Why is the 2500 so popular

[winslow428]

I was about to order an AMD 2600 to build a business box for myself. I noticed that the 2500 barton has many many more reviews. Why is it so much popular. I am not an overclocker, I'll play some games but nothing major. Also, is there a big difference between the 1.9 and 2.08 Ghz 2600's???

Thanks for any input.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

bang for the buck overclocker. though the 2500+M is more popular among overclockers nowadays.

 

[NokiaDude]

Awesome overclocker, INCREDIBLY cheap.

 

[bdjohnson]

GREAT oc'er. mine goes up to 2.4 ghz NO PROBLEM without any voltage gain.

 

[Mik3y]

its the equivalent to the speed of a P4 2.4GHz, but the p4 one costs over $140, whereas the barton 2500 costs $75

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
its the equivalent to the speed of a P4 2.4GHz, but the p4 one costs over $140, whereas the barton 2500 costs $75

Also alot of the xp2500's will overclock to xp3200 speeds without any problems but the best cpu for overclocking is the xp mobile, I have my xp2500 mobile running at 2.5ghz!

 

[Zebo]

Even not overclocked it's a product that meets or exceeds most peoples performance needs while providing the highest price/performance ratio at $80. Not that the 2600+ is anything to sneeze at running only $10 more. Go for it.

For overclockers the multiplier of the 2500+ is more attactive than the higher clocked chips for those wanting to reach high FSB's. And since it's cheaper the obivous choice is the 2500+ over the 2600+, 2800+, 3000+ which cost more and give less desirable overclocking charachteristics. Make sence? Probably not.

Most overlcokers understand all these bartons are indentical. AMD simply bins them different speeds, locks thier multiplier, and charges more for the higher "rated" chips. So lets suppose we buy two systems one a 2500+ and one a 2800+. (i'm using 2800 to illustrate it's poor value)

On average most bartons are capable of 2.2Ghz sometimes more but it's not important, just know all chips within a product code are the same essentailly.

2500+ has a locked multiplier of 11 and to get 2.2Ghz we set FSB to 200
2800+ has a locked multiplier of 12.5 and to get 2.2Ghz we need to set FSB to 176

Guess which is faster? While both are running a 2.2 the increased bus speed of the cheaper 2500+ gives it roughly 5% more performance. Cheaper and better performance. Easy pick and why for a place which caters to enthusiasts who overclock it's a no brainer.

 

[Zebo]

And winslow428, if you really want a barn burner in the price to performance arena get youself a $44 duron 1.8Ghz. 50% less money than the overpriced barton 2600+ with only 20% less performance on a few benchmarks much less difference in most tests.

 

[Finnkc]

yep the 2500's (M or no M) are the cheap overclock kings.

 

[yankee428]

Ok, sounds great, my order is in. Now any recommendations for a Mobo to go with it?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

aye but AMD dealed me a dud, mine runs extremly hot at stock speeds (48C idle damnit) and chokes at 175 or so FSB, and my buddies runs great in my rig (he let me try it out), OC's like gold, i gotta swap my 2500+ for one i put in my dad's PCs i built for his office, i MUST!

 

[Avalon]

Actually, people think the 2500+ mobiles are the overclock kings and buy those in droves, but many think that because one of two things are happening.

1) Model recognition from review sites...most review sites all crowned the 2500+ mobile as king, back when there was only the 45w chips. Even though the 2600+ mobile seemed to be more consistent, it was more expensive.

2) Some may try to make a connection with the desktop equivalent...they remember how the 2500+ was the best value and the best overclocker, so a few assume the same with the mobile variant.

In reality from what I've seen, the 2500+ mobile is not consistent at OCing at all. Some people have trouble reaching 2.4ghz with it, and even I've had problems getting past 2.3ghz with one chip. I had a wide range of max OC's from 2.3 to 2.6ghz. The king of overclocking in the athlon mobile realm is the 35w 2400+ mobile barton. It's the same price as the 45w 2500+, and it overclocks higher and more consistently.

 

[MegaWorks]

Overclocking :roll:

------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B DLT3C 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.775v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nForce2-U400)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Antec TrueBlue 480W
Thermalright SLK-947U with 92mm Vantec Tornado @2800RPM
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1

 

[toant103]

i have mine 2400+ XP-M running at 2400Mhz, but at 1.9 v

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
Overclocking :roll:

I was merely explaining why the 2500+ XP-M was so popular, seeing as how someone already explained why the desktop 2500+ was. Pay attention.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Avalon

Originally posted by: MegaWorks
Overclocking :roll:

I was merely explaining why the 2500+ XP-M was so popular, seeing as how someone already explained why the desktop 2500+ was. Pay attention.

Very true, today and for the last 4 months, it's XP mobiles which are king.


