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Photoshoppers - help me with Athlon XP/PC questions..please :)

G

GratefullySaved

Senior member
Hey gang,

I'm a pro photographer working mostly on a couple of G4 Macs, but have just been clued in to how much faster a pc really can be. I'm wondering if it's possible to upgrade my current pc (Athlon 1Ghz/Abit KT7a/512 RAM/133 Mhz bus) to be significantly faster than a G4 667 for about two to three hundred dollars. 🙂 My thoughts and questions are as follows: 1) buy an Nforce 2 board (Leadtek is $100 right now at one online store) 2) get an Athlon XP 2100+ for about $90 3) buy another 512 of PC133 RAM and run everything on a 266 MHz bus. Questions: 1) Is an Athlon XP 2100+ on a 266 MHz bus THAT much faster than my 1 Ghz Athlon on 133 Mhz bus? 2) Assuming both my mac and the "new upgraded" pc (with the 2100+ chip) have 1 GB of RAM each, how much faster would the pc be for PHotoshop work? PC will run Windows XP, mac is running OS 9.2.2.

I work on files that are anywhere from 20MB to 600MB, but my powerbook only goes to 1GB of RAM. I'm half thinking of upgrading my gaming pc (ha ha) to Windows XP (have free copy from dad), bumping the RAM maybe even to 2GB of RAM of all of $100, and using the PC for my "big file photoshop workstation" rather than my mac. I can't afford a P4 system, or better a dual P4 Xeon system, so I'm trying to play with the what I can do for under $300. All help is appreciated, especially from other PS experts or working pros... 🙂

Thanks to all,

GS
 
I believe you mean 266mhz fsb for the 1ghz athlon it is dule pumped
your board will take the fastest AMD cpu's out right now (except the 333mhz fsb xp 2600+ and up)
i just ordered a 2400+ and 512mb of pc-133 memory today
you might consider the same thing unless your really concerned about memory speed

your old board is still great
there are now some 2100+ .13u T-breds for about 90 bucks at newegg.com
the 2400+ is about 180 bucks
with pc-133 memory being much cheaper than the ddr memory you might be better off keeping your motherboard
to get 1gb of ddr memory will cost you a lot more
my 512mb stick of pc-133 was like 60 bucks

i've never owned a mac but a 667mhz G4 won't outperform an athlon xp 2100+ or 2400+ nomatter how much cache it has
as far as photoshop being well optimized for macs, it still supports all the optimizations for athlons/p4's
the athlon xp will have sse2 as well

well good luck
 
let me run some possible senarios for you:

say you chose to upgrade your motherboard and get ddr memory this could be what you might pay:

Memory:
256mb samsung pc2700 $64
512mb samsung pc2700 $124
if you want faster latencies or frequency you'll have to pay more or maybe up the voltage

Motherboard:
Abit kd7 kt400 $99
Abit Nf7 nforce2 $118
I chose abit since yur other board is made by them
if you wanted to save 10 bucks you could get the kt333 version
the nforce2 version comes with integrated GF4 MX graphics, sound, and nic

Cpu:
1700+ $54
2100+ $94
2400+ $180

so lets see how that adds up
512mb x2 = $248
nforce2 motherboard $118
2100+ = $94

$462 total



 
if you choose to keep your current motherboard you'll instantly save over 100 bucks to put into either more memory or a faster cpu

Mem:
512mb kingston pc-133 $60

Cpu:
1700+ $54
2100+ $94
2400+ $180

2400+ $180
512mb x2 $120
total $300


that would be a faster system with a lot of ram for cheaper
you could also get the 2100+ instead and go the 2gb memory route

2100+ $94
512mb x4 $240
total $334

the fact that it is pc-133 will just mean less memory bandwidth (which is the trade off for half the price and thus more memory) which means little to me but i'll let others comment on that

what are your other system specs ?
like hard drive and vid card


sorry for the long posts i hope i helped
 
Soul keeper,

Are you sure my Abit KTZa can take a 2100+? The specs on it say nothing more than 1.4 GHz is supported, but does this mean faster won't work, or faster isn't "supported"? Ideally, I'd LOVE to just plop $100 for the 2100+, drop it in running the 266 Mhz bus (thanks for correction) and then fill up on PC133 RAM. That would do me just fine if it's possible! (pant pant)

Do you know of anyone with KT7a running 2100+ personally with no problems? That was really my first intention until I read about the 1.4 Ghz limit thing.

Thanks for your help, I look forward to hearing from you...

GS
 
the reason they say only up to 1.4ghz is because the board was released before the athlon xp was
this doesn't mean it won't support them
you might have to update the bios

the board has a kt133a chipset right ??
just go to their website and see what their bios notes say
 
This should help
there's the page on your motherboard with all the info you need
looks like you can only max it out at 1.5gb of mem

looking through the bios notes it doesn't say anything about the athlon xp
i'm almost certain it works tho

there are two ways you can find out for sure
post in the motherboard section and ask those guys if they have ran an xp in the KT7a
or/and you could e-mail abit
 
ha i found our answer in the FAQ

4. Does ABIT KG7 / KT7A / KT7E mainboard support AMD Athlon XP processors? Statement: ABIT KG7 / KG7-RAID mainboard is hardware compatible (ready) and can support AMD Athlon XP processor via BIOS update.
ABIT KT7A / KT7A-RAID V1.3 mainboard is hardware compatible (ready) and can support AMD Athlon XP processor via BIOS update.
ABIT KT7 / KT7-RAID / KT7E all version and KT7A/KT7A-RAID V1.0/1.1/1.2 cannot support AMD Athlon XP processor.

