Upgrade from Athlon XP 1600+

[imported_Citan]

Hello everyone. As the title says I need some help.

My little sister is going away for college soon and needs a computer of some sort. This is pretty much a handmedown system.

The system specs are:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ Skt A
MSI K7N2 Delta 2 FSR
512 MB DDR133
Geforce TI200
30GB Hard drive

Ebay has the XP 3200+ for about $50 and the XP 2600+ for about $25. If I were to get either of these would I need to buy new RAM as well? Seems kinda expensive...

Does anyone have a better upgrade option?


Please help. As it is, this computer can't handle HD videos from youtube =/

 

[JWade]

well you definately need to upgrade the ram, 512mb is slowing you down too.

i would suggest ebaying the system and getting her something else. i checked on ebay and seen some hp dx5150 selling for $62 buyitnow for $62. they are socket 939, 1gb of ddr ram, 40gb of hard drive. they have 2 pci and a pci-e 16x video slot. the machine is a sff.

also check out geeks.com to see what they have for used systems too (as well as the for sale/trade forum here)

in my opinion, with what you can get a used system that is twice as fast as the one you have, for the same cost of upgrading the one you have, doesnt seem like much sense to upgrade it.

 

[Yukmouth]

Two item's:

- 1gig + DDR3200 ($30 bucks)
- Athlon XP 3000+ ($45 on pricewatch)

The reason why your system is running so terribly is because of the memory bottleneck. You're capeable of running at 400fsb, which will do wonders when utilized. In fact, you'll probably be upset when you find out you had all that potential performace sitting there unused on that NForce board.

Even 1.4ghz is fine for you tube IMO if you get that memory issue resolved, but added CPU power is always helpful.

Don't buy a new setup if what you have now has been stable for a long time, better to send your sis to school with something you know you can count on.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

You're honestly better off putting that money towards a new system/parts.

ECS G31T-M7 LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $38 AR

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz $64

2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 $20AR

Comes to ~$132 before shipping. Might as well make an investment that will carry over for a few more years.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

That hard drive is also impacting performance, although you should focus on the other upgrades first.

IMO you should just rebuild the machine. Get a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM. You're already looking to get a new CPU and RAM, and you shouldn't spend that money on slow, overpriced, and outdated hardware. You could probably find better deals, but here's something to consider:

ECS AMD 780G motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813135233

AMD Sempron 140 (or better yet, try to find the cheapest Athlon X2 AM2 processor available)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103698

2GB stick of DDR2 667 (or you might be able to find it cheaper on ebay):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145180

 

[Chang10is]

I agree with the last 2 posts--rebuild a system starting with the CPU, motherboard, and RAM. Putting in money to upgrade the CPU to another Athlon XP seems like a waste.

Both the AMD and Intel platforms suggested above are good, although the AMD choice might be a little better because Socket AM3 is new and will probably allow more room for future processor upgrades.

Make sure whatever motherboard you choose is compatible with your old power supply. Power supply standards have changed over the years. Check the motherboard manual online before you order it, or order a new power supply like this one: Corsair 400W $30 AR (ends tomorrow).

 

[Yukmouth]

I don't like wasting perfectly capeable parts and if spending well over twice as much is something you can deal with, by all means, get a new rig.

 

[Munky]

That cpu is fine for web browsing, document editing, youtube and mp3. She most likely wont be doing any gaming or other intensive tasks.

 

[Lemon law]

You better factor in the cost of a new OS, winXP home is still $100.00 and win XP pro is still $159.00 if you start changing mobo's.

And after inadequate research, its not clear if the old board will support the full AMD 800 MHZ hypertranport bus.

The other thing to note, cheap mobo's seldom last past five years before developing fatal problems, and when the end comes, they fail totally.

 

[Yukmouth]

Hey Lemon, just any fyi, the Athlon XP dose not have a Hyper Transport bus.

The memory controller is in the chipset not the CPU, and runs at a max of 200mhz (400DDR) DDR 3200.

Link

 

[formulav8]

There is nothing at all wrong with upgrading the 1600+ cpu. I am not sure why so many people think you have to upgrade to a dualcore or intel or whatever.

For her uses a 2200+ to 3200+ upgrade would do VERY well on her system for what she wants to do.

Another 512mb stick of ddr would help as well. Enables dual channel also which can add up to 0%-15% in performance.



