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Best upgrade path: Athlon 1600 + KT333 -or- 1.8A P4 + 845E?

K

kingz

Golden Member
I'm looking for a new CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade. The following are of concern to me, in the following order:
- Peformance after average OC (air cooled)
- Price
- Future upgradability of socket

Will intel continue to use the socket 478? I know AMD will be releasing the hammer next year, so socket a is limited. here are the prices i looked up on newegg:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+, Gigabyte GA-7VRX KT333, 256MB Samsung DDR333, $201
INTEL 1.8A P4, Gigabyte GA-8IE 845E, 256MB Samsung DDR333: $321

so basically i save $120 by going the AMD route. I leaning towards AMD, but I also hear the the P4's are great overclockers.

So what do you guys think? Also, im not too sure about the motherboard choices. I've read a lot of good things about Gigabyte recently. Thanks
 
If money is no object.... intel. But I would check that board and get an IT7. If money is an object get the amd. The only thing I will say is that if you go amd and you want a gaming machine you have an extra 120 to put toward a kick butt video card. That is my 2 cent.
I have an amd... I had a p4 1.6a with an asus p4s333 board and my amd blows it out of the water. Just make a conscious decision and go with it full bore.... just my honest opinion dude. Good luck
 
Tbirdkid is right..
If I were you, I just buy XP and save $120..
with $120, you can buy geforce4 ti4200..
Also if you oc xp1600+, you get at least 170mhz FSB... some ppl get 200mhz or more if unlocked ... great for 3d games
P4 is faster than XP when oced.. but you can't oc FSB that high with 1.8A or even 1.6A.. average is about 150 -160 .. because you can't unlock multi..
but if you plan to use your computer for mp3 decoding or watching movies and stuff, P4 is faster..
 
Originally posted by: CheapTOFU
Tbirdkid is right..
If I were you, I just buy XP and save $120..
with $120, you can buy geforce4 ti4200..
Also if you oc xp1600+, you get at least 170mhz FSB... some ppl get 200mhz or more if unlocked ... great for 3d games
P4 is faster than XP when oced.. but you can't oc FSB that high with 1.8A or even 1.6A.. average is about 150 -160 .. because you can't unlock multi..
but if you plan to use your computer for mp3 decoding or watching movies and stuff, P4 is faster..
Click to expand...

Um.... only the multipliers are locked on Athlons, not the FSB. FSB can go as high as it can go, based upon the CPU/Memory/Motherboard, despite being Unlocked or Locked.

Kingz:

Some AthlonXP 1600's certain steppings (AGOIA and AROIA) have been known to overclock extremely high (1.8+ ghz, equivlent of XP 2200 and faster) on air cooling. I'm going with An Athlon 1600+, an Epox Board, and some PC3200 ram, as soon as I can get this stuff I have sold.

RAM is supposed to run at 200mhz FSB without any voltage tweaks, the motherboard has been known to hit around 200mhz FSB also, though I doubt I'll get that high, my CPU should be the limiting factor in the OC, then again, I expect it to hit 1.8ghz... which would be 171mhz FSB with a 10.5x multiplier (those used on the 1600s) Some have managed to hit 2ghz... just wait and see I suppose.

I already purchased the CPU, which is an AthlonXP 1600 AROIA-Y, I'm just waiting for some cash, and getting the Epox and Ram hopefully within a week.
 
i would go with the amd too, u could put money in the vid, if you need to upgrade later you could always buy one of the new thoroughbred revision cpus

btw prolly to get to 200 fsb the guy would need a 5:1 divider, not very common
 
NO...To get to a 200fsb he may need a 1/6th divder...200/6 = 33.33mhz (spec)

1/5th is potentially doable as the pci would just be 40mhz, but many harddrives may start corrupting and this could damage theirs and other pci cards lifespan...
 
dude u misunderstand, i was saying it was POSSIBLE for a 200 fsb to be attained with a 1/5 divider, not that 1/5 would have a 200 fsb without ocing
 
NO I understood you!!! I agree it is doable....The 1/5 divider is not all that rare...A 1/6 divider is the rarity, but likley is needed to attain this. Prolonged 40mhz pci can have its effects on harddrives, as well as many devices do not like this high of a pci, period. To be safe i would try to find a board with native or beta bios for a 1/6 divider to truly avoid the instabilities associated with this.

