XP 2800+ T-Bred or Barton???

[BlackMountainCow]

Which one's better?

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with a Barton or a T-Bred B core?!?! (333Mhz FSB)

Barton has stock 2080 MHz and T-Bred B has 2250 MHz but Barton has 512 kb 2ndL cache while T-Bred B has only 256 KB.

I really have no idea which one is the better one!! I use my machine mainly for gaming and Distributed Computing like SETI@home or FOLDING@home.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!


PS: OC is not a thing I'm much into, but if anybody happens to know: which one of them is better to overclock?? It'll be put on a Shuttle AN35N Ultra Board with a nForce 2 400 Ultra.

 

[Jeff7181]

The XP2800 Barton will be a better value, the T-Bred B may be slightly better at some things, but as the model rating suggests, they're pretty much equal, however, the T-Bred B is pretty much at it's max clock speed, while the Barton probably has another 200 Mhz over it's stock speed, which will of course make it faster than the stock speed XP2800 T-Bred B core.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Thx for the quick answer Jeff7181!

I had about the same idea in mind that the Barton should have more potential left. And as they r about the same price I guess my decision is almost made

 

[Corporate Thug]

i would get the tbred just cuz they are rare

 

[nick1985]

nice motherboard pick. i had good experience with it. i would suggest, however, an athlon 2500 instead. it will EASILY hit 2800 speeds, and most will hit 3200 speeds. you will save a few bucks this way

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Aren't they all locked now?

 

[rallyrulz]

yes they are locked now, i have a big list of unofficial locked and unlocked codes for the cpus if you want me to post later. However I now hear the most common thing to do is, get a 2500+ barton, a decent MB with 400FSB support and make sure it has a locked FSB which means it wont affect the pci or agp clock. Then go get some 3200 ram (400mhz), place the cpu in, put the fsb up to 200MHz rather than the ~166 it would be, and all should be fine (we hope) with a decent HSF and arctic silver greese, the barton should now rate as something like a 3200+. Seems to work fine by all the reviews ive heard so a good bet for a cheap kick.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Originally posted by: rallyrulz
I have a big list of unofficial locked and unlocked codes for the cpus if you want me to post later.

Sure I'd like to see those

... a decent MB with 400FSB support and make sure it has a locked FSB which means it wont affect the pci or agp clock ...

Is the Shuttle AN35N Ultra a "decent" board with this "locked" FSB?

... a decent HSF and arctic silver greese ...

So I guess the stock boxed HSF won't do it anymore ... something like a Volcano then?


I like the idea of getting CPU power for "free"

Thx for your reply!

 

[Jeff7181]

So I guess the stock boxed HSF won't do it anymore ... something like a Volcano then?

No, the stock heatsink/fan will work perfectly fine if you don't increase the voltage to get higher clock speeds. XP3200's ship with the same heatsink/fan that XP2500's and XP2800's and XP3000's ship with.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

the stock heatsink/fan will work perfectly fine if you don't increase the voltage to get higher clock speeds. XP3200's ship with the same heatsink/fan that XP2500's and XP2800's and XP3000's ship with.

saved some more money now ...

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow

the stock heatsink/fan will work perfectly fine if you don't increase the voltage to get higher clock speeds. XP3200's ship with the same heatsink/fan that XP2500's and XP2800's and XP3000's ship with.

saved some more money now ...

Well... my point is you don't NEED a different one like everyone seems to think... would a SK-7 or SLK-800 be better? Of course... but you don't NEED it if you can't spare the extra ~25 bucks.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

The strange thing is that an boxed XP 2800+ with stock HSF costs only 3 $ less than a XP 2800+ with an SLK 700 and a YS TMD ...

 

[Jeff7181]

Go ahead and get the better heatsink/fan then... get some Arctic Silver 5 while you're ordering.

 

[adams828]

bartonnnnnnnn! heh in my opinion, even w/out OCing (which is very feasible with the barton), the 512k cache will be more beneficial than the small amount of extra clock speed

 

[BlackMountainCow]

THX to all u guys. U helped me a big deal!

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow
The strange thing is that an boxed XP 2800+ with stock HSF costs only 3 $ less than a XP 2800+ with an SLK 700 and a YS TMD ...

3 year warranty on retail box vs 1 year on OEM, that's where the difference in price comes in to play.

On a similar question, are both the OEM and Retail multiplier's locked? I know for a while the retail ones were, but the OEM ones were not.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

... are both the OEM and Retail multiplier's locked? I know for a while the retail ones were, but the OEM ones were not.

Really? That would be cool cause I know somebody who owns a PC store so I could an OEM one ...

 

[adams828]

afaik, locked or unlocked is based on the week, not on retail/oem. as i recall reading in another thread on here, the consensus was that all 2500+s after week 37 were factory locked...

 

[BlackMountainCow]

that all 2500+s after week 37 were factory locked...

any idea where i can get an pre-week-37 one from??

 

[adams828]

Originally posted by: BlackMountainCow

that all 2500+s after week 37 were factory locked...

any idea where i can get an pre-week-37 one from??

best bet is probably the fs/ft forum, or possibly ebay. but locked really isn't that bad.. i got mine last week, and it's been running at 3200+ just fine. only reason i've seen ppl wanting unlocked is so they can run 200fsb at a lower multiplier, generating less heat than usual OCing, thereby requiring less cooling; ie quieter computer.

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Thx man!