AthlonXP 1800+ to 2400+ upgrade worth it?

[MajorCatastrophe]

I have an ASUS A7N266-C mobo, 2x256MB PC2100, and an XP1800+ processor and I wanna upgrade my GF2 to a cheap 9800pro so I can play this year's games. I also want to try and and hold out as long as possible for PCI express to settle down before upgrading my cpu/board/memory (so I'll have to get a new graphics card again anyway). I figured that the 9800pro has still got plenty of life left in it, and would be a better buy for me considering that reviews show that even top of the range systems bottleneck the new geforce.

I won't be upgrading my cpu/mobo/memory till I upgrade to socket 939 and PCI express so it seems like a waste to spend a lot on a next-gen AGP video card. The 2400+ on a 266MHz FSB is the fastest *available* processor my motherboard supports so........ I can get one for £50 - is it worth it?

Any thoughts/experiences would be appreciated.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you are going to keep your system for a year or more I'd go for the 2400+ to help the 9800Pro to be more utilized. You can then overclock the 2400+ a little and that will help out even more. If you can't find a 2600+ 266FSB rated Thoroughbred then I guess 2400+ is your fastest option. Check out this extensive review. For games it might not help out that much, but for other general usage it will be an alright boost.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

you can get a 2600 mobile processor to run at 266...

 

[Mik3y]

they do make some barton 2500+'s wtih 266fsb. if you search around, you may be able to find one.

 

[RussianSensation]

If you can order in US you can find 2600+ with 266FSB if you just search on Pricewatch.com but I was thinking you live in England or europe in general as you used pounds as your primary currency. Try to look around as the price difference between the 2400 and the 2600+ isn't great but since this is probably going to be the last major cpu upgrade for you before getting a new motherboard/setup you might try to get the fastest possible processor this time so you can hold out for a little longer.

Also from my understanding the highest achievable multiplier on all motherboards but 2 (Abit NF7/NF7-S and some other one i dont remember) for a mobile processor is only 12.5. So without overclocking the most you will run is 12.5 x 133 which is way slower than 2400+ 2.0ghz (15 x 133). You might want to ask some ppl on Asus forums if they used your motherboard and a mobile CPU to make sure it works and if you can adjust the multipliers. The beauty of a mobile is cracking past 200FSB+ and adjusting the multiplier to 12.5 thus getting 2500+mhz which is obviously unattainable for you; so this might not be a good alternative at all.

 

[myocardia]

Major, I think you'd be plenty happy with an XP2400 and a 9800 Pro. RussianSensation is right. Unless you have either an Abit NF7/NF7-S or a new Asus A7N8X-Deluxe, you won't be able to access any multipliers higher than 12.5x on a mobile Barton. That means it would be running at only 100mhz faster than the XP1800 you have now. If you don't want to spend the money on a good nForce2 motherboard and some good PC3200 ram (which I would definitely recommend), you'd be better off just buying an XP2400, which could almost keep up with a non-overclocked 9800 Pro.

 

[Soulkeeper]

it is not worth in any meaning of the term
unless somehow you are moving from a locked 1800+ to a 2400+ that is unlocked (must be mobile these days)
a 2500+ mobile might in mind if you want a cool running highly overclockable cpu with twice the cache just in case

good luck!

 

[myocardia]

People, unless he also buys a new motherboard, 12.5x133 is the most he's going to be able to get out of any mobile chip. That's 1600mhz, so he wouldn't be overclocking it, he'd be underclocking it. As far as gaming is concerned, raw processor speed is all that counts, so a non-overclocked XP2400 would absolutely kill a mobile Barton that's only running at 1600mhz. Didn't any of you guys read this article: Clash of the 'Rons, where the XP2400 outperformed the XP2500 in all of the games, since it had the higher clockspeed?

edit: I recently replaced my daughter's XP1700 T-bred A (that was running slightly faster than an XP1800)with my old XP2400 running at stock speed (for now), and both she and I noticed it being considerably faster than her old processor.

 

[magratton]

The thing is your motherboard only support Thoroughbred or Thorton processors. Not Barton. So, I agree, the highest you can go is a Athlon XP 2400+(Model 8)(Thoroughbred) unless you can find a Athlon XP 2600+(266FSB)(Model 8)(Thoroughbred). The mobile Barton is out. As myocardia said though, the best choice sounds like a 2400 Thoroughbred.

 

[MajorCatastrophe]

Ok thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'm not into overclocking and trying to get a mobile Barton to work sounds like a bit of a gamble, but I'll check the ASUS forums (cheers for the tip RussianSensation!). I'm in the UK and I've not been able to find a 2600+ on a 266MHz fsb anywhere.

A CPU + mobo + RAM upgrade is very tempting but I really wanna wait for socket 939 athlons since I don't upgrade stuff that often.