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is this upgrade worth it?

A

atomic3

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
140
As of right now, my desktop pc is being used as a web/ftp/file server, as well as my main rig for surfing, school work(ms office, visual studio), aim, tv tuning. Nothing too intensive in itself, but i do tend to run a lot of programs at once.

currently i am running:

ECS K7S5A mb
athlon xp 1700+
384mb pc2100
ati radeon 8500

First off, my motherboard says(with a bios update) it can support up to an athlon xp 2600+. But the 2600 seems to have a 333fsb with 512kb of cache @ 1.9ghz. The 2400 has the 266fsb but with 256kb of cache @ 2.0ghz. Will the 2600 work on my mb even though my motherboard only supports 266fsb? Or do i have to get a cpu with a 266 fsb?
Also, if my motherboard will support both, which one will perform better with my applications? the 2600 has more cache, but the 2400 operates at more ghz.

Next, i was thinking about uping my ram to a total of 768mb. would just upping the ram be enough? or will upping the ram and the processor give enough performance gains to justify both upgrades?

i appreciate your throughput.
 
you probably would actually be better off replacing the motherboard... that limit of 266 fsb is hurting you... if you got a board that can handle 400 fsb, you actually could more than likely crank that 1700+ all the way up to 200 and be running it at almost 2ghz... but you can't do that actually because your ram is pc 2100... which is only rated to go to 266 fsb... so really you are stuck... you can get a mobile barton now... and run it at 266 fsb.. the thing will run real cool, which means you could run your cpu fan slower and make a quieter computer (if that motherboard will detect that it is a 1.45 or 1.35v chip and actually run as such) ...

then when you get money later on, get a new mobo and ram.... but really you almost jsut have to upgrade everything... so you might as well make a 2nd computer and still use the majority of your current one as a web surfing computer... that way you can keep the viruses and adware seperate from your good computer...


so i guess i am reccomending this....
if you get 1 thing, get this... http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-439&depa=0
it runs on low voltages, and is multiplier unlocked... maybe you could get lucky and be able to change the multi on your motherboard... this would allow you to run it at something like 133 x 17 for over 2.26 ghz.. (you could probably push the chip to 2.5+ ghz)

then down the road you could upgrade your mobo and ram... both really need to be replaced at the same time, because they are both limited to 266fsb... but as a spare computer, a 1.4ghz 384 mb of ram, shoudl be respectable enough to do anything except gaming...

but there are cpus that are 266fsb and 512k cache,, they are called XP-M (mobiles) and they will give you great room for overclocking down the road, if that's your thing.
 
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