Upgrade path?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert S
  • Start date Start date
R

Robert S

Hi ppl,

I am looking for the best path forward... but can only take little steps at
a time...

I have Asus TUS-IM 370 with celron 1200 with 256+128 PC133SD and a 64mg
GF2MX400 PCI.

I now want to slowly build-up a P4 using whatever I can from the previous
machine.

Is there P4 mobo that will take the older CPU and Ram?

Will its versaltility stagger a decent AGP and/or ddr ram for when I get to
afford it....

The AGP card will be last thing bought....

Or should I just leave the old thing at the kids place and start with a
all-in-one board

Did I mention this machine will be for gaming....

My budget is entry-level

Does hyperthreading help in gaming?

Thanks for any replys - wish I could just go top-of the range

--
Kind Regards
Robert Shaw
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hello there,

i'm having a bit of bother with my pc setup.

i have:-

asus a7n8x-dlx motherboard
amd athlon xp3200 chip(400 fsb)
ocz pc3500 dual channel memory ( 2x512)
radeon 9800 pro (128) graphics card
650watt power supply
2x 80g seagate barra hd's
waterchill water cooling on the chip

all inside thermaltake xaser3 case ( so no overheating problems)




my problem being like many others i can get 400 fsb ?!?!?

i have all latest drivers my bios has been flashed to newest version
i have tried inceasing voltage on mem, on cpu, on agp to allow for greater
demand but this only let me up the fsb to 174 max.

agp is locked at 66

i've had to increase the multiplier to compensate this i'm running 2.17 ghz
so the overall topspeed is not to be sniffed at as it is nearly at the 3200
stock speed.

waht does piss me off is that i'm having to do overclocking stuff to just
get it up to manufacturers speed.

i have had three sets of ram sent to me 2 were geil golden dragon pc3500
(2x512)
the newest is
ocz pc3500 (2x512)

all were tested by my supplier before being sent out, the first 2 geils were
also checked on return all without any problems.

so i dont thing it's ram.

what i'm looking for is the best options available to me to allow it to run
at full speed. ie new mobo / ram / chip ??

dont want to replace the graphics for obvious reasons.

hope someone can help.

scott
 
Robert said:
Hi ppl,

I am looking for the best path forward... but can only take little
steps at a time...

I have Asus TUS-IM 370 with celron 1200 with 256+128 PC133SD and a
64mg GF2MX400 PCI.

I now want to slowly build-up a P4 using whatever I can from the
previous machine.

Is there P4 mobo that will take the older CPU and Ram?
Click to expand...
A definite no for cpu, a practical no for ram. There are boards which
can use sdram, but they are fairly old (don't accept newest P4), and you
don't want them anyway. A P4 with sdram would not be faster than what
you have currently, so don't bother.
The graphic card should work without trouble though, but will of course
greatly limit the performance in games (it won't be faster at all than
what you currently have).
Or should I just leave the old thing at the kids place and start with
a all-in-one board

Did I mention this machine will be for gaming....

My budget is entry-level

Does hyperthreading help in gaming?
Click to expand...
Not much, but it doesn't hurt neither. In general, it's nice to have,
and all 800Mhz FSB P4 (which you probably want) have it anyway.
If you're on a tight budget, you should look at AMD's offerings. Intels
P4 is quite competitive price/performance wise at the higher speed
grades (3.0Ghz and up), but intel doesn't offer any decent cpus below
150USD or so (the slowest new P4 intel offers is the 2.6 currently).
Below that threshold you'd have to get the extremely slow celerons
(doesn't matter if it's a 1.7Ghz or 2.8Ghz, they are all the same speed
in practice due to the too small cache), but from AMD you could get
something like a Athlon XP 2500+ which is almost as fast as a P4C 2.6Ghz
(certainly for gaming use), and completely blows the celerons out of the
water while not costing more than those celerons.
If you really want a celeron, you need to wait for the 2.4A Celeron to
become available - this one is prescott based and thus doubles as a
space heater, but the increased cache size helps it big time. First
decent value cpu from intel since the tualatin celeron (the one you
have...) imho. There's a review here (in french):
http://www.x86-secret.com/popups/articleswindow.php?id=101

Roland
 
hello there,

i'm having a bit of bother with my pc setup.

i have:-

asus a7n8x-dlx motherboard
amd athlon xp3200 chip(400 fsb)
ocz pc3500 dual channel memory ( 2x512)
radeon 9800 pro (128) graphics card
650watt power supply
2x 80g seagate barra hd's
waterchill water cooling on the chip

all inside thermaltake xaser3 case ( so no overheating problems)




my problem being like many others i can get 400 fsb ?!?!?