Also to author of this thread you may be able to find a better price then you have listed for the 1.8a system...The 1.8a in the very near future should settle down to a 130 dollar chip and the sammy memory should be in the 62 dollar range and I truly belive you can find a better mobo then the gigabyte one (a better ocer definitely can be found) for under 100 dollars...I think this price could get down to the 280-290 level...

remember the 1600 can likley get to a 2200+ level but at the same point the 1.8a can make it to 2.63ghz like my last 1.8a did. I will go off on a limb to say the 2.63ghz (146X4 = 584mhz fsb)with near 400mhz ddr ram would beat that 2200+ even if you have jacked fsb up to 200fsb...

Also the pc2700 sammy stuff I dso not belive makes it to 400mhz ddr anymore...They have remarketed a lot of that stuff as pc3200 memory now.
 
Originally posted by: kingz
I'm looking for a new CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade. The following are of concern to me, in the following order:
- Peformance after average OC (air cooled)
- Price
- Future upgradability of socket

Will intel continue to use the socket 478? I know AMD will be releasing the hammer next year, so socket a is limited. here are the prices i looked up on newegg:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+, Gigabyte GA-7VRX KT333, 256MB Samsung DDR333, $201
INTEL 1.8A P4, Gigabyte GA-8IE 845E, 256MB Samsung DDR333: $321

so basically i save $120 by going the AMD route. I leaning towards AMD, but I also hear the the P4's are great overclockers.

So what do you guys think? Also, im not too sure about the motherboard choices. I've read a lot of good things about Gigabyte recently. Thanks
Click to expand...

If you go the AMD route the 1600 is probably the best overclocker. Most people get to 2000+ with their's. But the Pentium 4 is the current overclocking champ. You'll definately get to 2.5 with that chip with intel's hsf too. I also agree Gigabyte makes reliable motherboards. Socket A won't be dying anytime soon. Once the Hammer is released AMD will have its Barton XP chips (512KB L2 Cache 333MHz FSB) this will become the mainstream CPU and the Hammer will become the high performance CPU.

Intel will most likely keep the Pentium 4 rolling at 3GHz and then Prescott will be its high performance CPU. I don't know if it will use a different Pin form however it is most likely since this isn't just a "die-shrink". If Intel shrinks the current P4 line to .09 then the P4 will continue its life span too. However from the past this has been proved to be untrue. I think Intel will water down its prescott and call it a celeron.
 
AMD is definately the best bang for the buck. Even though overclocked the 1.8a might be faster, it just isn't worth the money. Put the extra $120 into a faster video card and the AMD will still play games faster for the same money or less.
 
Or you could spend the $120 for a huge power supply , case fans, a big a$$ HSF for the AMD. Don't forget the ear plugs. Get the Intel. RRRRRRRRRRR
 
RickH=Intel zealot???
My Athlon 1800 ran fine on a generic 250 ps with the stock (read: not noisy at all) cooler. No extra case fans. If you don't have anything of merit to add, keep your ignorant trap shut, please.

Now then, if money doesn't matter that much to you, get the P4. It will end up being faster. Bang for your buck, go AMD. Almost as fast, but less bones.
 
I would go with an amd, mainly because 1 year from now you can put in a xp3000 cpu for probably under $60, while Intel 3ghz cpu will still be $150-200.
 
The Intel system will be reasonably cool if you don't overclock it. If you go for the 133MHz fsb and bump the voltage, it will run as hot as any overclocked AMD. Check all the threads, these guys are concerned about cpu throttling and looking for better cooling solutions. Intel is the fastest top end, AMD is the best performance for the price, both are good. I prefer AMD for the price, but if I got a good deal on a P4, I would try that also.
 
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