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Athlon XP -> Athlon 64?

CKTurbo128

CKTurbo128

Platinum Member
I am considering to move to A64, but I'm not sure if it would be best for me to move at the moment. The main reason why I haven't switched yet is price. I have had a Athlon XP-M 2600+ & DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B since early last year. At the moment, I have my Athlon XP-M 2600+ at 2.475 GHz running on FSB225. I'm satisfied with it's performance in general tasks and gaming, but with AGP & PCI being replaced with PCI-Express and the fact that the Athlon XP has no future as far as upgrading, I've been thinking it would be better to sell my Athlon XP-M 2600+ & DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B and switch now, rather than later.

If I were to switch to Athlon 64, I would likely go with a nForce 4 motherboard over an nForce 3 motherboard, because the nForce 4 has PCI-Express slots, whereas the nForce 3 board does not. I don't really care much for SLI, but if there is no significant price difference between Ultra and SLI models, I will take the SLI model. If I do go nForce 4 over nForce 3, that would mean I would have to sell my current AGP video card (BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra) and buy a new PCI-Express card, which would be somewhat inconvient, but expected. If I were to do that, I am thinking about doing this:

BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra (AGP) -> ATi Radeon X800 XL (PCI-Express) (If I can find one)

I know this would be a downgrade, but the X800 XL should still be fast enough for gaming.
If I could find a GeForce 6800 GT (PCI-E) for a similar price, I would get it over the X800XL, but at the moment, PCI-Express GeForce 6800 GTs & Ultras still seem to be way overpriced.

Here's a list of parts currently in my Athlon XP system that I would use in the Athlon 64 system:

Mushkin Level II PC32002x512 MB, Dual Channel Kit (Samsung TCCD)
Antec TrueControl 550W Power Supply Unit
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
2 x Hitachi 7K250 7200RPM 250GB Hard Drives, ATA133 + SATA Adapters
Samsung 16X/52X/32X/52X DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive, ATA133
Pioneer DVR-108 DL DVD+/-RW Drive, ATA133

Would there be any problem with using any of these parts in the A64 system? Any suggestions to use different parts?

Since I am completely unfamilar with Athlon 64 territory, I also have a few questions:

1.) Which Athlon 64 CPU would offer the best "bang of the buck" in terms of overclocking?
2.) Which nForce 4 motherboard(s) is considered to perform & overclock the best? How about nForce 3?
3.) Which Athlon 64 air-based heatsink is considered the best cooler at the moment?
4.) Is the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 CPU Cooler any good?
5.) I hear that if all 4 DIMMs are filled on nForce 3/4 motherboards, the memory speed will run at DDR333. Is this true?

Any other insights/suggestions/tips on upgrading to Athlon 64 would be helpful.
 
With your system it makes no sense to upgrade yet, esp. since you have an AGP 6800Ultra, just keep your system untill Dual core or 4500+ or so is avi. your system prolly out performs most stock A64's from 2800-3200+ w/ similar vid cards.
 
In about a year and a half when dual core procs become mainstream, cheaper, and stabler, then you should upgrade to the latest mainstream dual-core A64 and the latest PCI-e video card.
 
Heh, I know the feeling. I've got my Barton at 2.5GHz, and I still get the itch every time somebody talks about their new A64 rig. These folks are probably right, though. It doesn't make any rational, economic sense to upgrade right now.

But if you get irrational like I do about this sort of stuff...well, that might be a different story. If you're hellbent on upgrading -- and like the posters above, I recommend against it -- the move to an nForce4 board wouldn't be *utterly* stupid, if only because they'll support AMD's dual-core chips down the road. So there's one rationalization you can use to convince yourself....

-HC-
 
Wow, the overall consensu seems to be overwhelmingly "pro-XP" over "pro-64." Given the amount of "64-lovers" these days, I thought general consensus would favor A64 over XP in this case. Hmm... I may decide to stay with the OC'ed XP-M for now. I hate when the upgrade bug is itching! 😛 Any other opinions?

HeaterCore - Yeah, it's tempting, especially with all CPU/GPU reviews these days only using either Prescott P4s or A64s and no XPs - it's like they are implying that XP CPUs are 'too slow,' which doesn't seem to be the case, especially for an OC'ed XP-M. As for the nForce 4, it has been confirmed that AMD will release dual-core Socket 939 compatible CPUs?
 
It sounds like you just want to upgrade for the heck of it. Do you have a reason for wanting to upgrade? What is not fast enough for you?
 
Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Wow, the overall consensu seems to be overwhelmingly "pro-XP" over "pro-64." Given the amount of "64-lovers" these days, I thought general consensus would favor A64 over XP in this case. Hmm... I may decide to stay with the OC'ed XP-M for now. I hate when the upgrade bug is itching! 😛 Any other opinions?
Click to expand...
Hey man, if you've got the schwag, and it's worth it to you, then that's all you need to know. 😀 A solid A64 will certainly be much faster than your current rig, at least on the benchmarks. Real-world difference, well, that depends on what you run.

