upgrading with barton 2400+ XP mobile, please help!

[chinkee]

my current system:

1.0 Ghz Thunderbird Processor
512 mb pc 2100 crucial 64x64 Ram
Asus A7V8X-X KT400 Mobo

Ok, so i just bought a new mobile barton 2400+ off newegg due to overclocking hype. I also bought a Zalman 7000 fan because I was in need of an upgrade anyway. Here's my question: If I was to overclock my Barton processor to around 2.3~2.4Ghz, could i keep my mobo and ram? If I need to upgrade, what mobo and Ram would I need? I've asked questions about best compatible mobos for the Barton mobile and the responses seem to lean towards the Asus A7N8X-Deluxe or the Abit NF7-S. Also, I'm really unsure about the Ram that would be compatible w/ my setup. Would I need really expensive corsair PC4000 ram or is kingston pc2700 ram ok? any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dnuggett]

The best board IMO is the DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B. The 2100 RAM needs to be updated unless you paln on running a very high multi (prob not). I'd go with some high quality 3200 at the least.

 

[myocardia]

The DFI Lanparty is the best for high fsb's, but you don't need to pay $150 for a good nForce2 mobo. Matter of fact, half that is plenty, as evidenced here: link to Abit NF7 for 75.99. The NF7 is really better than the A7N8X, and unlike the Asus, you lose nothing but SATA by going with the cheaper version. It overclocks every bit as high as the NF7-S.

edit: I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton. And you won't be able to overclock much at all, unless you get some PC3200.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: myocardia
edit: I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton. And you won't be able to overclock much at all, unless you get some PC3200.

you also forgot about the motherboard and the unlocked mobile chip...

If chinkee should upgrade to the NF7 series, remember that the NF7 is good with high multipliers and not to forget that you can run the CPU FSB async from the RAM speed and still OC the proc without touching your ram.

If money isn't too tight, then going ahead and getting some good RAM would be very good for maximum system performance, as the system performs best when the CPU and RAM are running at the same frequency, not to mention higher bandwidth = higher performance.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

Originally posted by: myocardia
edit: I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton. And you won't be able to overclock much at all, unless you get some PC3200.

you also forgot about the motherboard and the unlocked mobile chip...

If chinkee should upgrade to the NF7 series, remember that the NF7 is good with high multipliers and not to forget that you can run the CPU FSB async from the RAM speed and still OC the proc without touching your ram.

If money isn't too tight, then going ahead and getting some good RAM would be very good for maximum system performance, as the system performs best when the CPU and RAM are running at the same frequency, not to mention higher bandwidth = higher performance.

You must have a P4-based system, because running ram and cpu async all but negates the speed differential you get from overclocking with an Athlon. Besides, he'd have to run it at roughly 2.4ghz, just to equal a Barton running at 11x200, and maybe even higher. I say if you can't afford at least one stick of PC3200, don't buy a Barton. And, look who's forgetful! I not only didn't forget the motherboard, I made a recommendation for one and provided a link.

 

[joe2004]

It overclocks every bit as high as the NF7-S.

I had three NF7-S, one NF7-M, and one NF7. In my experience the one that overclocks well is NF7-S ver. 2. I have two of those and I had one 1.1. NF7 and NF7-M are not as good. With video on board NF7-M is quite retarded and NF7 is not much better. So either DFI or NF7-S or 8RDA+.

 

[dnuggett]

I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton.

Huh? You can use 2100 all day... what do you think is in the majority of laptops? The chip is a mobile... the FSB matches perfectly (133x2) with 2100. The multi on this chip is 14.

The DFI Lanparty is the best for high fsb's, but you don't need to pay $150 for a good nForce2 mobo.

Nope you don't need to pay $150 for a good board, and I never said you did. What I said was paying $150 for the best.
There are plenty of "good" boards out there that don't cost as much as the DFI that I would definately reccomend. I decided to go w/ the DFI, and all the others to reccomend have already been mentioned.

 

[chinkee]

alright...i'm a little confused....so there seems to be a majority leaning towards getting some pc3200 ram. any recommendations of brand name or types of pc3200 ram? Also, there was a poster who said pc2100 would work perfectly. I understand that to maximize system performance, you should match the frequencies. However, I don't know which frequencies pc2100, pc2700, and pc3200 run at nor do I know what frequency a barton 2400+ mobile runs at when at (1.8ghz retail) or around (2.4ghz overclocked). I'm willing to spend some dough since I've already bought the processor and a nice zalman 7000 fan. All I need now is a compatible mobo and ram setup. After reading some topics, i think i'm leaning towards a nf7-S mobo, but any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks again for the help!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton.

