OC 2500 Barton or 2500 Mobile?

[L8CS]

I'm currently running my retail 2500 Barton on an Abit NF7-S2 at 200mhz on the FSB. I just upgraded from 1gb of Crucial PC2700 to Mushkin Blue PC3200, because I had errors on one of the Crucial sticks. Anyway, I couldn't get above 166mhz with the Crucial with a 6:5 divider and 7-3-3-2. I put the Mushkin in and went to 200mhz with a 1:1 and 11-3-3-2.5 and it runs great.

From researching the threads, I've learned that the NF7-S2 isn't that good of a board for oc'ing because you can't change the multiplier on an unlocked CPU like the Mobile. I had just replaced a perfectly good NF7S ver2 with the NF7-S2 last month because I had RMA'd the S2 a couple of months ago and thought it was a better mb that the NF7S. Since I've now learned otherwise, I'm going to put the NF7S back in.

I know from an earlier post of mine, that the 2500 Barton I have is locked so my question is if I'm already running at 3200, would buying the 2500 Mobile and oc'ing it have that much of a performance gain over my current configuration?

 

[ts3433]

You might get an extra 200MHz or more out of adjusting multipliers on a mobile, though it may be a better idea to save your money for an A64 or something later.

 

[L8CS]

I was thinking about the upgrade path to the A64 but MegaWorks said in this thread, http://forums.anandtech.com/me...yword1=best+AND+mobile[/L]

TextSo you're saying it's not a good thing to dump the barton 2500 in order to get a mobile one. I disagree, I think that if he gets the moble barton his chances a achieving more than 2.2Ghz are better than the normal bartons, and they say that the 2500-M at 2.5Ghz can match some Athlon 64 CPU's. ]

Another thing puzzles me. When I used the 2500 Barton on the NF7S a few weeks ago, I could adjust the multiplier in the Bios, but I think that was just because it defaulted to a 1100 on the initial setup. Can you adjust the multiplier up to the rated speed on a locked CPU and no farther or would it read the rated speed and not let you adjust the multiplier at all?

 

[frootbooter]

I wouldn't spend the dollars on an upgrade that's probably only going to get you a 300 mhz increase. That's not even noticable to most people. Save up for an a64 or something.

 

[L8CS]

I think you guys are right. I haven't even tried oc'ing my 5900 ultra yet so that will give me something to do. I can always use the NF7-S2 in my server and keep toying with this one.

Thanks

 

[TheStu]

Just up your RAM speed and you will fly.... at 200*11 you are already at 3200 speeds.... I know when I sadjusted my RAm from 200 to 220 there was a noticable difference... even though it was technically clocked lower (I had previously run at 200*12.5 and now am at 220*11) my PCMark scores, SuperPi scores and really everything else was simply faster... so save your pennies for the A64 and push that RAM...

 

[L8CS]

Just up your RAM speed and you will fly

Thanks. I'll drop the NF7-S back in and give it a try.

 

[operaman1]

Definitely wait for an A64. the speed difference is HUGE.

 

[L8CS]

Definitely wait for an A64. the speed difference is HUGE.

I'll probably wait until next Christmas to do an A64 upgrade so I'll just tweak the 2500 some more.

On another note, I went to drop what I thought was my old NF7-S mb back in this morning and much to my surprise, I discovered it was the NF7 and not the NF7-S. Anyway, I'll just stick with the NF7-S2 for now and keep playing with the FSB settings.