Barton 2500 for $98 or get the Barton 2800 for $158?

[MachineMan]

Im wondering if it is worth the extra $60 to get the Barton 2800 over the 2500? Both have the same L2 cache(512kb) and FSB(333MHz) but the 2800 is 2.0GHz and the 2500 only 1.83GHz. I will be using it for Video encoding and also general use, Internet, documents....

Any comments on overclocking capabilities?

[Jester700]

Im wondering if it is worth the extra $60 to get the Barton 2800 over the 2500? Both have the same L2 cache(512kb) and FSB(333MHz) but the 2800 is 2.0GHz and the 2500 only 1.83GHz. I will be using it for Video encoding and also general use, Internet, documents....

Any comments on overclocking capabilities?

I've never heard of a 2500+ that would NOT do 2800+. Mine is happily cranking along at 3200+. So, if money matters and it's not a "mission critical" system, give it a shot. If you regularly have paying clients in front of your system, that's another story, but in that case the extra $50 shouldn't be a big deal.

[SLICK RICK]

MachineMan,

Where did you plan on ordering the processor from? The reason I ask is because newegg.com has the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton" for $90 and the AMD Athlon XP 2800+ "Barton" for $144. I could post a link for both if you want.

SLICK RICK

[MachineMan]

Where did you plan on ordering the processor from?

I was going to buy it at PixelUSA which is a bout a 15min drive from my house in San Jose CA.

I've never heard of a 2500+ that would NOT do 2800+. Mine is happily cranking along at 3200+.

Is it easy to over clock the 2500? And are there any guides on this? I have plenty of cooling fans in my case one of which would aim directly at the CPU.

Iam also going to look for a mother board that has 4x EIDE ports so I don't have to use that ATA PCI card Im currently using for my 3rd HD.
http://www.pixelusa.com/catalog/products.asp?cat=Motherboards

[mujahid7ia]

You can get a 2600 for 98 bux.

[Jester700]

Yes, a 2500 OCs very easy, if you want to try it. Again, I use the stock cooler and run stable. My BIOS says 3200+, but I think it's actually about a 3100+ - I have the bus speed running at 195, because it was slightly froggy at 200MHz. I have pretty cheap RAM, so I think that's my issue.

Anyway. A great chip for under a hundred bucks.

[MachineMan]

If I get the Barton 2500 and plan to overclock(reasonably overclocked) it then what RAM should I get, PC2700(333MHz) or PC3200(400MHz)?

[Piccoro]

If you want to run the RAM in sync then get PC3200 200mhz(400).
Do you have a VIA chipset? I would be cautious of OCing if you do. They cannot lock the AGP/PCI bus'.

If you want to avoid OCing and keep the stability than I would go for the 2800+. Clock speed always helps with A/V work.

If you can lock the AGP/PCI bus clocks to 66/33mhz and have good cooling then you could try to OC. If your RAM cannot handle the speed you can always leave it be and just increase the FSB to 200mhz (400 FSB)even though that isn't the "best" configuration...it would still work better than running both the memory and FSB at 166mhz (333FSB). But then again if you cannot lock the AGP/PCI bus' then increasing the FSB will increase the AGP/PCI bus' and could create instability.

[MachineMan]

This is the Board Im looking at getting becuase of the 4 EIDE connectors and also 2 Serial ATA.

Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 Motherboard
AMD Solution Motherboard - Socket A Motherboard :
-Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 System Platform Processor
-Processor Support: Socket A for AMD AthlonXP / Athlon / Duron processor w/ 400 MHz FSB
-Memory Support: Up to 3GB DDR400 by 4 DIMM slots
-Expansion Slot: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
-Other Features: Lan, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, SATA
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3755336

It has these clock adjustments:
-CPU FSB / Multiplier / Vcore Voltage adjustable via BIOS
-AGP Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS
-DIMM Voltage / Clock adjustable via BIOS


This board sounds like it will work????? Assuming I figure out what Im doing

[Piccoro]

Yeah.

[mujahid7ia]

Wow, that mobo has the almost the same specs as the board i just ordered, the MSI K7N2 Delta-L (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=K7N2_Delta-L)

I'm also planning to OC to FSB400, and i have pc3200 ram. i hope the BIOS can lock PCI/AGP; i don't want to lose stability...

Can high mhz in AGP hurt my GFX card life?