Questions about mobile XP2500...

[Lyfer]

My last AMD cpu I overclocked with was an XP2100 tbred B which runs 2.36GHZ fine with some cheap twimons PC3200ram. I plan on maybe grabbing a good nforce 2 board (prolly an ABIT NF7), and slapping in a mole XP2500 with some PC3200 Kingston valueram or Buffalo CH5 (1gb). My questions are what the differences between mobile barton and the desktop version? Does the desktop XP2500 still come with the multiplier unlocked? Does the XP2500 Mobile come unlocked? How much can I get out of a XP2500 mobile? And why do some folks recommend the XP2600 mobile over the XP2500?


Thanx!


BTW what is some cheap PC3200 ram (<$170 for a 1gb) that I can use to overclock this chip with other than KIngston Value ram and Buffalo CH5?

 

[BlueWeasel]

AMD started locking the multiplier on the non-mobile Bartons after production week 39 of last year, and the mulitpliers can't be changed with an NF2 board. The mobile Bartons are unlocked and the multiplier can be changed freely with an NF2 board.

Also, the default voltage for the mobile chips is 1.45v, whereas the default voltage on the desktop versions is 1.65v.

 

[myocardia]

Wow! I don't believe I've ever seen that many questions in one post. Okay, the mobile Bartons are the cream of the Barton crop. They are actually testing them, to see which ones are high-quality enough to be able to run at default voltage, but at 1.45v instead of 1.65v. That means that they are all excellent chips. No, the destop Bartons are all multi locked, whereas the mobile Bartons are all unlocked. One more reason to buy them. Most people are getting around 2.5ghz on air with the mobile Bartons at the same voltage that is usually needed to get 2.2-2.3ghz. And finally, I don't know of any better cheap ram than Buffalo. Unfortunately, they aren't still selling the BH-5 Buffalo.

 

[Lyfer]

Will Buffalo CH5 from newegg or Kingston Value ram be decent ram for overclocking it to 2.4-2.5ghz? I don't really care that much about timings.

 

[myocardia]

The Buffalo CH5 is way, way better than the Kingston Value ram, IMO. Kingston HyperX is good ram, but their value stuff isn't very good. We answer quite a few questions about ram problems from people who bought Kingston Value, and hardly ever one from the people who bought Buffalo.

edit: BTW, why would you get rid of an XP2100 that will do 2350?

 

[Lyfer]

I gave the rig to my brother. Its a pretty decent compt (only draw back is its radeon 8500LE video card).