i have all latest drivers my bios has been flashed to newest version
i have tried inceasing voltage on mem, on cpu, on agp to allow for greater
demand but this only let me up the fsb to 174 max.

agp is locked at 66

i've had to increase the multiplier to compensate this i'm running 2.17 ghz
so the overall topspeed is not to be sniffed at as it is nearly at the 3200
stock speed.

waht does piss me off is that i'm having to do overclocking stuff to just
get it up to manufacturers speed.

i have had three sets of ram sent to me 2 were geil golden dragon pc3500
(2x512)
the newest is
ocz pc3500 (2x512)

all were tested by my supplier before being sent out, the first 2 geils were
also checked on return all without any problems.

so i dont thing it's ram.

what i'm looking for is the best options available to me to allow it to run
at full speed. ie new mobo / ram / chip ??

dont want to replace the graphics for obvious reasons.

hope someone can help.

scott
Click to expand...

Do you have a Rev 1.0x mobo? I've seen many posts here about the pre-Rev
2.00 boards not running at 200MHz FSB despite what latest BIOS claim. If
you have a rev 2.00 (or later) mobo it should do 200 (and more) no
problem, may need to swap/RMA it.
 
You need to post a separate message - not a reply to an existing message.
More people will see it that way and you won't be hijacking someone else's
thread.

Also if you used a more specific subject line that would help, i.e. "Unable
to set 400Mhz fsb on a7n8x" should do it.

Just a suggestion.
=======================
 
Many thanks Roland.

I am now going for amd with a 800fsb. Would have liked the p4 but couldn;t
have afforded the ram...

mant thanks again

--
Kind Regards
Robert Shaw
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is
for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential
and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or
distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please
contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original
message.
Robert said:
Hi ppl,

I am looking for the best path forward... but can only take little
steps at a time...

I have Asus TUS-IM 370 with celron 1200 with 256+128 PC133SD and a
64mg GF2MX400 PCI.

I now want to slowly build-up a P4 using whatever I can from the
previous machine.

Is there P4 mobo that will take the older CPU and Ram?
Click to expand...
A definite no for cpu, a practical no for ram. There are boards which
can use sdram, but they are fairly old (don't accept newest P4), and you
don't want them anyway. A P4 with sdram would not be faster than what
you have currently, so don't bother.
The graphic card should work without trouble though, but will of course
greatly limit the performance in games (it won't be faster at all than
what you currently have).
Or should I just leave the old thing at the kids place and start with
a all-in-one board

Did I mention this machine will be for gaming....

My budget is entry-level

Does hyperthreading help in gaming?
Click to expand...
Not much, but it doesn't hurt neither. In general, it's nice to have,
and all 800Mhz FSB P4 (which you probably want) have it anyway.
If you're on a tight budget, you should look at AMD's offerings. Intels
P4 is quite competitive price/performance wise at the higher speed
grades (3.0Ghz and up), but intel doesn't offer any decent cpus below
150USD or so (the slowest new P4 intel offers is the 2.6 currently).
Below that threshold you'd have to get the extremely slow celerons
(doesn't matter if it's a 1.7Ghz or 2.8Ghz, they are all the same speed
in practice due to the too small cache), but from AMD you could get
something like a Athlon XP 2500+ which is almost as fast as a P4C 2.6Ghz
(certainly for gaming use), and completely blows the celerons out of the
water while not costing more than those celerons.
If you really want a celeron, you need to wait for the 2.4A Celeron to
become available - this one is prescott based and thus doubles as a
space heater, but the increased cache size helps it big time. First
decent value cpu from intel since the tualatin celeron (the one you
have...) imho. There's a review here (in french):
http://www.x86-secret.com/popups/articleswindow.php?id=101

Roland
 
Robert said:
Many thanks Roland.

I am now going for amd with a 800fsb. Would have liked the p4 but couldn;t
have afforded the ram...
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, AMD athlon chips do not have 800Mhz FSB - the fastest
athlon xp have 400Mhz, the cheaper ones 333Mhz, and Athlon 64 don't have
an fsb in the traditional sense at all. But they aren't that sensitive
to fsb speed it seems. And you need new memory for an Athlon system too,
though you could save a bit (not much) since you don't need two sticks
(1*512MB could be cheaper than 2*256MB). The cost savings if you choose
an Athlon XP instead of a P4 really are only because the price of the
cpu (and possibly the board).

Roland
 
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