OK, Advice needed on which CPU and MOBO that fits me.

I just bought an Built by ATI 9500 PRO 128MB video card. I very glad i was able to get it , Because this will be my first personal machine since the Pentium 3 era, i want to come out with the most bang for the buck.

This isn't going to be a totally new system, because i already have the following:
ATI 9500 PRO
120, 40, and 10GB EIDE hard Drives (Western Digital)
Modem
NIC 10/100
Modem
Secondary PCI video card

My question is an AMD vs. INTEL, but i am not entirely sure what cpu speed and mobo to get.

I've seriously considered AMD's 2500+ Barton due to its price and L2 cashe, but what motherboard to get with it? From what i understand the 9500 PRO is easily overclockable to the status of the 9700 PRO, so i would want a mobo that could exploit this (if it doesn't cost too much).

Does the 2500+ come factory unlocked? From what i understand, getting the lowest end of a particular line of CPU's yields the most overclocking ability. I am wanting a quite system, so i'm looking at the Zalman CNPS3100+ /w Vantec Stealth case fans.

Buy you a Abit NF7-S v2 or Asus a7n8x deluxe rev.2,the Abit has more voltage options,the Asus has a better layout.And the 2500 barton is a good choice.

what system depends on your budget.

Barton 2500+ wiht NForce2 motherboard, or 2.4c with i865 motherboard are your choices I guess.

Both are great, the Intel will overclock more and cost more.

Edit:
sorry, my mistake, they both overclock about the same.

Off Topic: The 9500 pro is not easily overclockable (those made by ATI). You would need to update your bios with a cracked version in order to successfully overclock it. But of course, risk increases, so I would watch out. It's the 9500 non pro that is overclockable to 9700pro status, so be vary of that.

The Intel will not really overclock more per se. They both yeild about a 30% overclock. The Intel will probably end up with a bit more performance.... but as for the AMD you are looking at about $80 for an epox 8rda+ which includes top notch onboard sound (something you need) and about $90 for a barton 2500+. Not sure what the best deals are on the Intel side are but I assure you they don't even come close to that.

9500np's are locked bios wise you flash them with a 9700 bios to oc them. 9500 pro's have an unlocked bios.

gamefoo21 said:

9500np's are locked bios wise you flash them with a 9700 bios to oc them. 9500 pro's have an unlocked bios.

Click to expand...

Can you point me in any direction on were to get the flashes for the nonpro? My friend has a nonpro SapphireTech Atlantis 9500 and he wants to get the other 4 pipelines online.

Also, the Zalman CNPS3100+... has anyone had any experiance with this CPU heatsink?

http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/zalman/p1.html

I have that heatsink, I am most impressed with it's silence and quality of construction. Very easy to install/uninstall, flexible, and just plain cool looking. Just keep height in mind, especially with the Power Supply. Happy Hunting!

Thank you for the advice .

umm i know of no place. but i'd tell him to check sapphires site for updated bios's. gigabyte updates the bios's on there cards all the time to fix things

Edit: His 9500np has to have a red pcb and an L shaped memory config for the flash to 9700 to even have a chance to work which is 50% with a red pcb, L shaped ram config.

if you can afford it buy a P4 with the P4c800 Deluxe I think its called made by Asus.. It'll be the best..
if your on a budget AMD will be fine with the NF7-s 2.0 if you want overclocking or the A7n8x-dx by Asus..The XP2500 would be great..

DONT FLASH THE CARD FOR GODS SAKE! You must physically mod the card to get it to even run with the flashed bios. Just download the hacked drivers. I'm sure someone can link you.

Oh and FYI that card is unlocked already. Needs no bios flash.