CPU upgrade possibility

[zzyzzx]

Existing system:
Name AMD Athlon MP
Codename Thoroughbred
Specification AMD Athlon(tm)
Package Socket A (462)
Core Speed 1044.4 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 10.5 x 99.5 MHz
Rated Bus speed 198.9 MHz
L1 Data cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 256 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 512 MBytes
Channels Single
Memory Frequency 165.8 MHz (3:5)
CAS# latency (CL) 2.5
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2700 (166 MHz)

Motherboard is Biostar M7NCD which states that the most powerful CPU it will take is a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400MHz)

Now those 3200's are hard to come by, and too expensive for my tastes. But the 3000's and the next step down aren.t. If I put an AMD Athlon XP with the Barton core at the 2800 or 3000 level, will I even notice the difference?

[jagabo]

Is that an Athlon MP 1600+? Replacing it with an Athlon XP 3000+ should deliver significantly better performance with CPU bound processes.

[zzyzzx]

Is that an Athlon MP 1600+?

I don't know for sure. Is there a way to find out for sure? Or do I have to open up the PC and remove the heat sink/fan on the CPU? I can't find any of my paperwork on it.

I was running CPUz and the posted stuff was from the output. I found paperwork on the rest of the computer, but not the CPU (unfortunately).

Also, Windows thinks it's an Athlon XP 1044 or 1050 mhz, depending upon if you look at msinfo or what it says at startup.

[zzyzzx]

The thing is that when I try to lookup info online, I don't see any Athlon XP or MP with a core speed of 1044 mhz???

[jagabo]

I'm guessing 1600+ because of the multiplier. The only Athlon 64 MP with a 10.5 multiplier is the 1600+. Your FSB is set to the wrong speed ~100 MHz. It should be set to 133 MHz. That would give you a CPU clock of 1400 MHz. Look through your BIOS to see if you can change the FSB to 133 MHz. That will give you more processing power with your current CPU.

I don't remember a lot of the details of AMD processors from that era. There are multiple Athlon XP CPUs with different multipliers and different FSB speeds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_XP_microprocessors

Note that MT/s shown in those tables is twice the clock speed (two transfers per clock). So divide by two to get the CPU clock speed then apply the multiplier to get the final CPU speed. If you can use any of the CPUs with higher multipliers you'll get faster performance, even with the same FSB.

I just looked up your motherboard

http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=m7ncd

It supports all the higher FSB speeds (200, 266, 333, 400 MT/s) so you should be able to get much more performance out of a Athlon XP 3000+ with the correct FSB setting. Basically, you'll be going from 1044 MHz to 2100 MHz with otherwise similar CPU.

[zzyzzx]

I'm guessing 1600+ because of the multiplier. The only Athlon 64 MP with a 10.5 multiplier is the 1600+. Your FSB is set to the wrong speed ~100 MHz. It should be set to 133 MHz. That would give you a CPU clock of 1400 MHz. Look through your BIOS to see if you can change the FSB to 133 MHz. That will give you more processing power with your current CPU.

Just did that and I'm already getting better results!

At least Windows System Properties now says: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1600+, which I can potentially lookup on the internet for comparison purposes.

CPU-z now says my core speed is 1397.9MHz

As to if I'll notice any difference is another story.

Thanks!

I already saw that Wikipedia page, but I find it confusing since I can't match what I have to anything I see there.

[zzyzzx]

Was I "underclocking" before?

[jagabo]

It's not uncommon for the clock speeds to be a little higher or lower than the actual setting. You just set your clock speed to 133.3 (the BIOS probably didn't show the ".3") MHz and got ~133.1. No big deal. All you need to know is that the theoretical value is 133.33333... and the FSB speeds shown at the Wikipedia site are 2x that.

In the old days the FSB performed one transaction (ie, a memory read or a memory write) per clock cycle. Later, with the advent of DDR memory they could perform two transactions per clock cycle. So it makes sense to talk about transactions per second rather than the clock speed.

Yes, you were underclocking before.

[wulf109]

Install CPUID it should give you details on your CPU. I had two Athlon 1600's years ago and they had different specs,apparently AMD made two versions. I ran them at stock speed but under-volted them to keep them cooler.

[zzyzzx]

Install CPUID it should give you details on your CPU. I had two Athlon 1600's years ago and they had different specs,apparently AMD made two versions. I ran them at stock speed but under-volted them to keep them cooler.

Will CPUID tell me anything different from CPU-z?

[zzyzzx]

Ended up buying a used Athlon XP 2400 CPU and just installed it and so far it's working out really great: