What's the HOT PR Rating/Stepping for Bartons these days?

[MichaelD]

We're talking overclocking, of course! Back in the day, when I purchased my current setup, the XP2100 with certain steppings was the stuff. (see "Money Pit" rig in sig) Currently running an 8RDA+, V1.0 which won't do better than 200MHz. Believe me, I've tried.

Fast Foward to now:

Getting a new mobo (NF7-S)...want an XP that'll do better than 2.10GHz. I have an AX-7 to put on it.

What do I get? 2400XP? 2500XP? What stepping?

Let's look at Newegg's page...I've had great luck w/CPUs from them.

Thank you, AT! :beer:

 

[Peter D]

I think the AQXEA and AQZEA's are the best, but by now my guess is that all the chips have locked multipliers

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Vegetto
I think the AQXEA and AQZEA's are the best, but by now my guess is that all the chips have locked multipliers

Unless I'm really THAT far behind the latest times...all multis are unlocked on NF2 boards. They are on my (ancient) NF2 board. AIEEEE! :Q

 

[pspada]

Originally posted by: MichaelD

Originally posted by: Vegetto
I think the AQXEA and AQZEA's are the best, but by now my guess is that all the chips have locked multipliers

Unless I'm really THAT far behind the latest times...all multis are unlocked on NF2 boards. They are on my (ancient) NF2 board. AIEEEE! :Q

Yes, it appears you are really THAT far behind the times.....all Athlon XP chips are multi locked from the factory these days. You can still change the multiplier in the bios on a nForce2 mobo - but it don't do squat, yer chip boots at the factory multiplier. Damn it!

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: pspada

Originally posted by: MichaelD

Originally posted by: Vegetto
I think the AQXEA and AQZEA's are the best, but by now my guess is that all the chips have locked multipliers

Unless I'm really THAT far behind the latest times...all multis are unlocked on NF2 boards. They are on my (ancient) NF2 board. AIEEEE! :Q

Yes, it appears you are really THAT far behind the times.....all Athlon XP chips are multi locked from the factory these days. You can still change the multiplier in the bios on a nForce2 mobo - but it don't do squat, yer chip boots at the factory multiplier. Damn it!

ShIIt. Really? :disgust: Oh man...that just...well, SUCKS. WTF is up w/that? :disgust: I can't believe that. AMD made their money from guys like us simply b/c the chips were unlocked on an NF2 board!!!! Damn.

So, possibly, the A64 is looking better, than? If so, I will wait for the NF3250.

 

[myocardia]

The multiplier is hard-locked on the Athlon64's also. Well, all of them except the FX.

 

[Ronin]

There are still quite a few of the 2500+'s out there that can be picked up, and that's probably the best way to go.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: RoninCS
There are still quite a few of the 2500+'s out there that can be picked up, and that's probably the best way to go.

Is the 2500+ the last of the "unlocked" XPs?

 

[pspada]

Nope, that's not the case. It appears to be a week the chip was produced thing, with week 39 being the dividing point, I believe. Though I've heard of the occasional earlier chip that is said to be locked as well. And yes, it sucks.

 

[BlueWeasel]

No, unfortunately the 2500+ was the reason AMD started locked the chips. Why pay for the 3200+ when you could get a 2500+ to do the same speed with a good board and RAM.

Unless you are buying a used chip from some who guarantees it to be unlocked, you won't likely find a new unlocked 2500+ these days.

Generally, 2500+'s made after Week 39 are locked. Imagine my happiness when I found a Week 32 2500+ at my local computer shop right after Christmas. However, with my terrible luck it was a PQZEA stepping chip that was locked. WTF!? I bet I'm the only one on these forums with a PQZEA stepping 2500+.

Since you're going with a great board NF7-S and I assume you've got some good RAM that can 200+ FSB, I'd probably just get a 2500+ from Newegg. You might not be able to hit 220 FSB with the locked multiplier, but 200x11 is pretty much given, especially since you could go up on the Vcore to 1.80/1.85v with the AX-7 if you had to.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks much for the detailed info, BlueWeasel and pspada; I needed that detail and as fellow geeks I know you understand.

*sigh* Man, I go away for just a few months and everything changes!

Well, the price of the NF7-S + the 2500 Barton is roughly $185. I'm sitting at 2.10GHz right now with my current setup...But it sure runs hot.

Dang...more, more, MORE! Gotta always have MORE. Dont' you just love this hobby?

I may sit this one out then and wait for the NF3250. I will have to rethink this. Thanks again!

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, what FSB are you running the 2.10ghz? To be honest with you, unless it's a significant increase in FSB (like say from 166 to 200), then I'd probably just stay put with your current setup.

Sure the extra cache of the Barton is nice, but does it really make a huge difference? Not Barton bashing; I just don't know if the extra L2 cache is significant enough to warrant upgrading.

 

[RussianSensation]

Why buy a new XP mobo and new XP cpu for $185???? when for 160 u can get 2.6C (and 2.8 will drop to 178 on Feb 2nd) and an abit is7 or something along those lines for $100 so what but for $260 it will smoke the crap out of any barton when u overclock it to 3.2ghz

Or better yet, get yourself an Athlon 64 3000 and overclock it to 3200+ . It might be more expensive but its an amazing machine (Should be $220 for the Cpu and get yourself a Sis 755 cheap mobo for $90). Just check out this article and see that sometimes it doubles the speed of the 2100xp.

2004 Gamers Hardware Upgrade Guide

it just doesnt make sense to invest money in old technology especially if the price difference is only $100-$200 as compared to the new but the perfomance increase is astounding.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, BlueWeasel and RussianSensation. I am going to wait now. AFterall, I am currently sitting at 2.10GHz/200FSB. I guess I was just looking for A64 performance on a budget. Heheh, I should know better than that!!

The A64 is not really worth it, IMO, RIGHT NOW. Not worth the $300 it would cost to get there, vs. what I have now.

Now, if the NF3-250 chipset turns out to be all it's being hyped to be, then I'll be ordering quickly. I'm going to check out that article now, RussianSensation. Thanks for the link.

 

[Duvie]

Michael I picked up a DFI NF2 Ultra mobo for 75.00 and a retail Barton 2500+ for 90.00 a few weeks back....I bumped it up to 200fsb out of the gate for 2.2ghz and 3200+ speed and got it 48 hours prime stable at 1.7v (1.67v actual).....

Yes mine was a week43 and locked but it came with a copper core retail hsf and my load temps read 49-50c max.....

I never tried to push further cause it was not my rig...I was just trying to save a buddy some money from buying the uber expensive 3200+ barton versus the 2500+.....

I pushed it for some test to 2.3ghz at 1.7v and it was prime stable for 2 hours that I tested and ran all the aplpication I threw at it fine....Ultimately he bought crappier cas 2.5 pc3200 and that started to limit my oc without having t drop cas timings and ddr speed much lower....

If it was mine I would have thrown an aftermarket hsf like yours and made sure I got the cas2 hyper x pc3200 I told him to get and I think 1.8v would have been my limit but I think thise thing could have hit 2.4ghz real easy....

 

[Killrose]

You asked: XP2400+ or XP2500+

The XP2400+ is a T-bred/Thornton and the XP2500+ is a Barton. Go with the Barton, or get an overclockable XP1700+, but dont buy the XP2400+.

 

[beatle]

When I went from a tbred @ ~2.1 to a Barton ~2.2, I didn't notice much of a difference at all. As others have said, just sit on your money for now (or upgrade another part of your system ).

 

[MichaelD]

Hey Duvie, long time no see. Hi as well to Killrose and Beatle.

Thanks much for the info. After basically reading all day for the past day and a half, I am going to keep my wallet in my pocket. :Q For now, at least.

There's too many things coming down the pipe w/the NF3250 and the Intel Prescott that I want to check out. Also, SATA now has Command Queing, etc...I may be getting rid of my Hardware IDE-RAID setup when the time comes!!

Of course, said SATA drives are hideously expensive, but like everything else, they'll come down in price eventually.

The money that was gonna get the mobo/CPU I will bank towards the A64/NF3250 setup of my dreams. See you guys around.