Budget of £160 - CPU, Motherboard, RAM

[Lord Kordir]

As thread title really, I know I'm being a bit boring by asking this as there are loads of these threads about but.......

Thanks in advance guys

[-mb-]

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ £57
Abit NF7 £51
512Mb GeiL Value RAM £64
DDR400 (2x256Mb)

Total: £172

prices from www.microdirect.co.uk

[Lord Kordir]

Thanks for that -mb- I've asked on the OCUK forums just now and the same components were suggested for about £25 more.

[Ravens Nest]

EBUYER

Twinmos (on Twinmos) 512mb DDR400 PC3200 Cl2.5 Memory Module £61.20
XFX MACH 4 SKT A Nforce2 400 8xAGP Sound USB 2.0 Retail Box £44.94
AMD Athlon XP2500 333FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton Retail Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty £61.09

Total is £167.23

or from KOMPLETT

TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 Memory184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz) £66.98
MSI K7N2-VL Mainboard Socket A DDR, Bulk nForce2 400/MCP, ATX, ATA133, LAN, Sound £41.13
AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz Socket A 333MHz, 512KB Barton, BOXED £60.36

Total is £168.47

I know im nearly £10 over your budget but could not find any motherboard's that were this good cheaper, dont know how much delivery is but Komplett is normally cheaper (last time i use them it was about £5)

And you might be able to overclock the Barton to 3200+ via the FSB i.e. 11X200=2200 (3200+) someone correct me if im wrong.

I also saw a newer CPU core at Komplett (Thorton)
AMD Athlon XP2400+ 2.0 GHz Socket A 266MHz, Thorton, OEM £48.12
Anyone know if they can be overclocked easy? if so perhaps that could be a good alternative to the 2500+ Barton..

[Lord Kordir]

WOW man, thanks for the input I appreciate it!

[Legin76]

EBUYER

And you might be able to overclock the Barton to 3200+ via the FSB i.e. 11X200=2200 (3200+) someone correct me if im wrong.

I also saw a newer CPU core at Komplett (Thorton)
AMD Athlon XP2400+ 2.0 GHz Socket A 266MHz, Thorton, OEM £48.12
Anyone know if they can be overclocked easy? if so perhaps that could be a good alternative to the 2500+ Barton..

The XP2400+ Barton will not clock very much.... I beleive the XP2500+ is an XP3200 under clocked so you will be able to get at least that speed.

[Ravens Nest]

The XP2400+ Barton will not clock very much.... I beleive the XP2500+ is an XP3200 under clocked so you will be able to get at least that speed.

Thanks for the reply legin76, yes the "Barton" 2400+ wont clock very well but what i asked was how well does the "Thorton" 2400+ overclock
Yeah i read the same thing about the XP2500+ being a 3200+ underclocked somewhere else as well, just cant remember where

[Ravens Nest]

WOW man, thanks for the input I appreciate it!

No problem glad i could help

Just had a thought, if you want dual channel with the nforce2 motherbaords i suggested then perhaps you could buy two 256MB DDR ram instead, but it's more expensive that way and you might need 512 more ram later anyway which would give you dual channel later on when you need it.

EBUYER
Twinmos (on Twinmos) 256mb Ddr400 Pc3200 Cl2.5 Memory
£32.41 X 2 = £64.82
About £3.60 more buying two 256 lumps instead of one 512.

KOMPLETT

TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL2.5 Memory 184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz)
£34.08 X 2 = £68.16

About £7.14 more buying two 256 lumps instead of one 512.

[Lord Kordir]

I'll have to ask the person who's buying the components but I'll try and persuade him to spend the extra cash.

[schrickvr6]

theres no reason why an xp2400 shouldn't clock well,its all luck

a thorton is a barton with 256k l2 cache disabled,this maybe damaged or could be perfectly ok,either way its a pretty easy mod to find out...but for a few quid more you may as well get the barton

[Swafe]

i think the thorntons clock pretty decently, but i doubt youll get some performance as a XP2500, depends what you can afford

[Ravens Nest]

Thanks for the replys about thortons (Hmm makes me think of chocolate every time i read it)
So with half the cache turned off there not really worth bothering with it all really then, I suppose your mate should stick to the Barton then Lord Kordir

[-mb-]

@ Lord Kodir:

Definitely stick with a 2500+ Barton with 512k cache - much better.

The memory I suggested IS a proper 'matched pair' kit for dual channel operation (2x 256Mb)
This is better than buying two 'similar' DIMMS, because you then have recourse if it doesn't work Dual Channel, as a matched pari' Dual Kit is intended to do so.


I would not recommend the other motherboads that have been recommended because:
a) XFX is a cheap newcomer, and for the reason below...
b) The MSI K7N2-VL is the nForce2 400, not nForce2 Ultra 400. Thus it does not allow Dual Channel. It also does not have the superior nVidia "Soundstorm" onboard audio. (ditto XFX)

[Agent]

All Nforce 2 boards have dual channel opperation.
You are correct on the soundstorm front though as it uses the MCP chip, and not the MCP-T chip.

b) The MSI K7N2-VL is the nForce2 400, not nForce2 Ultra 400. Thus it does not allow Dual Channel. It also does not have the superior nVidia "Soundstorm" onboard audio. (ditto XFX)

[Ravens Nest]

I would not recommend the other motherboads that have been recommended because:
a) XFX is a cheap newcomer, and for the reason below...
b) The MSI K7N2-VL is the nForce2 400, not nForce2 Ultra 400. Thus it does not allow Dual Channel. It also does not have the superior nVidia "Soundstorm" onboard audio. (ditto XFX)

Yeah XFX is a new comer (So if you want to play safe i suppose i would suggest this from the same website instead then)
Asus A7N8X-X SKT A Nforce2 AGP X8 Sound USB 2.0 Motherboard Retail Box £49.20

The MSI KTN2-L does have dual channel as Agent has said

And about neither having MCP-T (or soundstorm) well he wanted a PC on a budget of £160 so corners have to be cut a little somewhere and they still have a nice Realtek 6 channel sound chip on the motherboards so shouldnt be too bad..

But that NF7 is a sweet deal though

The memory I suggested IS a proper 'matched pair' kit for dual channel operation (2x 256Mb) This is better than buying two 'similar' DIMMS, because you then have recourse if it doesn't work Dual Channel, as a matched pari' Dual Kit is intended to do so. Good point, but it is not essential to have 'Matched pairs' but you cant be too careful i suppose
even though i have 2X512MB 2700 Twinmos which are not matched pairs, but run fine.

[BUFF]

All Nforce 2 boards have dual channel opperation.

Now, now Agent - you should know better than that.

nForce2 400 Ultra's have dual channel but nForce2 400's don't.
e.g. A7N8X has dual channel but A7N8X-X is only single channel.