I need some upgrade advice please

[Johnbear007]

Right now I have an ECS k7s5a with 512mb pc2100 crucial and athlon xp 1700+


How much performane would I gain if I upgraded to a 2500+ barton, and kept the pc2100 ram? I cant afford new ram as well...

what is a good barton board? for not overclocking, cheapest preferable

I cant use my k7s5a for barton can I?

are p4's still more expensive?

Thanks!

 

[ericboo]

I believe you can use it but it would run at 266FSB instead of the new Barton 333FSB. Save yourself some bucks and get an Athlon XP 2200 or similar and use the rest of what you have. It would not be a screaming difference between that and a new Baton-supported motherboard. I built an Abit NF-7S and Barton 2500 for a friend and it is marginally faster than an XP2200 system I have at work.

 

[Johnbear007]

hmm thanks

How much faster will an 2200+ be than my 1700+ noticeably faster for gaming? How fast can I go on the k7s5a? any faster than 2200+ ?

 

[Johnbear007]

bump

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
I cant afford new ram as well...

Then wait. You'll want quality 333mhz DDR to run insynch with the FSB on the Barton.

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
How much faster will an 2200+ be than my 1700+ noticeably faster for gaming?

That depends a lot on what graphics card you have. If you have a 9500 or better, it won't feel any different. If you're card is really weak, then yeah, you MIGHT feel the extra speed.

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
How fast can I go on the k7s5a? any faster than 2200+ ?

With a quality board and ram, you probably wouldn't get more than 2.0 out of it...XP2400 speeds. That depends on how your board is setup...whether you can adjust the CPU/RAM voltages, whether you can select multipliers, whether you have a 1/5 divider so you can run a 166mhz FSB. But again, without pc2700 RAM, you might now be able to do that.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
I cant afford new ram as well...

Then wait. You'll want quality 333mhz DDR to run insynch with the FSB on the Barton.

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
How much faster will an 2200+ be than my 1700+ noticeably faster for gaming?

That depends a lot on what graphics card you have. If you have a 9500 or better, it won't feel any different. If you're card is really weak, then yeah, you MIGHT feel the extra speed.

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
How fast can I go on the k7s5a? any faster than 2200+ ?

With a quality board and ram, you probably wouldn't get more than 2.0 out of it...XP2400 speeds. That depends on how your board is setup...whether you can adjust the CPU/RAM voltages, whether you can select multipliers, whether you have a 1/5 divider so you can run a 166mhz FSB. But again, without pc2700 RAM, you might now be able to do that.

So it sounds like the best performance upgrade for me right now is a new vid card.. and perhaps more RAM...

I wont upgrade my porcessor until the Athlon 64, or Intels next offering.

 

[Johnbear007]

bump