Upgrade Barton 2500+ to 3000

[aamsel]

I am going to get an ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe, and had been running a Barton 2500+ in a previous motherboard.
Since the ASUS supports 400Mhz FSB, do you think it would be worth it to upgrade to a Barton 3000 2.1 with 400 FSB?
If I do this I am going to feel compelled to swap my gig of PC2700 for PC3200. What do you all think? Swap everything, or keep what I have?
Thanks,
Andrew
Austin, Texas

 

[Sid59]

get another barton and set the multiplier to 400 FSB.

gotta be careful cause the newer bartons are locked. or so says the masses.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

Or just clock your current barton to a 3200+ right now and just use the new mobo.

 

[Jeff7181]

Why would you get another processor??????????

 

[MDE]

I'd get PC3200 and overclock the 2500 to 2.2GHz. Just raise the FSB to 200 and you're set.

 

[aamsel]

It is an older (early release) Barton 2500+ so it should not be locked, but:
1.) What are the chances that it will or won't do a higher speed like 3200 reliably?? The only reason I thought about getting a new CPU, was that I typically don't overclock because I would like to have a rock steady system. PLEASE ADVISE.
2.) Also (and yes, I do know this is off topic, but is related) if I get the PC3200 (or should I get PC3500) there are about a million different RAM modules available. I have bought Crucial in the past. Is their PC3200 good enough, or should I go for something different, like Corsair, Kingston Hyper-X, or OCZ ?? If so, which modules ?? I am going to be using this, as I said, with the ASUS rev. 2.0+ board.
3.) Is there a reasonably priced heatsink/fan combo that does not sound like a jet plane ??
Thanks!!
Andrew
Austin, TX

 

[Tetsuo316]

my asus non-deluxe (meaning won't support the newer 400mhz chips officially) hits 200 mhz no problem with my barton 2500+. that's with crucial pc2700 ram running 100% too. it runs 100% stable at 1.75v and 44 degrees celsius.

if you've already ordered the board, just wait for it to arrive, put everything in and see what you get. why spend another $383 on a processor and ram that would be slower than what you already have when overclocked?
so...

1) pretty good chances on hitting 3200 speeds. if it doesn't do 200fsb, just raise the multiplier.

2) if you can afford it, get the faster ram since headroom is always nice. like i said above, my crucial always runs faster than crucial claims it can. my pc2100 did pc2700 speeds and my pc2700 runs at pc3200 speeds.

3) i love my ax-7 with an 80mm fan on it, but they're a bit hard to come by now. i don't normally recommend thermal take, but this one looks good. i do like taisol's too. after all, amd chose them for their retail cpu's.

good luck.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Or just clock your current barton to a 3200+ right now and just use the new mobo.

I agree.

 

[aamsel]

Thanks Tetsuo316, that is really fantastic information!!
I may have different Crucial RAM than you do, but it is worth a try. I see that you have 512M and I have 1GB, is yours (1) 512M module or (2) 256's ??
Anyhow, my last question (for today <grin>) is:
How likely is the PC2700 I have to work in dual-channel mode, and, if it doesn't how much difference would that make ??
Or, does the memory have to specifically be "dual channel" to run in dual channel mode ??
Please advise!
Andrew
Austin, Texas

Originally posted by: Tetsuo316
my asus non-deluxe (meaning won't support the newer 400mhz chips officially) hits 200 mhz no problem with my barton 2500+. that's with crucial pc2700 ram running 100% too. it runs 100% stable at 1.75v and 44 degrees celsius.

if you've already ordered the board, just wait for it to arrive, put everything in and see what you get. why spend another $383 on a processor and ram that would be slower than what you already have when overclocked?
so...

1) pretty good chances on hitting 3200 speeds. if it doesn't do 200fsb, just raise the multiplier.

2) if you can afford it, get the faster ram since headroom is always nice. like i said above, my crucial always runs faster than crucial claims it can. my pc2100 did pc2700 speeds and my pc2700 runs at pc3200 speeds.

3) i love my ax-7 with an 80mm fan on it, but they're a bit hard to come by now. i don't normally recommend thermal take, but this one looks good. i do like taisol's too. after all, amd chose them for their retail cpu's.

good luck.

