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Socket A upgrade

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CallumN   03-27-2006 at 08:40:55 PM

Hey, i currently have an AMD sock A 3000+, barton core, with 333FSB, clocks quite well tbh. Hit 2.5Ghz on it, stable. Anyway, i have been looking on ebay, and from the looks of things i can sell my 3000+, and buy a 400FSB Barton cored 3200+, and only be bout £30 out of pocket.

Will i notice that much of an increase with the extra speed of the bus? Will it be worth the extra moneys?

Running on an Asus A7V880 motherboard, 512 RAM, but will go up to 1Gb on the 30th, and will go dual channel.

And please dont tell me to upgrade to an A64 system with PIC-E, as atm i dont have the money, thats coming in the summer. This is just summot to keep me going till then.

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CallumN   03-27-2006 at 08:41:55 PM
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Oh, and how do they clock?

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baracuda73   03-27-2006 at 08:48:27 PM
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You will probably notice a bigger boost form dual channel memory the the processor upgrade as you cpu seems to clock fairly well and the 3200 may not make 2.5 ghz

Reply to baracuda73
Luminaris   03-27-2006 at 08:56:29 PM
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I have both a 3000 and a 3200 both w/400FSB and there is really no difference between those two. I know you said your current 3000 is a 333FSB but, I thought I would just throw my 2 cents in. :mrgreen:

Reply to Luminaris
kmjohnso   03-27-2006 at 09:14:07 PM
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In games you'd probably see a 2-3% increase in frame rate, I think there is probably some other component would rather spend the money on. Or even though you said you didn't want people saying you should upgrade the whole thing, you could probably sell the 3000+ for almost the price of an A64 and agp mb. Everybody seems to want to upgrade there socket A before its "too late".

Reply to kmjohnso
Anoobis   03-27-2006 at 09:17:23 PM
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I don't think it would be worth buying another XP. You've already achieved nice high clock with the 3000 and I wouldn't expect to get much more out of the 3200.

How did you overclock the 3000? It sounds like you've already gotten at or near 400 FSB with it. I could be wrong, but even if it's not a mobile you should still be able to lower the multiplier and raise the memory speed to get around 400 FSB depending on how good your RAM is and how well the ASUS board will let you adjust the votage to the CPU. You may not hit 2.5Ghz, but you might achieve a 400 FSB with it in the 2.2-2.3Ghz range.

Or were the non-mobile XPs multiplier locked completely, I can't remember.

Reply to Anoobis
CallumN   03-27-2006 at 09:59:02 PM
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190x13, and no its not a mobile, shame. Any higher and the OS currupts annoyingly. It was only the mobiles that were unlocked, and a few of the first bartons were i think, but not mine. Infact... im not sure, will have to check.

Its not a case of wanting to upgrade before its too late, just an idea.

Reply to CallumN
Pain   03-27-2006 at 10:00:27 PM
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You'll get negligable increase from dual channel, but as long as you are upgrading memory then you may as well use it.

Like the others have said, for the CPU alone, I wouldn't bother.

Reply to Pain
CallumN   03-28-2006 at 12:58:32 AM
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Why negligable increase from dual channel? from 1x512 to 2x512 DC, thought there would be quite a bit increase becasue of the increase in bandwidth the CPU and the bridges.

Reply to CallumN
Anoobis   03-28-2006 at 01:59:14 AM
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The XPs cannot utilize all of the bandwidth Dual Channel offers. However, I would still do it because it would be worth it just for 1gb of RAM instead of 512mb and you're not looking at a huge investment. The Dual Channel is just an added bonus. Definately get at least the same speed of RAM you have now. If possible try to get the the new stick as similiar (brand, voltage, timings, etc..) as possible to your current one since your overclocking. Also check your mother board manual to make sure you know which slot the RAM needs to be in for Dual Channel to work.

Reply to Anoobis
woodchuk   03-28-2006 at 02:41:25 AM
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On XP boards when you go more than 512 it can slow down potential FSB speeds, but this can largely be overcome by using some good lo latency dual channel sticks in the correct slots. The overall increase is abt 5 percent in speed to benchmark it, but it will seem like more in actual use with the one gig. I would go for it for now, and if you O/C watch yr MB temps around the chipset and memory.

Reply to woodchuk
abeck_23   03-28-2006 at 02:46:04 PM
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Quote :

190x13, and no its not a mobile, shame. Any higher and the OS currupts annoyingly. It was only the mobiles that were unlocked, and a few of the first bartons were i think, but not mine. Infact... im not sure, will have to check.

