Upgrade Advice XP-M 2600+

[urbsnspices]

Currently Running a XP 2200 333 and A7n8x-dlx. Stable OC on water: (thanks [H]forum) 2.314GHz /12x193/ 1.775v /193FSB load temps high 30Cs. I am very new to OCing so with a little knowledge maybe the chip and mem can be pushed further. Lets say I can get this close to 2.38GHz with a decent mem performance. What is to be gained if I upgrade to 2600+ mobile? According to the forum some folks are getting 2.6GHz with WC. It seems that I got a good 2200, what are the chances that this 2600 is a dud?


Also, the 2600 I am looking at is used. Aside from verfiying that it is an XP-M 2600, what else can I do? Is there a list batch numbers some where?

 

[hardBBQ]

How much would you be paying for the chip? Because it might not be worth upgrading. You could sell your motherboard/CPU/heatsink/memory and upgrade to an A64 fairly cheaply and get a much bigger and noticeable performance boost.

I myself am running an XP-M 2500+ at 2.5GHz/1.800V on an A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 with 2x512MB Corsair TwinX 3200LL in an aircooled quiet PC with a ducted 120mm fan. My maximum load temps on the CPU diode hit the low 50s.

I'm looking to upgrade as well but I haven't found the right motherboard yet with the combination of features I want.

I built 2 other computers with the XP-M 2500+ (the only XP-M widely available in my area) and they were both duds in terms of clocking much beyond 2.2GHz.

 

[ryuji]

i sold my athlon-xp system and bought a p4 system, havent regretted switching one bit, and hyperthreading was really worth not going to a64 for me

 

[urbsnspices]

Thanks for the info. The cost hasnt been worked out yet. It is part of a trade, actually. Im less trying to figure out how much it is worth and really trying to figure out what it is worth to me. The few games that I play, WOW, and a few FPSs, were getting sluggish. The OC, and a mem upgrade seems to have sovled most issues. Vid card seems to be holding its own with all 100% effects on. Maybe I should be happy with what I got, till it is time for a system upgrade.

Question BBQ, do you think those XP-Ms were duds because of heat or just the limits of the chip? That is probably speculation, but it sounds like you were using some hefty air cooling.

Also, are those Corsair sticks the ones off the Asus recommended list? I just upgraded my mem to the Corsair pc3200s on that list. It appears that you are running yours at 208Mhz.

 

[hardBBQ]

Heat wasn't an issue directly, but I didn't push those XP-Ms with the extreme voltage that someone with watercooling would (over 1.85V). My CPU for example can do 2.4 GHz at 1.65V, and that's with a variance of +/- 0.15V during operation since the voltage regulation on my board is total crap. I push my system very hard for stability testing though. Besides all the usual stress-testing programs, I find that mechwarrior4 is extremely sensitive to overclocking in a 2 hour test with 16 bots fighting.

XP-Ms are generally terrific overclockers by their nature, so I was unlucky.

As for the Corsair sticks, I actually had to RMA the first ones I had because the A7N8X had a problem with the stock timings of 2-2-2-6 and wouldn't boot. I received a new revision with 2-2-3-6 timings. That was 2 years ago. I spent over $700CAD for that memory in February 2003, and a week later the price went down $100, argh!

I'm currently running the memory fully stock, with the CPU at 12.5x200 (the highest multiplier available to me). I toned down the overclock to make the system quiet.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[ScHpAnKy]

P4 > AXP architecturally, me and ryuji were discussing this the other night, both of us run AMD and Intel setups, to this day I still own a A64FX-53 my friend is borrowing, which is a great chip but ultimately not worth the money for marginal performance gains over my P4-M setup. I also still own three AMD systems (Duron 1.8, AXP2400+, AXP1700+ Tbred B)

While a AXP2400+ will bench higher than the P4 2.0Ghz, the P4 2.0Ghz will play certain games smoother, it's as if... by architecture the P4 is just smoother gameplay.

Ryuji has seen this effect in person and has commented on it from a bystander's perspective.
At first I thought my system was not up to spec, but even after a video card upgrade the game still performed rather choppy in areas, but as soon as I ran my Northwood P4 with the same video card, the choppiness went away. Odd isn't it? Great way to test it out is to run Battlefield: Vietnam, best way to test it.

 

[urbsnspices]

It sounds like this A7n8x is working well enough for you BBQ. I get weird spikes and drops as viewed by ASUS probe. Hopefully this is a PSU issue, we shall see when I install my fancy new one this week. I also noticed that I am seeing ~.02-.04V more on the core then the bios setting. I dont know if this is the PSU again, the Mobo, or Asus Probe. From what I have read, anything is possible.

P4 > AXP architecturally, me and ryuji were discussing this the
While a AXP2400+ will bench higher than the P4 2.0Ghz, the P4 2.0Ghz will play certain games smoother, it's as if... by architecture the P4 is just smoother gameplay.

Ryuji has seen this effect in person and has commented on it from a bystander's perspective.

Sorta off topic but here is a current thread on that topic:
AMD/gaming thread
Toms hardware seems to show that AMDs excell at some things and Intel with anothers:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/index.html?modelx=33&model1=75&model2=12&chart=3



But who cares about all that. The point is I am considering a mild upgrade and I want to know if it is worth the money and risk.

 

[hardBBQ]

I use MBM5 for system monitoring.

The spikes and drops in CPU voltage is a problem with the A7N8X, not the power supply. I had an Antec Truepower 550, and recently upgraded to an Antec Neopower 480. I've built a few A7N8X-based systems with different power supplies and they all had the same problem. The A7N8X is known to have bad voltage regulation.

The increased voltage over the BIOS setting is also normal. Maybe Asus did that to add a little extra stability.