MSI KT3 Ultra + which Athlon CPU?

[ptw]

Hey Gang!

I'm buying an MSI KT3 Ultra (non-RAID) and an Athlon CPU. Now, which one I get depends on you guys! Basically, I see that there's very little performance difference between the 1700+, 1800+, and 2000+ (those are the ones within my budget). I've also heard that the MSI board is good for overclocking.

So...with this board and moderate (not TOO extreme) overclocking, which CPU do you think is the best bang for the budget-conscious buck? I'm still using some PC2100 RAM, which is not likely to change any time soon.

Thanks!

 

[CurtCold]

For $73, might as well get the 2000+ Nice chip for performance that you get.

 

[sbw]

I would have to agree with Curtcold. The Amd price point on the AMD line right now is the 2100xp. But the 2000xp is a little cheaper. I would stay with either of those. The retail version at stock speed would be just as fast as an oc,ed 1600 or 1700. And a three year warranty to boot. Just my two cents.

 

[DieHardware]

ptw wrote:

So...with this board and moderate (not TOO extreme) overclocking, which CPU do you think is the best bang for the budget-conscious buck?

You could probably run the 1700+ at 166FSB, and therefore have better memory performance than a 2000+ running at 133FSB.

 

[BD231]

I have the same bored running at 180mhz fsb, dose 200mhz fsb easy.

 

[novice]

I just ordered a second KT3 Ultra 2 to upgrade one of my systems. On my first KT3 Ultra2, I ordered a retail XP 1700+. I have run it at 140 fsb for an effective clock speed of 1.53 Ghz, or XP1800+ level. It seemed fine, but I returned it to default after running a few benchmarks to verify that it was the effective equal of an XP 1800+. My new board will be arriving with an XP 2000+ retail boxed CPU. IMO, the current best value among the retail XP's ($91 shipped from newegg.com) I figure the extra $26 is worth it over the XP1700+ to get a default 1.67 Ghz and factory 3 year warranty. FWIW.

 

[optimistic]

Get the XP 1800+ Thoroughbred at newegg.

 

[CraigRT]

Get whatever suits your budget best.

they're all somewhat comparable in real-world performance as long as you're not in some sort of $50-200 spending budget.. XP1700+ or XP2000+ would show neglible difference overall, and not even too much difference in games.. although, there would be a bit of difference.. just nothing earth shattering.

 

[tjaisv]

I'd suggest getting a 2400+ which you can overclock to stock 2800+ speeds