 

[high]

Aslong as they're identical modules put 1 stick in DDR 1/2 and the other in 3 and you have Dual Channel. Essentially doubles memory bandwidth I run my 2100 in Dual Chan and there's a world of difference

 

[CraigRT]

i think i might trash my idea of getting another CPU (XP3000) and overclock my 2500 as well.

 

[suklee]

Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Or just clock your current barton to a 3200+ right now and just use the new mobo.

 

[JimRaynor]

Well, there's not much of a performance increase going from a 2500 to a 3000 anyways. Definitely not enough to justify the cost of a new chip..

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: high
Aslong as they're identical modules put 1 stick in DDR 1/2 and the other in 3 and you have Dual Channel. Essentially doubles memory bandwidth I run my 2100 in Dual Chan and there's a world of difference

Dual Channel gives virtually no increase in performance on AMD side. Since you don't use IGP, you wouldn't notice 0-3% real world speed increase from Dual Channel. Now for Intel side, Dual Channel is a must.

To the original poster, I would keep the gig of pc2700 you have. Since you have unlocked Barton, just play around with multiplier and FSB to get the maximum speed. If you're really set on 200 FSB, you might get lucky and be able to hit that with your current ram if you increase the VDIMM and use loose timings.

 

[OpTiX]

Originally posted by: Naustica

Originally posted by: high
Aslong as they're identical modules put 1 stick in DDR 1/2 and the other in 3 and you have Dual Channel. Essentially doubles memory bandwidth I run my 2100 in Dual Chan and there's a world of difference

Dual Channel gives virtually no increase in performance on AMD side. Since you don't use IGP, you wouldn't notice 0-3% real world speed increase from Dual Channel. Now for Intel side, Dual Channel is a must.

To the original poster, I would keep the gig of pc2700 you have. Since you have unlocked Barton, just play around with multiplier and FSB to get the maximum speed. If you're really set on 200 FSB, you might get lucky and be able to hit that with your current ram if you increase the VDIMM and use loose timings.

i noticed a big increase in preformance when i switched to dual channel, and yes im using an amd cpu

 

[pspada]

I concur, dual channel does make a noticable, and IMNSHO worthwhile difference. But I also blew the extra bucks on a gig of good OCZ PC3200 400Mhz RAM, and the 3000+ processor, so everything is running in sync @ 400Mhz, with the RAM at CAS2. Lastly my mobo is the FIC AU13, the finest nForce2 board on the market, officially supporting the 400Mhz FSB! I've installed dozens of them, and never had a single problem - indeed, I was so impressed, I replaced my prior Epox 8RDA+ with one.

 

[zodder]

Originally posted by: Kai920

Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Or just clock your current barton to a 3200+ right now and just use the new mobo.

Exactly

 

[eBauer]

Originally posted by: OpTiX

Originally posted by: Naustica

Originally posted by: high
Aslong as they're identical modules put 1 stick in DDR 1/2 and the other in 3 and you have Dual Channel. Essentially doubles memory bandwidth I run my 2100 in Dual Chan and there's a world of difference

Dual Channel gives virtually no increase in performance on AMD side. Since you don't use IGP, you wouldn't notice 0-3% real world speed increase from Dual Channel. Now for Intel side, Dual Channel is a must.

To the original poster, I would keep the gig of pc2700 you have. Since you have unlocked Barton, just play around with multiplier and FSB to get the maximum speed. If you're really set on 200 FSB, you might get lucky and be able to hit that with your current ram if you increase the VDIMM and use loose timings.

i noticed a big increase in preformance when i switched to dual channel, and yes im using an amd cpu

Was the increase in the "feel" of how fast it was or the benchmarks?

 

[pelikan]

In games, dual channel = approx. 100MHz cpu power over single channel. I see 5-10% increase in gaming benchmarks on my system.

 

[eBauer]

Alright, this weekend I will go nuts and benchmark as many games as I can manage. It very well could be you will see a bigger difference of the dual channel with a 210-230FSB, as opposed to a stock 166/200. I will just pull out the 1Gig of 3200LL TwinX (first version) from my 875/3.3Ghz P4 rig, and do some benches comparing single channel vs dual channel, at both 200 and 220fsb.

Edit: Will use NF7/S, BBA 9700 Pro @ 360/340, and 2500+ capable of 2.2g @ 1.65v and 2.4g @ 1.76v