As for the nForce 4, it has been confirmed that AMD will release dual-core Socket 939 compatible CPUs?
Click to expand...
Pretty much, yeah. According to this mod in an AMD forum, dual-core chips will run on S939. That's not to say that you might not find another reason to upgrade platforms by then, though (and based on this thread, you'll probably be looking for a reason 😉 ). The poster says they'll be supporting DDR2 by then. (By which time it'll hopefully be worth it.)

-HC-
 
Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
Wow, the overall consensu seems to be overwhelmingly "pro-XP" over "pro-64." Given the amount of "64-lovers" these days, I thought general consensus would favor A64 over XP in this case. Hmm... I may decide to stay with the OC'ed XP-M for now. I hate when the upgrade bug is itching! 😛 Any other opinions?
Click to expand...
I think that a large part of that, too, is that the NF4 boards are new and a bit immature, and dual-core AMD64 chips, which should be even better than the current A64's, are on the brink of being released, and by waiting, you could take advantage of lower CPU prices and more mature mobo technology later on. Plus, your current rig isn't exactly slow. But the biggest reason to hold off on 64-bit, especially for Windows' gaming purposes, would be the lack of a currently-released OS for the thing. Once the OS is released, and more "AMD 64-bit ready" games start to be released (like a 64-bit UT), then things might get a bit more... "exciting".
 
I think it's a question of how much of a performance gain CKTurbo128 will get from his current rig to an A64 rig for his uses which seem to be no heavier than gaming. Yeah, the A64 system will be better than the XP system in terms of CPU performance but I too don't think it's worth the expense. Just not worth it.

He can wait at a later date, possibly during the next series of cpu price drops or maybe when dual cores come out for his upgrade. The cpu would be cheaper in price than current prices if he's planning on a single core A64. It'll be a bit more expensive for dual cores if he chooses to wait for that but either way it'll be more powerful than his current system. Motherboards will also be cheaper as the initial demand will taper off and the 2nd tier mobo makers get their motherboards into the marketplace. The mobos should also have most of the kinks worked out and you can learn from early adopters what hardware may not play nice with the NF4 chipset (like the Daimondmax 9 & 10's currently). And as VirtualLarry mentioned, 64 bit support is not available and will not be for some time.

I know there's always the urge to get a shiny new system but it's not always worth it.
 
I love my A64, but in your case, i would say wait it out a bit longer, since there really wouldn't be much of a difference for you yet.

When software starts to utilize 64-bit, then you can jump ship, but i'd say just enjoy what you have now till then 🙂
 
Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm going to be sticking with my OC'ed Athlon XP a bit longer, until there's a significant speed increase over my OC'ed Athlon XP. Maybe I can still get more performance out of it by pushing it to FSB 250 with the right RAM & motherboard settings. 😉
 
I know the feeling when there's something better out there. I am kinda itchy to upgrade but vow not to, but I really want one of those A64.

My specs:
XP 3200+
Radeon 9800pro
1 Gig Corairs PC3200
and other goodies
 
Originally posted by: CasTroLTraN
I know the feeling when there's something better out there. I am kinda itchy to upgrade but vow not to, but I really want one of those A64.

My specs:
XP 3200+
Radeon 9800pro
1 Gig Corairs PC3200
and other goodies
Click to expand...

Me too. I was looking into a A64 rig also from my Barton 2500 setup but my friend told me to hold out upgrading at a later date when pci-e gets more settled and the nforce4 boards come down.
 
Yeah I don't think I would upgrade yet, save your money and wait for a while, prices will drop and new CPU's will come out. Your system seems pretty fast, some nice equipment in your rig too. I think you have the upgrade syndrome like myself, I am looking to upgrade about every 6 months or less, this is why I am broke and my wife hates me and doesn't give me sex, but I digress. Hold out save money it's worth it, trust me.
 
yeah I say stick with it awhile longer as well. I aslo get the urge to upgrade every now and then. Here is what helps me though. I only upgrade my chip when the mainstream chips outperform my current by double or so. Before my athlon 64 3000+ (s754), I was running a xp 1600 on a via k266a.
 
I also have a 2500+ Barton that's nearing it's two year life (June, 2003).

The problem is, if this was a couple years ago, a two year span would mean a lot more in performance. We're talking about going from a 1000Mhz AMD Thunderbird (midline value) in June 2001 to a Athlon XP 2500+ (midline value) two years later. Today, there just isn't as much as a performance difference going from a 2500+ Barton to a 3000+ AMD64 (midline value, again).

It's been a routine for me to do the upgrade bit every two years or so, so it's a bit hard to break old habits... but even I can see that an upgrade now wouldn't be worth it.
 
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