Okay, here’s the deal for my computer: I have a KR7A-133R motherboard and I’m upgrading my processor. I’m going off to college next year, and plan to get a new computer when I do that, so this upgrade has a lifetime of only one year. But in this next year, all the great games (Half Life 2, Deus Ex 2, Doom III) are coming out, and I would like to see them in some semblance of glory. My graphics card is a vanilla Geforce3 and my memory is pc2700 cas 2 512 mb. So, essentially, I can either get the Barton 2500+ with more L2 cache, even though I can’t run its FSB at 333 because my motherboard won’t support it, or I can stick with the Athlon XP 2400+, which runs at a higher core clock speed. Which should I get?
The XP 2400+. If you can’t use the Barton 2500+'s higher FSB, then it will most definitely be slower than the XP 2400+.
Howyadoin,
You might want to give more thought to the video card, depending on your existing CPU. What CPU are you running at the moment? Doom III is said to be a major-league GPU & video memory hog. If your GF3 isn’t at least a Ti200, you might be hosed. Regardless, it’s said that you’ll be missing out on a lot of eye candy without a DX9-compatible video card.
Also, you already have 512 of RAM that is compatible with 333MHz mobos, no point in wasting that… Might as well go with the Barton, 'cause it’s a simple matter to get a new motherboard at some later date, perhaps a small-form-factor setup for LAN gaming?
Have fun,
-Rav
I’d get a super video card if I were you. A top-of-the line card now would still work well in a newer machine a year from now. My brother got an ATI 9700 last year, and it’ll hold it’s own, I’m sure.
Since you’re looking at all the graphics intensive games, I’d get a new graphics card instead of a new CPU.
Thanks, everyone, for replying. After deciding to go with the XP and save some money for a graphics card, I double-checked my motherboard and it says it supports only up to the Athlon XP 2100+. Poo. So, to upgrade my memory, processor (might as well go with the Barton 2500+), motherboard (might as well get the A7N8X), and a new heatsink, it’ll be $325 which is a bit too much money. I’ll probably get the memory, reformat, reinstall windows (the speed and cleanliness of a new install … ahhhh) and then at the end of summer, might purchase the mobo and proc when things are cheaper.
Your motherboard should be able to support all AMD Athlon XP processors based on a 266Mhz FSB. The ones that came out after it did won’t be on the compatibility list, but with the latest BIOS they should work fine. You might check the changelog to see if any recent BIOS updates added official support, then you’ll KNOW they work.