CPU purchase

[jrenna]

I am looking to buy a new CPU and M/B. Is P4 2.4GHz, 800FSB at about $150 much better than Athlon XP2800 333FSB at about $113 or if I go with Athlon, is there an XP with 333FSB that is better than the 2800 as far as overclockability, say the 2500, 2600 or 2700? With so many choices out there it gets confusing. Or is the Athlon XP 3000 400FSB at about $168 a better buy than the P4 2.4GHz?

 

[nick1985]

athlon 64

 

[wkabel23]

Depends on how you use your computer. Do you do a lot of A/V stuff? Let us know how you planning on using your computer and you should get a better answer.

 

[jrenna]

I really use my computer for a little bit of everything. I have a digital camera and use Photoshop. I do DVD and CD recording and Word and Excel a lot. Certainly on the Internet a lot. I hope this helps. I think Athlon 64 is too pricey right now.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Duvie]

That is one of Nick's canned thread crapping phrases!!! he never reads your post he just thinks everyone should buy one....

The fact is for what you listed you likely could be very happy with the 2800+ 333fsb chip (Barton) which is faster then a 2.4c at stock....If you planned on ocing any then the P4 would be far better option but you should also look at the 2500+ which is considerably more savings...

So in conclusion I would go for the Barton 2500+ and try for 3200+ or above....

Unless you do a lot more audio and video encoding then you lead on to, recording cds and DVDs and running some photoshop does not seem like powerusing and therefore the aded cost doesn't look justified...Office apps the barton does quite comparably to a p4 of equal speed.

A 2.4ghz can likely oc to 3.2ghz levels which is faster then 3200+ barton levels but again for the cost difference and your uses it likely isn't warranted....

 

[jrenna]

Well I got the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton and the NF7-S V2 ABIT M/B. Question: Did I make a mistake in getting two sticks of Kingston KVR400X64C25/256 256MB 400MHz DDR PC3200 DIMM CL2.5 memory? Should I have purchased better RAM? I did not open the RAM yet, so I can still exchange it if this is not good RAM.

 

[Rukkian]

That should be perfectly fine unless you plan on doing some massive overclocking (say about 210FSB)

 

[myocardia]

Yeah, that will get you to 200mhz fsb, anyway. Of course, your system would be considerably faster with Kingston HyperX, because it will run at lower memory timings, making the same speed fsb faster.

 

[jrenna]

It's funny, when I go to the Kingston web site and plug in my M/B, only KVR (Kingston Value Ram) shows up.

 

[Falloutboy]

if you go with AMD get a Athlon 2400 Barton Mobile. They very easily clock to 2.5 ghz under air more than enough power to put any non super cooled P4 in its place

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: jrenna
It's funny, when I go to the Kingston web site and plug in my M/B, only KVR (Kingston Value Ram) shows up.

Well, are you sure you don't want to try Corsair XMS then? Anyway, if you aren't too worried about performance, or don't want to go past 200fsb, the Value Ram will work just fine.