Huh? You can use 2100 all day... what do you think is in the majority of laptops? The chip is a mobile... the FSB matches perfectly (133x2) with 2100. The multi on this chip is 14.

The DFI Lanparty is the best for high fsb's, but you don't need to pay $150 for a good nForce2 mobo.

Nope you don't need to pay $150 for a good board, and I never said you did. What I said was paying $150 for the best.
There are plenty of "good" boards out there that don't cost as much as the DFI that I would definately reccomend. I decided to go w/ the DFI, and all the others to reccomend have already been mentioned.

You're supposed to at least read the original post, nugget. He said he was buying one because of how well they overclock. Yes, you can overclock them by multiplier only, but you get hardly any performance boost by doing that, compared to a lower multi and 200mhz+ fsb. You didn't know that?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: chinkee
alright...i'm a little confused....so there seems to be a majority leaning towards getting some pc3200 ram. any recommendations of brand name or types of pc3200 ram? Also, there was a poster who said pc2100 would work perfectly. I understand that to maximize system performance, you should match the frequencies. However, I don't know which frequencies pc2100, pc2700, and pc3200 run at nor do I know what frequency a barton 2400+ mobile runs at when at (1.8ghz retail) or around (2.4ghz overclocked). I'm willing to spend some dough since I've already bought the processor and a nice zalman 7000 fan. All I need now is a compatible mobo and ram setup. After reading some topics, i think i'm leaning towards a nf7-S mobo, but any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks again for the help!

You can still overclock with that PC2100 ram you have, but what's the point in overclocking the crap out of your processor for just a slight boost in speed? You can gain speed by raising either the mulitiplier or the fsb, but raising the multi gives about 20% of the performance increase that raising the fsb gives you. So, do you want a slow, overclocked processor, or a fast as hell processor? Your choice. But you're not going to be doing yourself much of a favor by buying the chip unless you at least have plans to get faster ram. It will run, and perform okay for you until you get yourself some PC3200. If you can't afford it now, but have plans for it in the future, then it's not a big deal. I was just letting you know ahead of time (i.e.-- before you post here asking about why you have your processor overclocked to it limits, but feel like it didn't give you much of a performance boost by doing so) that performance from overclocking comes from raising the fsb, not from raising the multiplier, that's all.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: dnuggett

I forgot about the ram. You aren't even going to be able to use that ram with a Barton.

Huh? You can use 2100 all day... what do you think is in the majority of laptops? The chip is a mobile... the FSB matches perfectly (133x2) with 2100. The multi on this chip is 14.

The DFI Lanparty is the best for high fsb's, but you don't need to pay $150 for a good nForce2 mobo.

Nope you don't need to pay $150 for a good board, and I never said you did. What I said was paying $150 for the best.
There are plenty of "good" boards out there that don't cost as much as the DFI that I would definately reccomend. I decided to go w/ the DFI, and all the others to reccomend have already been mentioned.

You're supposed to at least read the original post, nugget. He said he was buying one because of how well they overclock. Yes, you can overclock them by multiplier only, but you get hardly any performance boost by doing that, compared to a lower multi and 200mhz+ fsb. You didn't know that?

Don't make this into another pissing contest, last time you did this you found yourself all wet. Sure, running a higher FSB and lower multi is better then a high mutli and a lower FSB, if you have spent two minutes in the forum you would know that. But thats not the point, you said he couldn't use his RAM w/ his Barton and you are wrong. Just leave it at that.

 

[chinkee]

alright, thanks guys for all the info. so in a nutshell, i can use my new processor just fine w/ the ram i have, but won't be able to overclock much at all b/c the bottleneck is the fsb of the RAM? i'm looking into pc3200 RAM now, as well as a new mobo. the nf7-s, a7n8x-deluxe, and DFI all look pretty good. What kind of pc3200 ram should I get? will there be any ram types that overclock better w/ some mobos rather than others? i had someone post a link for the best bang for my buck RAM. what do you guys think? thanks again!

 

[dnuggett]

i can use my new processor just fine w/ the ram i have, but won't be able to overclock much at all b/c the bottleneck is the fsb of the RAM?

For the most part yes. You can still achieve a decent actual overclock. I experimented with 133 and got the multi up to 19 on a DFI, but in all reality a higher FSB and lower multi @ the same Ghz rating will be faster.