im confused?

first im confused which AMD Mobile 2600 i should get? Which stepping? do steppings really matter? I didnt know if i should post in 2 different sections of the forums for this so if im breaking a rule i will move it to amd abit mobo section. Which NF7 series mobo, should i chose gbe lan over the soundstorm. is this better then the creative labs one i have (link to my sound card)? Any help would be appreciated cause im really confused and have no idea which is better?

No offense, but you should probably be looking at Athlon 64 if you're buying so late. You might shell out a little more cash, but you'll get a lot more in terms of performance.

deception``

okay, no overclock is gauranteed. no stepping gaurantees a certian overclock. but, there is a general belief that the "IQYHA" stepping of the 2600's is better than the "AQYHA" stepping.
and as far as the NF7, i know newgg has a bunch of versions on it now, but this is the one you want- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-166&depa=1
avoid the others.

i agree

ok so if i was to go with the A64 which one should i go with?

the adam said:

ok so if i was to go with the A64 which one should i go with?

Click to expand...

if you want top of the line, get a socket 939 motherboard and a winchester core cpu.
if you want something for now which you will replace in the future, get a socket 754 motherboard and something like a mobile a64.
I decided to go a64 this xmas, i got a socket 754 mobo/3400+ cpu. ill run it for like a year or something, then go socket 939 with Nforce4 and a PCI-E gfx card.

It seems to me that many OCers rely on a CPUs stepping, sortof as an "OC-guarantee". However I'm not updated on this issue, and steppings that become high in demand are probably hard to get.

Concerning 2600s I don't know if there are two different versions (one with lower stock voltage than the other) as there are with the 2400s. The 1.35Vs have a product-id that ends with "FJQ4C" and the 1.45s have "FQQ4C". In theory the lower the stock voltage, the higher the OC.

AFAIK the only mobo in the NF7-series with GBLAN is NF7-S2G, but it lacks the soundstorm. You'll just have to weigh your need for high-speed LAN agains the sound, however there is one thing to keep in mind: Both the SATA-controller and the GB LAN is PCI-integrated. A configuration with SATA-disks and GBLAN would probably be stressful to the PCI-bus which has a b/w of 133 MB/s (that all components have to share). I have no personal experience in this, but you'll likely loose harddisk- and network performance this way, making the gain from 100Mbits to 1000Mbits LAN smaller.

Personally I'd buy NF7-S 2.0 as it is the No.1 OC-board. There are tons of modded BIOS's available and it's been tested and pushed and modded like practically no other piece of hardware.

so should i go winchester or newcastle? I already have a 6800 so that gets rid of NF4

if you want to stick with AGP now, you should get an NF3 board, but you have to decide on the socket. 754 is a little older, but is cheaper than 939 now, but can still give nice results, that's why i went 754 now.
Winchester (90nm process) chips are for socket 939 only. so if you want 754, you have either a Newcastle (512 l2 cache/higher default clock) or the Clawhammer (1mb l2 cache/lower default clock)

what is the big difference between the 130 nanometer and 90 nanometer technology? Is there acually a real performance gain like something i can see in gaming?

the adam said:

what is the big difference between the 130 nanometer and 90 nanometer technology? Is there acually a real performance gain like something i can see in gaming?

Click to expand...

2 chips at the same speed with the same amount of cache on the same socket, but on different processes (130 vs 90nm), will have a 1% performance difference at most.
the 90nm chips have a slightly better memory controller, run on lower voltages (but still get hot), and dont like sub-zero temperatures.

k thx for the imput im deffinatly going with the newcastles cause i dont think $60 is worth a 1% performance game.