Considering an Athlon XP, am I stupid?

Crashman

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Well, Intel seems to be a better solution for overclockers. But this new nForce2 chipset is screaming at me with it's features. Of course, if I want a long term upgrade path (more than a year), I'll probably have to wait for the Springdale, or "800" bus compatable SiS 655 chipset. Any thoughts?

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bdaley

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Finally, you're showing some signs of intelligence!

Come to the Darkside, Crashman!

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Crashman

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Former Staff
I've had this money for my new system setting in a restricted account for several months, my current system works, I'm not in any hurry to spend it. But I could get money in cash out of my old system, so I would like to upgrade before the cash value of my old system runs out...

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Victory

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I have to admit I'm intrigued by the nforce2 as 2 well. I may upgrade my old slow XP1900(actually give to my daughter) and buy new. The upside is, if you buy and you're disappointed you can always ebay it and probably get more than what you paid to build it.

On the other hand, the prices are so high on their top tier chips right now I'm a little hesitant myself. I'm not used to AMD $350 CPU in the same breath. :)


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FiL

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ermmm i would hardly call the 1900+ "slow" sure it's not the fastest CPU anymore, but for gaming it's fine. (which is my primary use for PC's)
 

icy_oblivion

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If I was you I would wait another six months if you can and then see what AMD and Intel have out. By then you should have an upgrade path of a couple of years hopefully ;)

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baldurga

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Well, nForce2 is interesting enough IMO, but socket A is not in my "long upgrade path" list. More than a year means Athlon 64 will be out (or AMD will be dead) and also, as you have said 800Mhz bus compatible chipsets will be out. Both will fit, from my point of view, in "long upgrade path" options.

If you are not in a hurry, wait at least until september to see what happens.


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wschuerm

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dunno, with nforce 2 you won't have the best performer but when you want 800fsb you'll have to wait at least to Q3 2003, gigabytes new 667 series suggests that these mobos will support a 667fsb (or its just marketing) in this case the PE or Sis 648 would be a good choice but your stuck with single channel ddr

best bet imo is to wait for sis 655 (as i'm doing) this board shoud be on the market in a month or 2, supporting dual ddr 333 one can gues that it will also support a 667mhz FSB but thats pure speculation on my part

Remember the time You used 20Mb harddrives
 

wschuerm

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i guessed wrong

http://www.sis.com/news/press/655.htm

they state that it supports up to 533FSB

still, nforce 2 is a awsome chipset but prices for AMD cpu's that can do anything with it are to high for me and AMD has not shown any indication of making 3XXX+ processors unlike intel with the 3.6, and with their 333FSB AMD is still far away from the 533fsb that the PIV has

Remember the time You used 20Mb harddrives
 

Lamoni

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Well, nForce2 is interesting enough IMO, but socket A is not in my "long upgrade path" list.
Doesn't the nForce2 support 200MHz FSB? That would mean that it would support the Barton and be upgradeable for over a year... and even longer if you buy 6 month old cpu's to save money.

True, it wouldn't support the Athlon 64, but it would still be upgradeable.
 

Crashman

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Former Staff
Yes, it was nice when we had stable platforms that garuntied compatability for 2-3 years, but lately it seems like everyone keeps changing their mind after production has started rather than design their products to meet future specifications.

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toss5000

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I'm like 99% its gonna be socket A. Considering the first version released of it will be an Athlon XP with 512k L2, and a 166 bus. The asus nforce2 is sitting a few feet away from me right now and its damn sexy (though it doesnt have a cpu in it yet). I figure that I'm not going to wait for hammer, because ill have to wait too long and it will be too expesive. And i still have room for upgrading with the barton core being released in the next few months.

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Lamoni

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who's to say that barton 'll be socket A
I don't know. I guess I just assumed that it would be because it wasn't a huge revision. There will be modifications and possibly a 200 MHz FSB, but it didn't seem like they would require a new chipset for it when it would eventually be phased out and replaced by the Athlon 64.

If was them, I would either use socket A or the new Athlon 64 chipset. The Athlon 64 chipset wouldn't work so that just leaves Socket A. I haven't heard anything else on it though so I guess it is still possible that it won't be socket A.
 

jihiggs

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the chaintech nforce 2 bundle is very impressive. comes with rounded cables, and a front bezel with inputs for usb, firewire and audio, AND a temp readout! not to mention the gaggles of audio connections. 185 bucks for a mobo is a bit more than amd folk are used to paying. but i think its worth it, thats 20 bucks in cables and 15 for the front bezel alone!

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Crashman

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Actually I was looking for a board with better audio features, which set my eyes on the Asus board.

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jihiggs

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to me, the optical ins and outs of the chaintech are more appealing than the spdiff on the asus. is the chip asus used better than chaintechs?

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal
 

slvr_phoenix

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Yeah. If I was going to get an nForce2 mobo, I'd get the Asus board myself. Ah, what I wouldn't give to have the money to replace my Celeron 500. Oh well. It's not really a priority until I can start work on programming DirectX 9 software anyway. Or maybe if OpenGL ever get's their act together I could do ANSI C++ and OpenGL so I can compile for Linux and Windows. Hmm...

Well anywho, I think if you did go with the nForce2 mobo it'd be a good buy. Sure, upgradability will be shot once K8 becomes a standard, but at least performace-wise it should last a good while.

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