Thoroughbread or Barton

[ronnibonni]

Hi all

I have a choice between a XP thoroughbread 2600+ (2133/333 Mhz) and a XP Barton 2500+ (1830 Mhz/333) at the same price, but whats the difference between a thoroughbread and a Barton. I can see that the Thoroughbred 2600+ runs much faster than the Barton 2500+, so whats the deal.

Thanks

 

[Arclite]

Barton has 512k of L2 cache which is supposed to make it faster, and it does. But the real pro of getting a Barton is for how well they overclock. You can easily turn your 2500+ into a 3200+ with decent cooling and it will run stable. I have mine at 2 Ghz (166x12) with stock cooling and it's very stable. Get the Barton.

 

[Duvie]

Thoroughbred!!! get the barton with the increased l2 cache and the 400fsb....

 

[ronnibonni]

Thanks.

 

[aznskickass]

Tbred 2600+ if you won't overclock, as it's a bit faster than a 2500+ at stock speeds.

Overclocking, I would recommend a 2500+, it's a little cheaper, and overclocks to 2.2 - 2.3GHz aren't uncommon.

That said, the 2600+ isn't a bad overclocker itself, quite a few make 2.3 - 2.4GHz if you have a good HSF, but it would still be slightly slower than an overclocked 2500+ @ 2.2 - 2.3GHz because it only has 256KB L2 cache.

Cheers.

 

[dunkster]

If you're not overclocking, the choice between XP2600+ and XP2500+ is a coin-toss.

If you do plan to overclock, the range of choices is not nearly as narrow.

I have an XP2500+, and the best stable settings I could achieve were 210 X 11 and 215 X 10.5.

I bought a cheaper $70 DLT3C XP1700+ which I've run Prime95-stable at 226 X 11. Guess which processor is now designated 'backup'?

Hope this helps!

 

[Corporate Thug]

why do u guys say throughbred if you arent gonna overclock? since when does the throughbred not overclock?

 

[Megatomic]

I think they're saying that if the user isn't going to overclock that the default clockrate of the TB chip will give better performance than the Barton price equivalent.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I think they're saying that if the user isn't going to overclock that the default clockrate of the TB chip will give better performance than the Barton price equivalent.

No... the rating is pretty accurate... the only area it's not accurate is in media encoding where raw speed is the determining factor.

 

[Megatomic]

I've used both, I definitely like the Barton better clock for clock.