Re: Any wisdom in this upgrade?

----- Original Message -----
From: "DK" <dk@no.email.thankstospam.net>
Newsgroups:
alt.comp.hardware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:04 PM
Subject: Any wisdom in this upgrade?


>I have an aging system that really suits me well and I would like,
> if possible, to extend its useful life for as much as it makes
> sense (financial and computing):
>
> Asus A7V400-MX (Socket A) - Sempron 2200+
> single stick 512 Mb 333 GHz DDR RAM
> 2x120 Gb ATA133 disks
>
> I am considering an upgrade for about $100. It can be done
> now or a year later, depending on prices.
>
> According to Asus, the board supports these CPUs at the
> high range:
>
> Athlon XP 2800+(333 MHZ FSB)(Model 10)(Barton)
> Athlon XP 2800+(333FSB)(Model 8)(Thoroughbred)
> Athlon XP 2900+
> Athlon XP 3000+(333 MHZ FSB)(Model 10)(Barton)
> Athlon XP 3000+(400 MHz FSB)(Model 10)(Barton)
> Athlon XP 3200+(400 MHz FSB)(Model 10)(Barton)
> Sempron 2800+ (Model 10)
> Sempron 2800+ (Model 8)
> Sempron 3000+
>
> Questions:
> 1. What kind of speed increase in performance (say, DivX
> encoding) can I expect by upgrading from to Sempron 2200+
> to the speediest CPU in the above list?
>
> 2. Today, a used Sempron 3000+ can be had for ~ $70 delivered,
> used Athlon XP 2800+ for ~$100 and used Athlon XP 3200+
> for ~ $130. Would an upgrade to any of these make sense or
> would I pay about the same for a new mobo/CPU/RAM
> combination that is much faster?



You could always pick up this motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157092


And this processor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116249

For not a whole bunch over your $100 price.... Of course, you could go with
any 775 processor depending on how much you would want to spend, I was just
referenceing the least expensive 'non-celeron' for an example. The main
benefit is that you can use your existing AGP video card and ram and still
have avaiable to you a PCI-Express graphics slot, two DDR2 memory slots and
a couple of SATA controllers for upgrade paths. This motherboard will also
support the latest Core 2 Duo chips as well, so you could really get some
mileage instead of spending nearly the same amount on a dead end....

Kramer wrote:

>You could always pick up this motherboard:
>
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157092
>
>
>And this processor:
>
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116249
>
>For not a whole bunch over your $100 price.... Of course, you could go with
>any 775 processor depending on how much you would want to spend, I was just
>referenceing the least expensive 'non-celeron' for an example. The main
>benefit is that you can use your existing AGP video card and ram and still
>have avaiable to you a PCI-Express graphics slot, two DDR2 memory slots and
>a couple of SATA controllers for upgrade paths. This motherboard will also
>support the latest Core 2 Duo chips as well, so you could really get some
>mileage instead of spending nearly the same amount on a dead end....

Careful, though, if you plan on using DDR-400 in that board, it may
limit you to 800MHz FSB, in which case a CPU designed for 1066 FSB,
such as the C2D, would be underclocked.

The FSB will run at 1066 and will async the memory to run at a lower speed.
I used this board to upgrade to a Core 2 last fall and keep my existing
PC-3200 ram and ATI 9800pro. It ran the two speeds flawlessly. The only
issue I came across is that when I put in my Crucial Ballistix DDR400 ram I
was having issues. Turns out that the solution was to go with generic
DDR400 because this motherboard didn't like the 2-2-2-6 timings of the high
performance Crucial and the Crucial didn't like to run stable at slower
speeds based on my testing it in a few different systems. But with generic
ram I was able to run rock-solid. Of course, you will suffer a penalty for
using the DDR stuff when it comes to performance, but this board is perfect
for someone who wants to take advantage of a great combination of upgrade
avenues at a trade-off for cutting-edge performance. It also blew away my
previous setup of an Asus Nforce2 board and an Athlon XP3200+ when it came
to file encoding.


"chrisv" <chrisv@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
news:vug203pev01utfvcmcoh2mhfime8vojuaq@4ax.com...
> Kramer wrote:
>
>>You could always pick up this motherboard:
>>
>>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157092
>>
>>
>>And this processor:
>>
>>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116249
>>
>>For not a whole bunch over your $100 price.... Of course, you could go
>>with
>>any 775 processor depending on how much you would want to spend, I was
>>just
>>referenceing the least expensive 'non-celeron' for an example. The main
>>benefit is that you can use your existing AGP video card and ram and still
>>have avaiable to you a PCI-Express graphics slot, two DDR2 memory slots
>>and
>>a couple of SATA controllers for upgrade paths. This motherboard will
>>also
>>support the latest Core 2 Duo chips as well, so you could really get some
>>mileage instead of spending nearly the same amount on a dead end....
>
> Careful, though, if you plan on using DDR-400 in that board, it may
> limit you to 800MHz FSB, in which case a CPU designed for 1066 FSB,
> such as the C2D, would be underclocked.
>

Crud... Sorry for the previous top post.