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need some advice before buying my first AthlonXP

L

lorlabnew

Senior member
Hello,

I'm planning to build my first AMD system; I somehow decided on parts (ASUS A7N8X or A7V8X board, with Corsair PC2700 or 3200, not sure yet due to some confusion about clocking the RAM to the best advantege and bandwidth).

Anyway, I understand that some AthlonXP's ("Thoroughbred" core) come with unlocked multipliers; how can I say whether the particular piece/model is unlocked before I buy it? Sorry if this is a silly question, newbie to Athlons....🙂

I'll be getting my parts from the local store...but could order online from Newegg as well if there would be suitable CPU available there. Also, I would prefer retail packaged CPU for the starter (better warranty I think, as well as orig. heatsink/fan).

I'd like XP2100+ or higher (up to 2400+) with 266fsb, 333fsb CPU's seem to be expensive still.

Could anyone advice? Wouldn't mind an advice on the mentioned motherboards as well.

Thx in advance.
Dave
 
The best setup for the Athlon now is what you mentioned the ASUS A7N8X (Nvidia's nForce2 chipset) Get the 2400+ and pair it off with either PC2700 or PC3200 and get 2x 256 or 2x512 etc to take advantage of Dual Channel efficiency on the nForce2 motherboard. The Athlons are locked by default but the newest KT400 and nForce2 motherboards unlock it for you.
 
Thx for explanation rIpTOr,
all clear now ....

OK then I'll grab either XP2100+, or maybe 2400+ (if I'll feel like to spend that extra $100); with pair of Corsair CMX256A-2700C2 256MB or better CMX256A-3200C2, depends on what they'll have on hand in the store, plus will get ASUS nForce2 motherboard. Hope this setup will wipe in benchmarks (and in gaming of course) my older P4 1.6A setup...

I don't plan to overclock straight away, but I will want to try some tweaking within a week I'm sure; that's why I want to have open options for overclocking both CPU and RAM. I like my older P4 rig (rock solid & 100% compatible with everything, both under Win and Linux), but there are virtually zero options for performance tweaks (have Intel motherboard), so I thought this time I definitely should give a try to AthlonXP; also, I checked the benchmarks of Dual Channel DDR, and looks interesting.

Thx again for help!

Dave

 
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