Jason

 

[Schmide]

I have a

Athlon XP-M 2400+ 1800 MHz 512 KiB 266 MT/s 13.5x 1.45 AXMH2400FQQ4C

Excellent overclocker - multiplier unlocked.

I could find a better Video Card ATI 9600 or so and some decent ram in my basement.

All for FREE so I don't break the for sale rules. Just PM me.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
You better factor in the cost of a new OS, winXP home is still $100.00 and win XP pro is still $159.00 if you start changing mobo's.

you can keep your existing OS with a new mobo. you have to reinstall, but you can use your existing key to do so.

I agree with those who suggested replacing the mobo, cpu, and ram at one go. the cost of replacement components for your platform is just too high.

The intel and AMD specced here will work great. you can reuse your exist power supply, cdrom, case, etc...

 

[imported_Citan]

Wow lots of replies.
Probably should have mentioned I don't really have much to spend on a whole new computer. <$100
I think it would be a better choice to get a new system as well but an upgrade of some sort will have to do I guess.

Yea she's only gonna use it for internet, essays, youtube, movies, itunes, etc. Nothing too crazy. But as it is, youtube is still laggy with HD enabled. This computer was just reformatted.

So what do you guys think? CPU? RAM? HD? What would give the most benefit within my budget?

Thanks for all the great replies guys.

 

[taltamir]

you said yourself, it is not even powerful enough to play all the youtube movies.
new RAM + CPU + mobo is not a whole new system... that being said, those things just cost a certain amount, and that amount is MORE than 100$.
Personally i WOULD replace the ENTIRE system. it is just too old.
If you absolutely cannot afford them, don't spend the money and just keep it AS IS. it costs 0$ to do so.

Although if you want the cheapest upgrade you can just go with ram only as one guy suggested... problem is, you get much much LESS for performance PER DOLLAR going that route. so much so that i would keep the money towards a more substantial upgrade.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I think you can find newer, faster parts (CPU, RAM, mobo) for under $100, but you'll have to look pretty hard. This would be the best course of action, but if you can't then take the following offer if your motherboard lets you change CPU multipliers:

Originally posted by: Schmide
I have a

Athlon XP-M 2400+ 1800 MHz 512 KiB 266 MT/s 13.5x 1.45 AXMH2400FQQ4C

Excellent overclocker - multiplier unlocked.

I could find a better Video Card ATI 9600 or so and some decent ram in my basement.

All for FREE so I don't break the for sale rules. Just PM me.

Take this deal. It's basically free, so there's no reason not to!

The 2400+ XP-M is an excellent processor. Just make sure your motherboard is capable of changing the multiplier and FSB manually. If it doesn't, then the processor will probably default to 800 MHz and you can't change it.

If your board can do that, then get this processor and overclock it a little bit. I have the same chip, and at a meager 1.5V it can run at 2.0 GHz. This is still at a lower voltage than the desktop Athlon XPs, so this mobile chip will use a bit less power. As for youtube videos, it can just barely play HD, but I'll have to test it again because I can't quite remember.

 

[Schmide]

His board can change multipliers. This chip will do 2.2-2.3 easy, it didn't have a very long duty cycle in my nephews computer. I don't think it needed much voltage at all to do that anyways.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Mine needed 1.7V to get to 2.275. And I really couldn't overclock it any higher, although I think my motherboard (possibly RAM) is to blame. I couldn't raise the multi past 12.5x no matter what I did. And any FSB over 182 wouldn't pass Prime 95, which is strange as that 182 limit was across a few different processors.

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: taltamir
you said yourself, it is not even powerful enough to play all the youtube movies.
new RAM + CPU + mobo is not a whole new system... that being said, those things just cost a certain amount, and that amount is MORE than 100$.
Personally i WOULD replace the ENTIRE system. it is just too old.
If you absolutely cannot afford them, don't spend the money and just keep it AS IS. it costs 0$ to do so.

Although if you want the cheapest upgrade you can just go with ram only as one guy suggested... problem is, you get much much LESS for performance PER DOLLAR going that route. so much so that i would keep the money towards a more substantial upgrade.

I agree with everything said here. Keeping your existing platform and upgrading only the RAM or CPU would give you less performance per dollar spent. Because it's less cost efficient, I would save money until you can get a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Until then, it would probably be better to keep your system as is (or take up Schmide on his offer).