Upgrading to an Athlon XP:Need advice on what one to go for!!

[Fiery251]

On Friday I am putting my system into my local shop to have a new mobo fitted along with a new case,heatsink and fan and an Athlon 1500XP CPU.
The mobo is an MSI K7T Turbo2,and the rest of my system when finished will be as follows:-

AMD Athlon 1.5GhzXP.384Mb PC 133 SDRAM.GeForce2 GTS 32Mb DDR card.13 Gb H/D UDMA66.Soundblaster Live! 1024.Running W98se.

What I want to know is:-is this system spec going to be good for playing games?.Maybe some of you guys out there have asystem similar.If so,how do you find it performs?.
The shop are struggling to source any other XP chips other than the 1.5Ghz.However,the guy instore says I wont notice much of a difference in performance between the 1.5 and the 1.6 or 1.7.The only slightly noticable performance increase would come if i fitted a 1.8 or the latest 1.9.Is this correct?.For varied reasons,I cant wait for a fortnight until he sources me a 1.6 or 1.7,so I am tempted to just go for the 1.5,which is available immediately.Should I?.I at present have a slot 1 P3 500,so no matter what,I am going to see an improvement,but I would hate to kick myself latter and wish I went for a 1.6 or 1.7.
Surely an increase of around a couple of hundred Mhz is`nt going to make that big a difference?.

[Randy_tx]

Correct; however, AMD just released the XP 2000......and I think the "race" for more MHZ will slow down during 2002. I would wait for the XP 2000 ....why not buy it from this source: http://www.pricewatch.com/
and give it to your local shop to put in for you?

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XP didn't save Me !

[BigBlue66]

Howdy,

I agree, wait for the XP2000.

That MSI K7T Turbo2 board is rated to hold an Athlon XP up to 1.8GHz. So you should be fine there.

However, if you just can't wait, then go for the 1.5GHz. Personally, I don't think your naked eye will be able to tell the difference. At least my naked eye wouldn't. And, if you can swing it, I'd go for a UDMA100, 7200rpm harddrive.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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This space reserved for highly intelligent observations and witty remarks.

[Hobit]

Greetings Fiery251,

Have you purchased the motherboard yet? Oh heck it's Saturday. I was simply going to point out that I don't see the logic of putting a 2000+ processor on a motherboard that supports only PC133 RAM and not PC2100 DDRDRAM as you've been advised. I'd buy the 1500XP and spend my money on a motherboard with a newer chipset and lots of PC2100 DDRDRAM. The KT133A chipset has been superceeded by the KT266A chipset and arguably is already obsolete.

MSI K7T Turbo 2
• 100/200& 133/266 MHz FSB, Socket A, Supports AMD Athlon XP up to 1.8GHz
• Ultra DMA 66/100, 3 PC133 DIMM sockets. Max. 1.5GB SDRAM
• ATX Form Factor, 5 PCI, 1 CNR, AGP 4x, AC 97, 4 USB
• Fuzzy Logic 3, Live BIOS, D-Bracket, Live Driver


K7T266 Pro2
• 266 MHz FSB, Socket A, Supports AMD Athlon XP / Athlon
• Ultra DMA 66/100, 3 PC200/266 DDR-DIMM Sockets up to 3GB
• ATX Form Factor, 5 PCI, 1 CNR, AGP 4X, AC 97, 6 USB
• Fuzzy Logic 3, Live BIOS, D-Bracket, Live Driver
MSI K7T266 Pro2 (MS-6380 v2.0) is AMD Athlon XP™ 1900+ Processor Recommended Motherboard


Good luck,

Hobit

[Fiery251]

Thanx for yor advice guys!!!.
I finally went a little more upmarket with regards to the CPU.I went for a 1600XP instead of a 1500.And I have to say I am very pleased with the results.4000 in 3D Mark 2001 with only a little tweaking.
So far all games are blindingly quick,Operation Flashpoint being absoloutely amazing to play now!!!.
I stuck with the same MSI mobo though,and In hindsight,maybe I should have gone for the other one so that DDR RAM was supported.However,I can always upgrade again!!!.

[Hobit]

Hey P' Pete

RE: Firey251 Upgrading to an Athlon 1.5XP:need advice/reasurance!!!

This same question that was posted 1-09 and has been answered? I'm new but when a particular question has been ask/answered (AKA to issue resolved)is it removed, archived ???

Hobit