1. ABIT has release BIOS for KG7 and KT7A V1.3 to patch the CPU model name. If user did not upgrade to the latest bios, users can also manually set the suitable working frequency for AMD Athlon XP processors in SoftMenu BIOS.
AMD Athlon XP Processors SoftMenu III Setup -> CPU Operating Speed ->User Define
With above setting users can use AMD Athlon XP processors flawlessly. The incorrect CPU information during POST can be fix via BIOS update.
2. As for KT7 and KT7A old version mainboards, which launched earlier than AMD Athlon XP processors, they are not hardware compatible with new CPU.


What version is your board ?? apparently it matters
v1.3 or later work according to abit
the version number should be written just like that on the motherboard
probably around the pci slots or on one of the sides
 
Soul Keeper you are something else! 🙂

Thanks so much for your efforts, and I'll look at what version I have...uh...as soon as I know where to look? ha ha I've done SoftMenu tweaks (I'm running the 1 Ghz at 1.2 Ghz - was trying to go to 1.7 since my stepping is AHJAR (or something like that) and Overclockerz told me that I could positively get to 1.7 with their chip, but alas no go) Anyway, once I find my version I'll be looking at going the 2100+ route for sure then! And 1.5 GB of RAM would be plenty for what I have planned. Not a big compromise really.

So how do I find out? Does that show on POST? I could restart but I'm downloading a new demo right now and don't want to have to wait at fileshack.com another 24 minutes. 🙂

Thanks so much Keeper, you're a keeper! (sorry, it was too hard to pass up on that word play ha ha)

Sincerely,

GS
 
hahaha, thanks

well about overclocking your 1ghz to 1.7 that's a big overclock and you would need extreme cooling and very high voltage to do that. that's pretty much the highest that the 1ghz procs can get when pushed to their max. with good air cooling I would expect no more than 1.4 or 1.5

I had a 1ghz chip running at 1.3 but my motherboad and psu were holding me back

if you do choose to overclock your 1ghz chip i would keep the voltage under 2v and watch the temps
And be carefull !! take it slow, only up the voltage if you have to

yeah just open your case and look for the version number i'm not sure if it will show the board's rev at post but it will definately be written on the board
i think another poster in your other thread suggested it might be written near the isa slot

Also what wattage Powersupply do you have ??
 
OK, if I looked in the right spot, I see v1.1 next to a barcode that is all on a sticker that's stuck to my mobo by the ISA/PCI slots. Is that it? And what does v1.1 mean for me? Is there a way to make it see the XP chips or am I now officially locked out of funville? ha ha

My power is an Antec 300W power supply in a really good Antec case (is the same case as the blue Chieftan if that helps - really tall, steel, mine is dk gray and built like a tank) My back is really in love with me when I try to carry it occasionally. 😉

Last question, off topic - I also want to upgrade my GeForce 2 MX to something like a GeForce 4 Ti4200 or at least a GeForce 4 MX - but I've heard the G4 MX is really a GF2 with added memory, is this true? Also, do you happen to know of anywhere to get a 4200 for around a hundred dollars? I'm on a tight budget for this stuff. (and who isn't?) 🙂

Thanks again,

GS
 
well antec make nice psu's the fact that it is only 300watts might damper your overclocking hopes but other than that it hopefully shouldn't be a problem

since your motherboard appears to be rev 1.1 abit says it won't work
you can try to make it work and take the chance (the worst that can happen is it won't post)
I own an older motherboard with the older KT133 chipset and it works with athlon xp's ( just won't support 133mhz fsb so i have to run it at 100mhz, 200 dool pumped)

If your video card does what you need right now I would wait till next month to upgrade that
Nvidia is releasing a new line a video cards based on the nv30 core in the first week of next month under the name Geforece FX
That is definately worth waiting for
the GF4 MX models use the NV17 core which was originally intended for laptops and became a budget gpu (as well as a laptop solution)
the NV17 is similar to the NV15 (the geforce2) and isn't as good as the Geforce3 (NV20) and the Geforce4 (NV25 and NV28)

I just ordered the best Geforce4 TI4200 128mb card i could find but if you wanna stay under 100 dollars then the TI4200 isn't for you right now
radeon8500's can be found in that price range
I put one of those in my uncle's comp and it is pretty good (performs on par with a Geforce3 and slightly less than a Geforce4 ti4200)
if you do get a vid card try to get a 128mb version if you can


so lets see that puts us back at ground one
 
well you could buy only the cpu and see if it works in that motherboard
then if it don't work you could buy a new motherboard (I would get an nforce2 based board)
you can get nforce boards with integrated Geforce4 MX graphics which would perform slighly higher than what you got

once you get that figured out you could then buy the memory
 
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