Which AMD

[milgo]

I THINK that I'm going to upgrade as opposed to trying to OC my 1900+ palamino.

Just a little confused as AMD seem to have cpu's that cross over each other. Am I right in thinking that the AMD model that I should be focusing on is the Barton? and should it be the MP or the XP?.

I'm hoping to not exceed £150 total cost for a MB & CPU

[silent]

i just bought an xp2500 barton core 333 mhz and an abit nf7 s-v.2 mobo and am very happy. my barton's multiplyer is not locked, but search the forums and find out some more as the newer ones are aparently locked more often than not.. they both cost me about £130 delivered.

[payniel]

well i would go for either the Abit NF7-s or the Asus A7N8X-E deluxe and the amd Athalon XP 2500+(must be barton core) and then you can overclock it up to 3200+ speeds, you might need a new heatsinc.

[Speedo]

You'll be wanting a Barton XP, a 2500/2800 would be a good choice .
The MPs are multi-processor certified, so you're paying the extra for that certification and it's completely unnecessary in single processor systems.

[milgo]

Is there an easy way to ensure that I am buying one that isn't locked so that I could OC if i wanted too?

[payniel]

well, the locked 2500+ is basically a 3200+ with some defects and a lower cache. The locked 2500's really should be able to overclock by just changing the fsb(only part that might be locked is the multiplier), so realy doesnt matter too much if its locked, but with the unlocked ones oyu could probubly get a higher overclock.

[streetster]

milgo, what memory are you using.. pc2100 isnt it? thats only rated for 133mhz fsb, which means you will have to run it out of sync with the fsb (ie 166mhz for the barton)... sooo you might want to think about ordered some pc3200 (as its not much more than pc2700) ram which will mean that your overclocking is not impeded by your ram

mark

[payniel]

yeah, out of sinc doea cause some issues but hell i'm runnin my memory at 200 mhz while i'm on 133fsb and i havent had any problems yet.

[streetster]

shouldnt cause issues, just isnt as fast as in sync... with my 1900+ i unlocked it so that i could run the multiplier at 8.5 and the fsb at 200 (to give 1.7ghz) and having both my memory and fsb synced at 200mhz.

mark

[Stylez]

Well i would say...

Asus A7N8X Deluxe (nforce 2)

&

Barton 2500+

Ive had both of these running stabily at 3000+ since i bought them both in october without any problems what so ever.

If your going to get a 2500+ though best bet is to try finding an unlocked one if your looking at overclocking.

[milgo]

New ram & a graphics card are also on the shopping list as I'd guessed that the pc2100 would be a limiting factor to a degree.

Is there anyway to tell locked or not before buying/fitting

[knock_knock]

Originally posted by payniel
well, the locked 2500+ is basically a 3200+ with some defects and a lower cache. The locked 2500's really should be able to overclock by just changing the fsb(only part that might be locked is the multiplier), so realy doesnt matter too much if its locked, but with the unlocked ones oyu could probubly get a higher overclock.

That's a little not quite right.

All "Bartons" have the same cache and are meant do be defect free, if you get one with a defect you send it back then you get one that doesn't have a defect.

A locked Barton 2500 will overclock to a 3200 with very little effort, I have even seen one of the members here reporting a succesful unlock

As for a motherboard the DFI Infinity A+ is the new king in town and I love mine it's everything the ABIT should be.