Its not a case of wanting to upgrade before its too late, just an idea.



I've got a 3000XP as well, most likely yours is locked, almost all of them have locked multipliers at 13. Been looking at the good old pencil trick, to unlock it, but have to wait until my term is over (1wk!!) to attempt it cause I don't want to loose my computer and final term papers.

Reply to abeck_23
mdd1963   03-28-2006 at 02:53:08 PM
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"Will i notice that much of an increase with the extra speed of the bus? Will it be worth the extra moneys? "

Nope, as the 3200+ wil likely not have any higher OC headroom than your current BArton, and possibly less...

I'd stand pat on that one...

(You'll be wanting a 939/4200+ to provide notice any speed increases!)

Reply to mdd1963
CallumN   03-28-2006 at 03:14:43 PM
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Quote :

(You'll be wanting a 939/4200+ to provide notice any speed increases!)




Sure you mean 4200+ not 3200+. And in the summer just after AM2 has come out i will be getting either an opty 165/70 or an A64 4000+, so that should do nicely, and keep this as an office PC for the parents. [/b]

Reply to CallumN
chunkymonster   03-28-2006 at 03:41:58 PM
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I say, if you want an intermediate upgrade, something that will ease that "I gotta have something new" itch, and if the cost of the barton and extra memory is super cheap, then why not do it?

It can be argued whether the perceived improvements will be substantial or minimal...just based on the specs alone, going from 333fsb and 1x512 to a 400fsb with 2x512DC will be "faster" than what you're running now. IMO any upgrade, no matter how minimal, is better than no upgrade at all.

If you can wait, save the cash, and get the opty or 4000 as you said...

Reply to chunkymonster
three0duster   03-28-2006 at 04:23:26 PM
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Best thing to do for the money, like others have said, is to buy the additioal stick of memory, and change the FSB on your current processor to 400 or 2x200 however you wish to look at it. The motherboard should be able to, but double check. That will get you more bandwidth in the FSB. Just lower the multiplyer to what it needs to be at stock speeds then slowly work it up and see what it can do. I did that with my old 2700+ and it ran a 2.2ghz with a 400 fsb rather well.
So try that before you purchace any new stuff and see how you like it.

Reply to three0duster
CallumN   03-28-2006 at 04:35:07 PM
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Tried that before, but it just crashed my OS. Im ghosting my hard drives now, and will try again once that is done, see what i can get out of her.

Quick question, asycronous frequency, enabled or not?

Reply to CallumN
Pain   03-28-2006 at 05:29:39 PM
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You want to run syncronous if you can.

Reply to Pain
Ycon   03-28-2006 at 06:47:19 PM
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I think saving the money and waiting until summer for the big upgrade is possible :D

Reply to Ycon
Anoobis   03-28-2006 at 07:49:48 PM
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Quote :

On XP boards when you go more than 512 it can slow down potential FSB speeds




????? :?:

Reply to Anoobis
CallumN   03-28-2006 at 07:59:23 PM
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Quote :

On XP boards when you go more than 512 it can slow down potential FSB speeds




????? :?:


Yeah thats a new one, i have heard about if u have more than 3 stick of ram i think it is, but not more than 512Mb. Can anyone back this up?

Reply to CallumN
Anoobis   03-28-2006 at 08:38:59 PM
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Generally on socket A boards, if your board supports Dual Channel, there is no performance loss as long as you ONLY use the 2 slots the manual states to use for the Dual Channel, and only those two slots. Do not install a third stick of RAM. Refer to your motherboard manual to find out which ones to use.

Reply to Anoobis
woodchuk   03-28-2006 at 08:50:16 PM
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Exactly, and the 2x1 gig sticks are usually higher latency also. I've heard on Nf2 boards that the Abit might still support the dual channel feature, can't prove it. Sorry I wasn't more explicit :)

Reply to woodchuk
baracuda73   03-28-2006 at 10:08:37 PM
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The Abit nf7-s 2.0 definatly supports dual channel as my bro is running my old system which is a 3000+ i had 1.5 gb ram in it running dual channel and found it ran much better when set to dual channel than single channel.

Reply to baracuda73
CallumN   03-28-2006 at 10:43:15 PM
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Well my board deff has Dual channel, so would be a waste not to use.

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