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What's the best CPU for a NF7-S v2

K

Kenai

Member
Hello,

It's been a while since I delved into the CPU realm, but I am getting tired of waiting for a stable SLI system to hit the shelves. I really wanted to upgrade to an AMD duallie, but the only promissing canditate Abit WN-2S+ bit the dust the other day while still in production.

My current Abit NF7-S v2 had been running stable with my XP1700+ @ 11x200 (2200ghz) for quite sometime. So instead of shelling out a ton of money for a so-so SLI system I am taking the cheap route and going to upgrade my existing system, CPU and Vid-Card, until the whole SLI, dual-CPU, platforms become more mainstream.

I am an avid gamer, HL2, WoW, Doom3, even some DII, so I was wondering what would be the best CPU to upgrade my NF7-S board? I do notice that HL2 and specially Doom3 really max out my CPU when playing.

Is there any CPU out there for the NF7-S that will do noticibly better than my little Thoroughbred? Or should I just hold off for a year or so and upgrade to a whole new platform?

Thank you for any input
 
Any mobile XP will do well (many recommend a 35W mobile, as opposed to a 45W like mine) if you don't want to just go for a lower-end A64.
 
Thanks for the responses.

Are there any specific steppings that are better for OC'ing?
I am assuming the mobile XP2600+ is a Barton?

How much more performance will I notice from a 2600 than from my 1700?

Again, thanks 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Kenai
Thanks for the responses.

Are there any specific steppings that are better for OC'ing?
I am assuming the mobile XP2600+ is a Barton?

How much more performance will I notice from a 2600 than from my 1700?

Again, thanks 🙂
Click to expand...

All XP/Ms are Bartons. You will most likely be able to get to 2.4 or 2.5 on air, and adding to that the fact that Bartons are 5-10% faster per clock cycle than Thoroughbreds, you will most likely see a 15-20% or so increase in CPU speed.
 
Whatever the CHEAPEST XP-M 35Watt you can find is... virtually all the XP-M's overclock the same, so it makes no difference. Go for cheap!
 
Originally posted by: Netopia
Whatever the CHEAPEST XP-M 35Watt you can find is... virtually all the XP-M's overclock the same, so it makes no difference. Go for cheap!
Click to expand...

And that would be the XP-M 2200+ 35-w. This is the mobile that gets a lot of disrespect but mine has been great. I've only tested my mobiles to 2.5GHz but the XP-M 2200+ keeps right up with the higher PR rated 45-w mobiles in my sig. I don't know which one goes the farthest but odds are the two 2600s.

Of course it comes down to the luck of the draw. Occasionally you see a report of a lousy mobile but that's the exception to the rule. I've gotten 4 out of 4 that were good.

 
Originally posted by: Netopia
Whatever the CHEAPEST XP-M 35Watt you can find is... virtually all the XP-M's overclock the same, so it makes no difference. Go for cheap!
Click to expand...
:thumbsup: 2200+ 35w@2.5ghz 1.82v on a NF7-S in my sons' boxen, Soundstorm is hard to give up even for skt754 Sempr0n.

 
I've only been pushing mine 2200's to the 2.3GHz area. I could try for more, but with the things I'm doing with them (for instance, one is a linux server for light duty file storage and web hosting) I wouldn't really notice the performance. But I absolutely LOVE these chips and think that they are BY FAR the best value for a CPU out there right now.

Joe
 
Originally posted by: Netopia
I've only been pushing mine 2200's to the 2.3GHz area. I could try for more, but with the things I'm doing with them (for instance, one is a linux server for light duty file storage and web hosting) I wouldn't really notice the performance. But I absolutely LOVE these chips and think that they are BY FAR the best value for a CPU out there right now.

Joe
Click to expand...
I think that the best value comment highly debatable. skt754 sempr0ns are hitting 2.4-2.5ghz as readily as the XP-M and with a good skt754 overclocking board costing $60-$70 it is a better price-performer overall IMO. It also gives a easy upgrade path to 64bit later without changing boards or using a skt adapater. Soundstorm is the killer feature of NF7-s+XP-M for me. When my son isn't using his, it is a Einstein@Home cruncher and when it is considered slow for that, I'll upgrade him and use it for HTPC most likely.
 
Looks like the Barton XP mobile is goingto bethe best upgrade path for me.
Any ideas on what is the best OC'er as far as CPU's go?
As you see by my sig I am running 11x200 (2.2ghz) on my Thoroughbred XP1700+
I am wondering what I could run on a Mobile XP Barton?
I watercool with the Koolance case, and stay around 27 deg C idle -32 deg C full load

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction
 
If you want to add more certainty to your odds, you can depend on the 2600-m to run at 2.4 GHz with 1.7v or less. With your watercooling, you can expect 2.5 to 2.6 GHz, though your mileage will vary on voltage required. I would expect ~1.75v at 2.5 GHz and ~1.85v at 2.6 GHz. You might get lucky with a lower model, but you might not.
 
Don't do it. All you're doing is upgrading your L2 cache (which itself is a subject of controversy regarding whether it makes such a big difference) and adding a little OCing headroom.

The price/performance you'd get from a K8 upgrade would be many times better. Wait until the end of April and get a 939 Venice setup.
 
I bought my 2400m for 58 bucks at NewEgg.
(before they found out how desirable they are)

I'm running 2370 @ ~1.83v on air. (Rock Solid)
Thats at 1.8 chip running almost 2.4

Check my sig
 
I've had an XP 2500+ and an XP-M 2600+ on mine. The 2500+ Barton did well, up to 2.3GHz, IIRC, but the 2600+ did better. 2.46GHz right now stable after 10mo or so, running at 1.78V and 51C full load. From all that I've heard about the mobiles, and with your cooling setup, 2.5GHz should be the minimum stable o/c you'd get. Also, since the NF7-S's tend to undervolt the Vcore, you could probably put in another .25V, which would be relatively safe since you're running so cool (some will probably argue with this, of course).

How come you're only running 200x11, btw? The r2 boards can generally run a good bit over 200FSB, and you've got the RAM for it. You could run 2205 with 10.5x210, and probably not lose any stability. Maybe you'd require an aftermarket cooler for the SB (stock one blows, literally 😛), but those are dirt cheap (assuming that's not being watercooled already).
 
DKlein,

I couldn't afford to throw away my 2x256MB chips, which were stable at 220FSB in dual channel, but I wanted to upgrade my system to 1G, so I added a 512MB kingston chip.
One great feature of the NF7 is that I can run 2x256 on one channel and 1x512 on the other channel, but now I can't tweak the FSB much past 205 and stay stable with the mismatched size of the DIMMS.
So I sacrificed a few FSB for more RAM, which has definatly been worth it. Also I do have an aftermarket SB cooler on and all H/S' have nice thin coats of AS5.
If I could get my hands on another 512 Kingston HyperX I would volt-mod and push for 240 😉

sangyup81,

Venice setup? I read many forums, but have yet to hear this Codename.
 
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