quick question about new cpu

My current computer just died and i need a new computer real quick. I was just curious what people thought were the best cpu/mobo/memory combo for performance mainly for gaming and i will be overclocking. My budget is between 150-200 for the processor, 125ish for mobo, and 125-150ish for memory. So, the best performance / price ratio is what im looking for. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Mobile 2500 , nice decent heatsink unless you have one , NF7-S ver 2 motherboard , and some PC-3200

dead_man is basicly dead_on p). You'll be paying:

$60-90 for a 2100+ t-bred, locked 2500+ desktop barton or 2500+ moble barton (~$20 more for this unlocked core)

$100 for a NF7-S w/Soundstorm audio (optical-out for speakers w/decoders like z-680's)

$120/240 for matched pair of 512mb or 1gb of OCZ memory (timing/speed being equal, cheaper than any other memory by far)

If I had to get a system now, I'd pick a moble Barton, highend 1gb OCZ, and run it on a NF7-S at 210mhz+ with Logitec z-680 or z-5300's.


OR you could get a 2800+ A64, cheap memory and hope the cpu can beat out the mass of memory and fsb you opted not to get. A used A64 would allow for much better mem/mb.

Same here

Well, I've been lurking about doing research for my next upgrade (which is hard to do since I can't get into any of the good forums with <100 post count!), and rather than start a new thread, this looks like the place to do it.

From all my research so far, the mobile Barton2500+ looks like the way to go. The NF7v2.0 motherboard also looks like a good choice, and from what I can tell, it's because it has some weird "dual memory" channels.

So here's my question. I've found a Mobile Barton2500+ and NF7 combo on the net for $180 (including a thermaltake A1671 fan for $15)... but my current RAM is two sticks of PC2700 (256MB ea).

If I'm going to try to get this puppy overclocked, should I get faster memory? What kind of performance should I expect with the RAM I have, and if I need faster memory, what's too fast? Is the PC3200 as suggested above a good fit for the maximum that this CPU can be o/c'd?

I think ideally I would go faster than 3200 if possible. 3200=200fsb. Probably the 3200 would clock higher (if it were mushkin, corsair, or hyperX), but its on the edge of where you would want to be running (in terms of front side bus). I personally would prefer getting 3500 or 3700 if your going to upgrade...and go with a gig of it. I don't think you'd see enough tangible benifits otherwise.

You certainly can stick with your ram, run it at the highest possible FSB you can attain and then jump up the multiplier since the mobile 2500 will be unlocked. I'd be suprised if you couldn't at least get 180fsb out of the 2700 (especially if you loosened up the timings). I've seen alot of cases on this forum where people have pulled 200mhz out of 2700 as a result of loose timings. I guess in the end your memory bandwidth wouldn't be as good as if you were to buy all new ram, but you probably could achieve the same CPU overclock.

Plus it would save you alot of money considering the current crappy ram prices. Anyways, if your on a budget, I think I would hold off for the time being. Thats just my take. Others may disagree, but in the end its really just up to what your willing to spend.


Specifically, what kind of ram do you have (Manufacturer and timings)?

Thanks for the reply! I'm going to have to blow off the dust and crack open the case for that answer.

I've been reading up on the dual channel memory... the NF7's use of this technology seems worth it to buy two 512MB DIMMS, and I'll probably get PC3500 or 3700 so I can fiddle with overclocking.

PC3700 with a athlon? That would be a sweet overclock.

What about a 2.4C with 512Mb (256x2) Adata PC4200. Can usually get that to 300 FSB (3.6Ghz core).

Ram $140
CPU $169

Motherboard is hard, somthing Asus or Abit would be good.

Go KOXC2003!

Finally one P4 owner spoke up. My brother has a XP 2600 Barton and I have a Northwood 1.8A ( read my sig). For the price range that you have, I would look at the MSI Neo2-P(Platinum Edition) which just happens to be my board I love it, and it will support a 800 FSB P4 up to a 3.4 not overclocked- you can go up to a 1200 FSB oc as far as I know, I'll have to check that-. I believe that is supports Dual Channel DDR 500 if you have the 800FSB and it oc's very well.
1 mhz increments for fsb, .125 voltage, .05 AGP voltage, .05 DDR voltage. Very stable board and it goes for 90 bucks on zipzoomfly.com
I would look at a faster P4 than what I have if you can afford it. Maybe a 3.0-3.2C HT off of Ebay or something. I saw a few of those over there for about $200 or less.
Good luck on your new computer

I'm definitely leaning toward the NF7 from Abit because of the DualDDR400 feature thanks to nVidia. They recently released an AN7 which has onboard RAID 0/1 (which I need), but the reviews on the Abit forum are not so good. If I get the NF7 I'll have to get a Raid controller card.

As for the memory- thanks for the info. Here's my question. The default bus speed is 333MHz, which translates to 166MHz FSB. When overclocking, the most I've seen it is ~225MHz. So the most the memory should be able to push is 225 or 230MHz. This means that 233/466 MHz => DDR466 or PC3700 should be the max I should buy otherwise I'd be wasting my money.

Here's a cool website on overclocking these guys by the way:
http://www.techtastic.ca/reviews3/mobile-barton-2500.html

Here's my thinking. IF your going to buy more: after spending the money, do you wanna be limited by ramspeed for you FSB overclock? or by your mobo?

"rated" speeds:
2700 - 166mhz
3200 - 200mhz
3500 - 216mhz
3700 - 233mhz

Will you even hit a 233fsb with that board? I don't know, but you know your ram wouldn't be the limiting factor...especially if it was high quality. I agree that higher then 3700 would prolly be a waste. It seems like primarily A64 and P4 owners buying faster stuff. If you find that people are maxing out in the 220 range, perhaps 3500 would be a better buy if its cheaper.

I would check around on the forum and see how high of a FSB people are getting with the Abit NF7. Honestly, get some other opinions on this...I think it would be worth it, there's alot of info out there from actual owners. Then guage your final purchase off some further knowledge. I'd hate to have you waste money.

What brand/timings do you currently have? and what are you looking at buying (brand/timings)?

I'm gonna buy an Apple !

devvingiorgio said:

I'm gonna buy an Apple !

Click to expand...

What?

lmao, wrong thread, sorry

i would get the AN7 insted of the Nf7-s its max VDIMM is 3.2 which helps for bh-5/6 RAM also i got my moble up to 2.65 GHZ and it SCREAMS

I don't know what brand. The sticker on the RAM has a greek delta and an omega. The timings are 2.5-3-3-CL2. It's PC2400 at 133/DDR266MHz .

I'm looking at getting some OCZ PC3500.