Upgrade to XP? Yes or no?

[PowerYoga]

I'm thinking of upgrading my athlon 1.2 to an XP sometime in the future, probably 1700. The thing is, I'm going to have to replace my mobo too if i upgrade since my epox 8k7a doesn't seem to support the XP chipset. Is it worth it so spend around $200 just so i can have a +.2 ghz increase in speed? Or should i better spend it on a graphics card?

 

[gaidin123]

Spend it on a graphics card or just wait another quarter or two before you upgrade. A 1.2Ghz chip will be graphics card limited in almost any game you'll play. Even if it's not graphics card limited it will still give you very competitive framerates for another year or more.

The Athlon XPs are great chips but if you already have a 1.2 (running at 133Mhz bus I hope?) then you're fine. I recently upgraded a ~940Mhz/157Mhz FSB Duron to an Athlon XP 1.7Ghz/154MhzFSB and other than an decrease in boot times, Windows doesn't seem to run much faster in day to day tasks. I even went from SDRAM to DDRSDRAM.

So yeah I'd advocate a better graphics card. 🙂

Gaidin

 

[Dan]

If you've got money to burn and are just looking for "bragging rights" by all means, upgrade. Otherwise, I agree with gaidin123. STick with your present chip. You won't see a big enough performance boost from an XP to justify the expense.

 

[MoFunk]

Uhhhh. I am running an XP1600@1544 right now in my 8k7a.....

 

[stevens]

Yeah i thought your board supported the XP but i could be wrong. I thought that all boards with the AMD-761 supported the XP.

 

[JimMc]

It's supported, you may need a BIOS update though. You'll get a nice boost in SETI, the XP flies in it.

 

[microAmp]

<< I'm thinking of upgrading my athlon 1.2 to an XP sometime in the future, probably 1700. The thing is, I'm going to have to replace my mobo too if i upgrade since my epox 8k7a doesn't seem to support the XP chipset. Is it worth it so spend around $200 just so i can have a +.2 ghz increase in speed? Or should i better spend it on a graphics card? >>



I have the same CPU as you, but running with Epox 8KHA+ even though I could make a jump or more like yours I went ahead and got a Ti200 and replaced my GeForce 1 DDR card. I'm going to try to wait for a 1.0 GHz jump from 1.2 to 2.2 GHz, plus I'll be getting the Thoroughbred (sp?) and if any added benefits that come with it, just hang on, get a new vid. card instead or a small bump in memory.

 

[Deliximus]

wait for throughbreds, much better investment. they may be a bit expensive at first but they will give good OC!!

also, the 8k7a is definitely supported since it's a DDR chipset AND it is a amd761

 

[Wind]

Ur mobo support XP w/ the latest bios update & yeah...VGA card is a better upgrade option.

 

[vancenase]

what about me? will i see a performance boost from a PI 350? 🙂

 

[PowerYoga]

thanx a lot guys 🙂 I was thinking that the 761 chipset would support xp but mine clearly said it didn't.... I just haven't been up to date in my mobo updates. I'm also probably going to wait a while for the spanking new 2.2 ghz amd to come out and then make the jump. I'll spend my hard-earned cash on a ti200 or radeon 8500 then. 😀 thx for all your opinions!

 

[Jerboy]

If you already have 1GHz + CPU, 99% of the users don't need to upgrade other than to satisfy their emotional desire.

you know what I want though? faster net connection. Much more important than CPU speed IMO.

 

[Mitzi]

<< what about me? will i see a performance boost from a PI 350? 🙂 >>



Yes you would notice an increase. However, it would involve having to buy a new CPU, RAM and mobo though. It could also involve having to buy a new PSU if your current one is not up to scratch - quite a costly affair.

 

[MCS]

Depends what you use your PC for. If you are doing any distributed computing, Divx encoding or Photoshop work an XP will walk all over that 1.2. However, if you are just a casual gamer/surfer then I would say it's probably not worth the upgrade.