Zealot needs a new processor!

Zealot

New Member
First off, I cant remember the specs for it, all i know is it's an Athalon(sp in the morning =/) with 500-600 mHz. Now, my friend told me I can get an upgrade for it as long as it's a slot (and I'm pretty sure it is) for $30-80. Anyone have any other ideas?
 
Yea, don't buy an AMD chip, thats my advice. By Intel, so that I can keep muh job
tounge.gif


Cory
 
Well all the Athalons are slot A Z. Persoanlly I'd recommend going with Intel though Athalon will be the cheaper option. I highly doubt though that you'll be able to upgrade without getting a new mobo too. You've gotta get over 1ghz if possible since that's a very low end processor now a days. So my recommendation really comes down to what you want to spend versues the performance you want. Oh and while your at it get yourself one of the MSI 8x AGP GF4MX 440's and overclock it. Those things can overclock like mad monkeys who've seen you nakie. Go here and you'll see they got it overclocked so it was beating the stock 4600 and this things like probably 70 bucks or less if you shop smart. Now I want one. Hee hee. So yea anyway get tat so you can play UT2003. So in conclusion you could probably get something around 1Ghz for $30-80 but it'd be much smarter to instead use that toward a new mobo and at least mid 1.xGhz proc. Hmm maybe I should write an article about upgrading for my site. Ah well if you need help let me know and I'll try and help you and crush the rest of you all with my vast intellect. ;-)

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
Well once again Z, it's going to depend on speed, brand, what kinda features you'd want on a mobo, where you shop, what size die the proc was made on, and many other things. Ya gotta know what ya what or at least give people an idea cause other wise you end up paying more then you need to for something that's either too much or too little and you end up wasting your money. I'll make a personal recommendation of what you should get though.

Found all this on NewEgg:
AMD Athalon XP 2000+ 1.67ghz $79
Artic Silver 3 3ounce tube $6
ThermalTake Volcano 7 $15
ThermalTake CPU Shim (the new revision) $5
MSI KT4 Ultra $92

Ok now for the breakdown. The proceesor is an oem, which means you wouldn't get the fancy store packaging or the hsf. The upshot is you save 20 bucks. Why did I recommend spending $26 on new hsf fan stuff as opposed to $20 for the one with it? Well AMD stock fans are pretty simply garbage and these ones run far too hot for them. This means you would have spend the extra 20 bucks plus the 26 for the thermal grease hsf and shim(it'll keep your from accidently breaking the proc while trying to put the hsf on its worht the 5 bucks versues the 79 for the new proc). The chipset on the mobo is the VIA KT400 which is probably the best athalon chipset with some arguing the nforce2 but thats not worth the extra cost. Don't know what kind of memory you have but this runs up to ddr400 so if your still running sdram thatll be at least another 100 but it's more then worth it. Also don't try and put in pc-100,133 or it'll fry the memory. I also would go with at least pc2100(266mhz) while id recommend pc2700(333mhz) but dont go lower then 2100 or itll inhibit the busses far too much.

What I gave you there is $197 plus s&h. Then you can get samsung 512meg pc2700 ddr for 103.50. That puts you at 303.50. Might as well go with the 2700 since its only 1.50 more then the 2100. I know this may seem alot but think about if u spend like 50 now and then in 6 months u need to upgrade again spend another 50 then you have to buy all this cause your mobo cant handle faster stuff and youve spent more then youve spent now with a mobo that can be upgraded into. I do still recommend the video card also even though it will add another 80 dollars or so. My reasons being that you dont even have a gf equivalent card right now making that the bottleneck of your system. If you dont keep everything in decent balance then you might as well not upgrade at all. Plus very few new games will run on your card. The mobo's also 8x which wouldnt mean much to a card like the 9700 but to one like this thats very good for the price the extra bandwith only helps it. Well that bring's it all to a bit under 400 which for all that ive recommended is quite a good deal. Forgive the loseness in punctutaion and such as it's late and this got far longer then i expected. Let me know if u have any questions.

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
DO NOT GET ATHALON XP PROCESSORS!!! very bad. If you want a gaming machine, and i assume you do, go with an intel p4. They are very nice. If you want to look up good prices on computer parts online go to Pricewatch. You will get the best prices on all your computer needs.

Athalon XP = bad for gaming
Intel P4 = good for gaming

Intel P4 > Athalon XP

God Bless
-ChaosSniper
 
F00 don't contradict the all hardware knowing Toe. If money was no object I'd obviously be telling him to go P4 with rambus no athalon can hold a candle to that. But by his not jus upgrading to a new comp obviously money is an issue. A comparable Intel processor is another 50 dollars jus to match the actual clock speed. There's also a lot more to a gaming machine then a CPU and an Athalon versues an equivalent Pentium will not hurt it that bad. For the price to performance ratio this is very good. The biggest advantage the P4's have is their faster FSB which where Z would be buying is negated by the chips and the memory he'd be using. You might also have seen that I personally would choose an Intel processor but the combination I listed makes the most sense for Z. I know my hardware so don't think otherwise lest I bite you with my metal teeth. Don't use Pricewatch either there's too many shady vendors and it's too hard to find what your looking for.

-Trevor
-amusetoe
 
I asked Dr. 1337 for his advice, and he told me, "Intels are better but if you dont want to spend more money for the moment get an athlon."
 
Dr.1337? Sounds like a quack. I know what Im talking about here ya know. I know it's a first but I do.

-Trevor
-amusedtoe
 
uhm, I'm assuming Z is talking about ONLY replacing his proc.  which means his Slot A mobo will stay.

THEREFORE:

Z's Proc options range only up to the Athlon 1Ghz processor, which would run at about $100 max nowadays.

Z - I reccomend you also get a good slot A HSF (heatsink fan assembly) HOW ABOUT THIS ONE??? and overclock.

of course, if you don't go with the spiffy lookin Golden Orb, read reviews and pick one thats good for you.  that cooler has good reviews, though, and its pretty cheap nowadays.

also, go to your mobo manufacturer's site and see if theres any restrictions on the speed of the proc.

I believe the FSB (Front Side Bus) speed of the 1ghz is ~250mhz, with an internal clock multiplier of 4 or so (giving it its rating of 1000mhz = 1 ghz.)

when you change the FSB on your mobo, remember to change the clock speed dividers for your PCI and AGP bus to stay the same (I think you should... dunno about AGP2/4/8x)
 
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