Should I buy Athlon XP right now?

IQJUMPuw

Senior member
Feb 6, 2002
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Is AMD going to come out with a next generation CPU any time soon or is now a good time to buy an Athlon XP? I'm thinking about buying XP 2000+

Post your replies here!
 

EMAN

Banned
Jan 28, 2000
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What processor do you have now?

If overclocked speed is less than 900mhz than go for it other wise it's just bragging rights.
 

cmaMath13

Platinum Member
Feb 16, 2000
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Yeah, Yeman is right. Do it if you are at/or under 1Ghz, but if you have higher than don't mess with it right now.
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
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Well, you guys are correct (about the 900MHz part) but there is another aspect to it that you've not mentioned yet; FSB speed.

Most folks here (I"m not one of them, unfortunately :() are running a KT133A or other equivalent chipset that has a 133MHz FSB speed. FSB is where you really gain most of your performance.

Currently, I have an Abit KT7R and a 1GHz Athlon "B" (old TBird). It has a 100MHz FSB. There would be no point in my getting a 1.4GHz Athlon "B" (I don't think those are even around anymore....) b/c my FSB would still be at 100MHz.

Now, if I upgrade (which I am...ordering today!) to a 133FSB CPU/mobo, and even if I stayed at 1GHz CPU, I'd still see a big jump in performance.

So, whether or not IQJUMPuw should upgrade depends on his CPU and his mobo. If he already has a 133FSB, he'd see little to no gain in going from say a 1GHz to a 1.4GHz chip...in most things. But if he'll be increasing his FSB and his CPU speed (like I'll be doing) he can expect to see a considerable gain.

Hope this helps. :)
 

Athlon4all

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
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The next generation Athlon will be only a die shrink (it'll oc great but nothing new) so, I wouldn't hesitate to get an Athlon XP today.
 

Whitedog

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 1999
3,656
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MichaleD - Don't be confused with FSB and memory Bus. No Athlon platform ever made has had a slower than 200mhz FSB. But I know you "meant" 100mhz memory. ;)
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76


<< MichaleD - Don't be confused with FSB and memory Bus. No Athlon platform ever made has had a slower than 200mhz FSB. But I know you "meant" 100mhz memory. ;) >>



DOH! Yeah, that's what I meant...should've worded it better. me\<----looks smashing w/egg on face
rolleye.gif
 

IQJUMPuw

Senior member
Feb 6, 2002
761
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Thanks so much for the info guys. I went and bought an Athlon XP 2000+ last night. I think I got it for a pretty good price compared to other stores. You all know where I got it from. ;-)

I had:

Athlon T-Bird 1.4GHz
Crucial 256MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Gainward GeForce3
Epox 8KHA+ Motherboard
Western Digital 40GB/7200RPM HD
Seagate Barricuda 40GB/7200RPM HD

The CPU Temp of my T-Bird was 41C idle, 45C under load. (hehe... you all know what kind of heatsink I have) But I heard XP's temp are lower. Plus my friend has almost same setup as mine, but he has XP 1800+ and his 3Dmark2001 score was over 700 higher than mine. I thought that was pretty amazing. I don't overclock anything. I figured, if AMD came out with a better CPU, I'll proly just sell my XP 2000+