Upgrading Advice

[BFMF]

I'm seriously thinking of upgrading my computer.

Right now i've got an AMD Athlon 1.4, 512mb of Ram, and an Epox 8kha motherboard. I looked online and found an AMDXP 2400+ (OEM) for only $145.90. The clockspeed is 2 ghz. I also found PC2100 ram for my motherboard which is about $66 for a 512mb stick of memory on crucial's website. What do you think? How much of a difference would the upgrade be on my current system?

Thanks

[Brett_Henderson]

First be sure your board will support that CPU (I'm sure you checked that  ;)  )

Will that 512 of 2100 be in "addition" to your existing 512 (both 2100) for a total of 1 GB,, or does your board support both SDR and DDR and you'll just be switching from 512 of one to 512 of the other ?

[BFMF]

Yes, I made sure both the AthlonXP 2400+ and my motherboard are both use SocketA.

My board supports DDR PC2100 type memory and I already have 512 mb of PC2100, so buying an additional stick of PC2100 memory would give me a total of about a gig.

[Brett_Henderson]

Then you should see a noticeable increase,, the diff between 1.4 and 2.0 is substantial (especially if you have a decent V-card)..However,  once you reach 512 of RAM, you don't see a big increase in FS2002 when you go further, but more RAM (especially at that price) is always a good thing  ;D

Most upgrades touch of a chain-reaction of other "needed" upgrades that end up making a MAJOR upgrade more economical,, but in your case, I think it would be money well spent.... if you ever go with an even faster board/CPU combo,, that RAM will be fine (as opposed to buying 512 of PC133  and having to scrap it later  ;)  )

[BFMF]

ok thanks, i'll probably order the stuff next week

[congo]

Hi Andrew, I don't know what kind of video card you have, but if it's scoring under 5000 in 3dmark 2001, your money is probably better spent on a gf4 ti4200.

You won't notice the extra ram unless your doing video editing or some other ram intensive application.

Also, chances are you will want to upgrade your m/board to something with a 400mhz or faster front side bus speed in the future and your ram won't do any good. Save the ram money and put it towards a new 400mhz mobo (and PC3200 ram) or video card IMHO.

The processor sounds good, is the XP2400 the new Thoroughbred chip? I know some of the new 2100's are.
I think they run cooler on a new die at lower voltage and have more cache ram.

The CPU upgrade is important I feel. It seems like once up to or around 2ghz, the system really gets smooth as the processor is now finally able to keep up with the load on it.

Does your mobo's BIOS support the XP2400? you may need a BIOS upgrade.

[BFMF]

I've got a GeForce 3 Ti 500, and i'm quite satisfied with it.

[congo]

Nice card those GF3 TI 500's

I spoke poo above about the thoroughbred AMD's having more cache ram, because they don't.

Also I found out that although theoretically the chip should run cooler, they actually don't. It's because the core is actually smaller and has 40% less surface area to dissipate the heat, so a copper contact surface on the heatsink is apparently needed. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

AMD no longer warrant against overheating.

[BFMF]

Where can I get a heatsink and fan that will adequetly cool an AthlonXP 2400+?

I've already got a large fan\heatsink on my AMD Athlon 1.4, do you think it's good enough or would I need to replace it?

[Brett_Henderson]

Man,, the "heat" issue is one of those "spare no expense" problems.

I've gotten so preoccupied with cooling, that I won't even put the cover back on my case, and even keep a floor-fan focused on the board/CPU. (prob over-kill, but that's me)..

Obviously, the biggest fan that your budget, power-supply and case case will allow. And just as important,,, at least one chassis fan. Blowing air on the CPU is good, but even better if it's not the air already heated by the other goodies in there. I got an amazing cooling increase in a friend's computer, by adding one of those neat "PCI slot fans",,

[BFMF]

Right now i've got several fans in my computer:

I've got a fan on the back of my case right beneath my power supply blowing air out.

I also got a fan at the bottom on the front of my case blowing air in.

I've also got fans on my North bridge and on my Graphics card, not to mention on my processor.

I've got no more room for an additional fan inside my case, unless I wanted to replace my current fans with bigger and more powerfull ones