wanting better performance in games. I've got my motherboard
running at 111mhz fsb, and the additional 8mhz of APG speed does alot to help
the frame rate.

Or alternatively you could flick a jumper switch to 105mhz fsb if this all
sounds too complicated.
 
Check your motherboard version, the go to the ABIT website and look up
Discontinued Products. Unless you have version 1.3 of the KT7A, it will not
support Athlon processors. The best you can do is a 1800+. You will require
a BIOS upgrade for that.

Fitz
 
Not worth the "upgrade". Go to the ABIT website and look under discontinued
products. Unless you have revision 1.3 of the KT7A motherboard, it will not
support Athlon processors. It's a hardware modification of the motherboard
that is only supported by the Version 1.3.

If you have the version 1.3, I believe you can still only go to a 1800+
processor (not verified).

A more reasonable upgrade would be to a Duron 1.4....inexpensive, and you
would see an improvement in performance. Chances are a system that old is
running ATA 66 (maybe 100) harddisk, ATA 33 or 66 CD ROM. The biggest
limitation is the memory...PC133. Get the fastest processor you can, and
it's a matter of diminishing returns. You'll have a fast CPU turning useless
cycles waiting on the rest of your system.

My KT7A is running a 900 MHz processor, surfing the net, checking email, and
keeping the kids off my machine. Well worth keeping around.

Fitz
 
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