FSB 266 vs 333

[squarenuts]

I am currenly running a Athlon xp 2100 with 1 GB of PC 2700 (333) ram on a ASUS A7N8X Motherboard.

Is there much to be gained by upgrading to a barton Cpu (I was thinking the 2500)? I like to play online games like Mechwarrior4 and Battlefield 1942.

Or would this upgrade be a speed up to my system that I wouldn't even notice?

Thanks to all that have either knowledge or experenice with this upgrade.

[ZURKE]

Hey squarenuts,

I have basically the same outline as you.
2100, 333FSB.
I will be upgrading in the near future also.

The Barton has 256Kb more cache than the tbred.
That by itself, for me, is not worth the expense.

The 3000 Barton has a 2.167GHz clock speed.
The 2500 Barton has a 1.83GHz clock speed.
The 2100 Tbred has a 1.73GHz clock speed.
(you may know this,but bare with me)

The difference between the 2100 and the 2500 clock speed is also minimal.

The difference in price of the 2100 and the 3000 is a allot more, but not for long.
You need patients to make it work but in the long run you will get more for your money by upgrading to the 3000xp.
You might also consider upgrading to PC3200, not a must but it will help.
Also I have heard alot of pros on the board you have, believe it supports a 3000, but check for yourself.
Hope I make Cents:)

[yonexorca]

the best amd on the market is the xp 2800 tt not the barton
but is verry hard to get i you want to by a cpu take the xp 2700 (he s closse to the barton 3000 and better than the xp 2800(barton) and not too expensive


but the best one is the xp 2800(thorobred) on a nforce 2 chipset with pc 2700(333) consair

[saphalline]

The Barton core is actually newer than the Thoroughbred core, and features many enhancements - the main one being twice the L2 cache (256KB on Tbred, 512KB on Barton). Even though the clock speeds on the Barton are lower than the similarly-marked Tbreds, the boost in cache size alone allows the Barton to perform better than the Tbred.

[ranchdog]

If you are onto CAD work or heavy graphics and designs then
the Barton core might be beneficial.

The Barton core is larger in actual size so it does run a tad
cooler. It doesn't overclock near as good as the Tbred does
supposedly caused by the added L2 Cache. The best way to
overclock a Barton is to hard-mod the chip two ways... make
it think it is a 266 series chip and make it give you the
multipliers from 12.5 and below.

For the average end-user the expense of the Barton currently
just doesn't make sense unless your allowance is hefty for new
hardware and toys.

Having a 333 series chip isn't necessary as you can run your
present processor at 166 FSB and accomplish the same thing. Why
spend the extra $$ in that area?

With a decent Vid card that carries at least 64MB of memory
you'll do allright. Something in the neighborhood of a GF4
ti4200 or an ATI 8500.


RD.