Athlon upgrades

[Conan the Librarian]

Time for an upgrade I think. If it is possible! I have two machines at present, an Athlon 1700 as a paperweight and a well specced 2800XP as the main choice. Thing is, that there is 2GB of DDRAM on the 2800 and 1GB of same on the 1700, so they are both worth a bit of effort. I think that the 2800 proc will fit into the old machine, (though not sure) but what can I put into the 2800 for a bit of MLU?

I can not remember pin or socket types and to be honest, I find the AMD site a little confusing as a result. Any thoughts appreciated :-)

Cheers,

Conan

[spannersatcx]

Best thing is to see what the motherboard will accept, either in the manual or on their website.

[Mac the Knife]

The best you can get is the Athlon XP 3200+ (Barton core)

Very nice stable (and fast) CPU (I've got 2 machines with 'em) - Overclocks well with reasonable cooling

Available from Kelkoo - http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_...n_xp_3200.html

86 quid, though you may be able to find one cheaper.

Why not stick SuSE or Kabuntu (I hate Gnome) on your doorstop and live a little?



Edited to add: They're all Socket A/Socket 462 of course

[mikeddavies]

The AMD 3200+ is a great processor but has been out of production for a long time. I tried to get one to upgrade my spare 2500 which is when I found that many of the supposed new ones were "re-jigged" low spec chips with links burnt and new labels stuck on. I know cause I bought one! Eventually got some of my money back. Have not managed to find any genuine new ones. Some used ones appear on e-bay but need to check if genuine. I believe the only compatible new chip is one of the low spec Semprons and this may need a BIOS upgrade!
Take care.
MikeD

[Conan the Librarian]

Ah... this is proving the old maxim that thou shalt never be able to upgrade like they told you. Not surprised actually. I suspected the 3200 Barton might be the limit, but if we tried the question from another angle, what motherf (sorry - motherboards) would support DDRAM whilst offering an upgrade path? Do we have any thoughts there?

This really would offer an upgrade to the duff Athlon 1700, if the 2800 MB and gubbins could be shifted there. The only thing to factor into all of this, is that a small balls up could make it cheaper to ditch the 1700 entirely and move the 2800 Barton over, whilst buying a new base unit. (Bit loathe to do that right now though. My tea leaves tell me that there are going to be bargains ahead, when Vista is released.)

Cheers chaps. Your input is, as ever, much appreciated and will no doubt be refreshingly expensive!


Conan

[mikeddavies]

I am in the same situation - thought is get a new MB with memory and Athlon 64 - may need a new PSU (not sure!). You may be right about Vista dumping "cheap" hardware as people upgrade to systems that spend even more time waiting for human I/P. Hope so!
MikeD

[Mac the Knife]

I think mikedavies experience has made him a little pessimistic.

Googling around, I've found plenty of Barton 3200+ CPU on sale, some of them boxed. True, you might get stiffed if you're not careful but there seem to be enough reputable vendors offering them.

Your mobo for the 28000 takes DDRAM and the 1700 may well also, possibly with BIOS upgrade.

Don't give up so easily!

[Conan the Librarian]

You are right Mac. In fact, the original 2x512 from the 2800 are now residing in the 1700. (Only 2 slots on the 2800 Mobo) Yup, I wring out the max value wherever I can. Thing is that if I had thought it through a little more clearly, I might have spent the recent splash, not on 2GB of DDRAM for the 2800, but towards a new base and then let things filter down. Who knows? If that had happened I might be tinkering with Linux on the 1700 by now. A sort of 21st Century Classic car syndrome...

None of this is that critical at present, as long as I can get around the uncommanded shutdown prob on the 2800XP, but I suspect this to be a cooling issue and will dive in with a screwdriver, rocket blower and a bible from the Gideons to correct this. If this clears it all, then I can sleep until Vista time.

Conan