Hi all

After having had my A7N8X for a while now and being quite happy with it, I would like to upgrade it to the best configuration possible. Right now, I have an XP 1600 and one stick of 512 MB 2700.

What would you say is the best chip and memory to put on the board, so I can make full use of its capabilities?

Thanks for your help.
Manoo

i suggest an xp2400 get the latest bios from asus and you can unlock the cpu without modification. increase the fsb to 166mhz and play about with the multipliers.. i think u should at least be able to hit 2800+ speeds. as for ram.. get 2 good sticks of DDR333 or 400 and use them in dual channel.

I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

Stock no overclock with money no object:

AMD ATHLON XP 3000 "Barton" 333 FSB
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 1GB(2 x 512MB) 2x(64MX64) PC-2700LLPT With Platinum - Silver Heat Spreaders.


Fastest you can get with out OC.

For a more reasonable upgrade I would suggest the
AMD ATHLON XP 2500 "Barton" 333 FSB $189 - @70 cheaper than 2600 T-Bred
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 512MB(2 x 256MB) 2x(32MX64) PC-2700LLPT With Platinum - Silver Heat Spreader $162 as of today on newegg.com<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Cuda on 02/28/03 06:31 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

mm shiny!
actually the barton 3000+ is actually slower than the 2800+ in many benchmarks and runs at the same actual clock as the 2700+ (i think). and the fastest you could get without oc would be dual intel xeons at 3.06GHz
anyway if you arent oc why get the xms memory? you can get much cheaper pc2700 at the same timings

I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.

You would want the matched set from Corsair with this motherboard for the best performance from the Dual Channel DDR. See this review of the Twinx modules http://www.ninjalane.com/display.a [...] inx&page=1

Also I would like to make reference to this statement.

"As you can see, some 3D applications gained performance considerably when running DDR400. That's why power users should definitely go for DDR400 memory - even though the advantage is not realized with standard games and applications. People that run high-end 3D applications like Design Review or 3D Studio Max will clearly experience more performance with the faster memory. All others can safely run DDR333 - but no matter which type of memory you want to use, do not accept anything other than CL2 mode DIMMs! The performance gap to CL2.5 is as big as if you exchanged your Athlon XP 2200+ for the 2100+ model!" Patrick Schmid of Tom's Hardware

see the whole article: Athlon On The Fast Lane: Three Motherboards with nForce2-Chipset and Dual-Channel DDR

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainb [...] index.html


As far as the benchmarks go and the Barton, I would suggest you look at them all and decide which one best fits your usage plans. However, which ever CPU you choose make sure you get one with a 333fsb.

For example see this benchmark http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/2 [...] ts-23.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/2 [...] ts-30.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/2 [...] ts-22.html

better yet just check these two articles
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030210/index.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/index.html


Oh and I forgot Xeon won't fit very well on a A7N8X. Let alone dual Xeons. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Cuda on 02/28/03 06:24 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

I have the Asus A7N8X Deluxe along with two Corsair 256mb sticks of PC3200 and the XP 1700, I must say this system outperforms my work computer (Dell 2.0 Ghz PC2700). I purchased a Radeon 9700 Pro to go along with it, then overclocked the XP up to 1837mhz, scored 14794 on 3DMark2001 whereas my dell with the same video card did 10318 (stock XP scores 12318.)

Good combination and excellent price if you're on a budget (except the damn vid card!)

Thank you all for your input. I learnt a lot and the links to the reviews were very helpful. After considering all this, I think, this will be best for me:

AMD Athlon XP 2700+($280 at accubyte)
Corsair TWINX1024-2700LL($300 at googlegear)

The prices include 2-day shipping.
That's 580 bucks, which is about as much as
paid for the entire system 2 months ago. But
I am sure it's worth it. Are there people out
there that have experience with this configuration?

Thanks again for you help.
Manoo

"i suggest an xp2400 get the latest bios from asus and you can unlock the cpu without modification."

Last I checked, the 1002 BIOS from ASUS did not unlock the multiplier speeds. I have heard that the next one will, but the current one doesnt. I could be wrong....

Rahvyn

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2255 (12.5 X 180)
1GB Corsair XMS3200 (2T,2,2,5)
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (324/355 MHz)
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe 1002 Uber BIOS
Windows XP
Thermaltake CPU Cooler