Should I upgrade???

[DaSinical1]

Would I see any performance difference between my 1.7 GHz Athalon xp and a 1.6a pentium oc... Decisions decisions... I'm a hardware junkie so I have to have the latest and greatest...but if I do go the P4 route...am I upgrading or just "side-grading"?

Mark

 

[Trader05]

Even tho the 1.6a can overclock well, you won't be gaining too much. In my own opinion it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Lithium381]

ALWAYS upgrade, never stop!

 

[Platinum321]

I think if you can get to 2.1+ghz.. which every seems to be able to do, it will be well worth it. My 1.6a @2.25 runs faster then I've ever seen any computer run. Loading excelXP takes less than a second the first time around. You will probably notice a difference and your baby will run much cooler and you'll know you have the latest and greatest hardware for a fraction of the cost. I'm a VERY satisfied customer.

 

[rogue1979]

Well, I have been debating the same thing for awhile now, it is tempting. But I just ran Sandra 2002 cpu multimedia mark and I scored higher than a Pentium 4 2GHz, so I don't know if it would be worth it or not. One interesting thing I have seen is the memory bandwidth benchmarks on an Epox KT333a board and it beat a 400MHz rdram board. 1/5 and 1/6 pci dividers, can you imagine that thing at 375-400MHz DDR speed with a .13 micron Thoroughbred running 2GHz+?

 

[o1die]

I did exactly what you're thinking of doing, going from 1700 xp to 1.6a P4. I sold my old rig in the local paper, and spent about $150 more for the P4 setup. I also switched from a geforce 2 ti 500 to radeon 7500. The new system is smoother overclocked, but much noiser with 5 case fans. I stayed with ddram (sis 645) so I could try the hammer when it comes out. I change mobos at least twice a year. I don't recommend doing this just for speed. The speed difference doesn't justify the cost, unless you get a good price for your old system.

 

[LarryJoe]

The Athlon XP rig is limited as far as upgrading goes. The XP is near the end of it's yield and my guess is that the next offering from AMD (hammer??) will not work in your current mobo, so you will be linited to the 2000+ or 2100+ tops. The 1.6A at 2.1 or 2.2 (almost a sure oc) will be almost equal to your 1700+, BUT you will be open to future Northwoods, most likely going into the 3's. I say go for it, but I am not an AMD expert by any means, just going by what I read.

Getting a 600mhz overclock out of a Northwood is alot of fun and very exciting. Makes you feel like you got a 33% faster chip for nothing. The XP+ doesn't oc nearly as well, if at all.

LJ

 

[DaSinical1]

I think you guys are misunderstanding what I have. I don't have a xp1700+...I have a xp clocked at 1.7GHz... Literally a xp2100+. I just tried to load excel xp and it loads under 1 sec as well...the first time. rogue1979 has the same idea as I do...I just ran sandra again and I literally slap the p4 2Ghz around in that bench. So...my first question remains...Will i be upgrading or side-grading. If i'm only side-grading...I might consider getting a p4 2.0a and see how high that can go. I forget where but I saw a bench where they were able to go up to something like 2.5-2.6Ghz. Or...I can just wait a few months and upgrade to the new amd processor when it comes out. My processor on my 8KHA+ coupled with a quadro dcc...is by far one of the fastest single processor computer I have personally seen. Oh well...please keep the comments coming.

Mark