I still think the 2500+ retial version presents a very attactive value with a HSF and 3 yr warranty for the average user though.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: yankee428
Ok, sounds great, my order is in. Now any recommendations for a Mobo to go with it?

What are you looking for?

The best board price/performance is the $54 shuttle AN35N with the superior nforce2 chipset.

The best board with everything like soundstorm, raid etc is the $90 DFI ultra infinity or Abit NF7-s.

The best board with video is the BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" nForce2 IGP for $60

The best board with everything like soundstorm and Video is the Shuttle MN31N for $86

All these boards have the rock solid superior Nforce 2 ultra 400 chipset the last two are Micro atx presenting attactive small case options.

 

[yankee428]

Thanks for the input everyone. So far I got

AMD XP 2500......$80
Abit NFS-7 v2......$85
CDRW/DVD........$47
ATI 9200 64MB...$44

I now that you guys arn't going to like the video card, but if the X800 is so great then I'm going to hold off on the 9800Pro and wait for price drop on X800 (it's already down quite a bit)

Next is memory:

I'm thinking 1 X 512MB, but don't know if i should go PC3200 or PC3500 for this config. Also, have heard that OCZ, Corsair, Crucial, Muskin, and Kingston are all good brands.

Newegg has a special: Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail - $80

Any thoughts...

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: bdjohnson
GREAT oc'er. mine goes up to 2.4 ghz NO PROBLEM without any voltage gain.

damn all these lucky people!
mine won't O/C worth crap... so I just put it back to stock speed.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: yankee428
Thanks for the input everyone. So far I got

AMD XP 2500......$80
Abit NFS-7 v2......$85
CDRW/DVD........$47
ATI 9200 64MB...$44

I now that you guys arn't going to like the video card, but if the X800 is so great then I'm going to hold off on the 9800Pro and wait for price drop on X800 (it's already down quite a bit)

Next is memory:

I'm thinking 1 X 512MB, but don't know if i should go PC3200 or PC3500 for this config. Also, have heard that OCZ, Corsair, Crucial, Muskin, and Kingston are all good brands.

Newegg has a special: Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail - $80

Any thoughts...

1 x 512 MB is poopy for the nForce 2 Ultra 400, you have dualchannel availible, so why not go 2x256mb, OCZ has a nice enhanced latency 2x256M kit

 

[ectx]

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: bdjohnson
GREAT oc'er. mine goes up to 2.4 ghz NO PROBLEM without any voltage gain.

damn all these lucky people!
mine won't O/C worth crap... so I just put it back to stock speed.

Yes, it happened to me in the past too. The chance that you would get a good oc chip is good but there is no gurantee...

 

[Zebo]

Good choices.

Dual channel makes little difference about 3-5% max at that bus speed. If monies tight buying one 512 is a good choice because it's cheaper and leaves you room later to get another 512 and run dual channel. Natually buying two 512's is the way to go or even 2 256's..The best p/p ram neweggs selling is the A-data 3200 for $70. Then the KRETON PC-3200 for $75.

Unfortunatly there is nothing at newegg in 256mb PC3200 I would feel confortable tagging as a good value. Your best option here is PC3500 Kreton with Ch-5 for $53 each.

Anyway dump that POS video card and pick up a 9600 non-pro for $90 which can overclock to a $140 pro. Also, the motherboards I suggested above, the biostar and shutttle MN31N, have equivalent on-board video so you're essentially throwing away $44 with that part you're thinking of getting. This money you're throwing away could be used other places like ram. In addition both the shuttle and biostar is cheaper than the abit. For good sound though get the MN31N.

Shuttle MN31N embarresing NF7-S

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: yankee428
Ok, sounds great, my order is in. Now any recommendations for a Mobo to go with it?

What are you looking for?

The best board price/performance is the $54 shuttle AN35N with the superior nforce2 chipset.

The best board with everything like soundstorm, raid etc is the $90 DFI ultra infinity or Abit NF7-s.

The best board with video is the BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" nForce2 IGP for $60

The best board with everything like soundstorm and Video is the Shuttle MN31N for $86

All these boards have the rock solid superior Nforce 2 ultra 400 chipset the last two are Micro atx presenting attactive small case options.

What do you mean by 'soundstorm'?

 

[skyking]

soundstorm is some fairly hot onboard sound. Kicked the old cards to the curb, you gotta toss down as much as you paid for the mobo itself to get any sound improvement over it.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Soundstorm is Nvidias APU (audio processing unit). It is extremely CPU efficient, and sounds better (in mostpeoples opinions) than an Audigy 1. Part of the reason for the low CPU usage is it has a seperate APU and it doesn't go throuhg the CPU like plain old onboard sound. Also it encodes in dolby digital for output to an external reciever.

-Kevin