Sion

ok gang, gimme your best suggestions for a new processor. I currently have an AMD Athlon 750 mhz running on an AOpen AK72 mobo. I want to get something in the 2.0 ghz range for as little as possible.

what would you get?

also, when dealing with the various architectures, whats the difference? AMD, for example has Athlon, Duron, XP, etc. Pentium does the same thing. so if you have an Athlon and an XP both clocked at say, 1.5 ghz, whats the difference between them?


also, whats the deal on dual processors? do you have to have a mobo designed to run dual? or is there a way to make a single cpu mobo run 2? also, if you run dual 750 mhz processors, does that give you 1.5 ghz?

tia

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AxByC

i prefer intel over amd. but if your going with amd get the xp series. the athlon tops out at 1.4 ghz. and is the older verion of the amd cpus. the athlon xp runs faster is more efficient and is dirt cheap. as for the durons. those are amd's low budget chip (lower cache). not really worth getting when you can get athlon xp's so cheap.

As for going dual cpu i wouldnt bother. there is hardly any software for it. no games that i know of take advantage of it either. unless your doing 3d redering ALOT. you will benefit more by having one really fast cpu instead of 2 decent speed cpus.


If you go intel make sure it is a version c at 800mhz fsb. you can get good deals on a 2.4c p4. for motherboards get a springdale or canterwood chipset. with pc3200 ddr ram or better. Stay away from celerons there crap.

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T.U.B.

Bit of a warning here: You can't just buy a new processor and snap it in!

Your mobo, AOpen AK72, is designed for the AMD Athlon series. The top CPU speed it can handle is 1180MHz. So if you want to get faster than that, you have to buy a new mobo also.

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cliche

Get an new nforce motherboard and an Athlon XP - not too pricey but very fast (however, you'll probably start to need new memory, new PSU etc etc)

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Johnny Rotten

I recommend the 2500+ Barton. It has the best price/performance ratio and is pretty overclockable. An nForce motherboard complements it well--just make sure you get one with Soundstorm audio, and not Realtek. Realtek isn't bad, but Soundstorm rocks and has a digital out connector.

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The_Dude

as "TUB" said, the max speed of the cpu that your mobo can handle is 1180mhz. so, rule out double processors.

make sure u buy a retail box cuz u'll need a new heatsink/fan to cool faster proc.

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Lasereth

This is EXACTLY right. Get the Athlon XP 2500+ Barton and an Abit NF7-S Rev. 2.0 motherboard. The absolute best Athlon XP motherboard out there with KICK ASS Soundstorm audio. The on-board sound is literally better than most soundcards out there. Plus it has a fiber-optic Dolby Digital 5.1 input on it. Completely bad-ass. I've honestly never seen a motherboard as good as the Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0.

The processor will be about $90 with the motherboard being a little over $100. The Barton is 1.8 GHz but is as powerful as a 2.0 non-Barton and the equivalent of a 2.4 GHz P4. Enjoy!

-Lasereth

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Jolt

Another point is that the new mobo will most likely force you to also replace your SDRAM with DDR memory...

There are some boards on the market that have both types of slots...stay as far away from them as possible. They're crap.

As for the "duallies on a uniproc board" question...where would you conceivably put the second chip? you need a second socket.

The Athlon MP and Opteron are dual-capable, the Athlon XP isn't.

Ax's statement rings true. unless you're doing high end graphics tasks or back-end server computing, it's not worth the cost of the more expensive cpu's.

DEI37

Actually, the XP's are unofficially dual capable. There isn't any real difference between the XP and the MP. Just that the MP is "officially" a dual CPU compatible chip. Several people run dual XP machines.

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Johnny Rotten

Amen to that. It's just not worth hanging onto your SDRAM at the cost of having to deal with one of those cheapie boards.

RAM is relatively cheap nowadays anyway. You'll want 512MB, and you can get that for under $100. Stick with Crucial, Micron, Mushkin and Corsair. Anything with a Cas Latency of 3 (CL3) is relatively slow. You'll want CL2.5. You won't be able to find CL2 for less than $140.

You won't need 400MHz RAM, unless you plan to overclock. If you plan to leave that alone, you can do 333MHz, which will run in sync with the Barton's FSB.

devnull

This isn't technically true to be honest. The -only- difference between an MP and an XP chip is that AMD has severed a line on the XP chips that would allow them to operate as a dual+ cpu. Simply using a metallic paint or pen and filling in the gap allows it to function exactly the same. You could purchase two Athlon XP 2000+ processors for maybe $70 each, fill in the gaps with whichever substance you end up using, and voila, you have a dual processor computer for maybe 1/5 of the cost. If you are interested in finding even more information on this, take a quick google search for 'converting amd xp to mp' or something along those lines. There's a number of tutorials out on the web to do this.

arch13

Now i disagree. I have a rendering machine running the shuttle dual memory board and it's never failed, scores weel on benchmarks, and has consistent support from shuttle.
I can't speak of other companies, but Shuttle makes a fine daul memory board capable of xp2700 support via the current bios reviosion for less than $100.00.
A good deal for those that don't want to spend all their cash at once.

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cas305

Asus makes a good nforce board that comes with all the extras for a good price. A7N8X Deluxe Retail is what I would suggest with the Barton 2500 chip. A good combo for the money!

aarchaon

I am also upgrading, and after a lot of research, this is what I have decided on:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Processor

I am limited by my budget. That motherboard can support up to AMD Athlon XP 3000+. The mobo has built-in sound, and is built around the nForce2 chipset, which is IMO the best out, next to the nForce3 (which is only compatible with the 64 bit processors).

You may want to wait for the price of the 64 bit processors to come down, as they are very expensive at the moment, but will be insanely fast.

hope this helps.

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Lasereth

I'd save money and buy a Barton 2500+ instead. It beats out the 2600+ in a lot of tests. The Barton 2500+ can be found for $90 at most places. Hell, if you bought a decent CPU fan for it, it overclocks to 2.2 GHz with ease. That motherboard you're getting is considered one of the top two Athlon XP motherboards out there, along with the Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0. Good choice!

*EDIT* I forgot to ask, are you getting the 2600+ 333 FSB or the non-333?

-Lasereth

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aarchaon

as far as i know im getting the 333mHz version of the 2600+.

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Lasereth

Ok, I did some more research, and it looks like the Barton 2500+ is still more powerful than the 2600+ 333 FSB. It's your call, though. Either one would be a damn fast CPU!

-Lasereth

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Snakebyt

i would go with the barton with a N2 chipset based board