Athlon XP Mobile, should I look for any in particular???

I'm going to shop for one within the next week. What should I be looking for? Will any 2500+ do the trick? Which steppings are better? Should I take a 2600+? It's gonna go into an ABIT AN7.

Any leads on retailers who have EXACTLY what I should be looking for?

Wow, that is pretty crazy, I was going to ask the SAME EXACT question. I was going to go with the 2500+ just because of the more reviews and people talking about it, but I want to know the answer to this question as well, thanks for asking it

ShaftedTwice

The 2600+ overclocks to higher levels on average. (IQYHA is considered better than AQYHA)

Is Newegg good about telling you the stepping number and date codes for the CPU you're ordering, or are they snooty about it?

I dont think they tell you. Anyway here is some info on the various XP-M frequencies vis-a-vis overclocking potential.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=207

They ship so many of them, it is not possible for them to do that.

As long as you don't get any 2400+ mobile (even the 35 watter,) your chances are increased of getting a decent chip. I would gamble with newegg on any 2500+ mobile or 2600+ mobile.

You must be careful building a new system today because it doesn't make sense to invest a lot getting the highest OC on a 32-bit system. We all know it's crazy to pay $141 for the XP-M3000+ plus $60-$90 for a motherboard when you could put that toward an A64. But you still can get into trouble with a $90 mobile and new motherboard and big money in cooling, power supplies and other stuff. You'll wish you went A64 later. (I wasn't sure if you guys were buying new motherboards or already had them.)

I got XP-Ms recently to upgrade three existing systems and it worked out great. Very cheap upgrade - maybe even free if you can sell the old CPUs for a reasonable price. First I bought the XP-M2200+ for $77 at the time because I wanted to go cheap in case it didn't work in my system. It worked fine so I got the cheapest mobile a week later which was the XP-M2400+ for $77. On the third, I paid more to get the XP-M2600+ to see if it made much difference.

As it turned out in my PCs all three XP-Ms perform the same due to other system limitations that I don't want to upgrade. I've swapped them around in all three systems just in case that mattered (it didn't). Anyway, I can get 2.4GHz from all three XP-Ms at 1.65v. My unlocked Barton XP2500+ could only get to 2.2GHz at 1.65v in these systems.

I think they're great for upgrading an existing motherboard but if you're building a new system give a lot of thought to how much it will cost for a wild OC vs an A64.

Looking at the pricing at NewEgg this morning:

XP-M2400+ AXMH2400FQQ4C 1.45V $80 shipped
XP-M2200+ AXMD2200FJQ4C 1.35V $84 shipped
XP-M2500+ AXMH2500FQQ4C 1.45V $90 shipped
XP-M2600+ AXMG2600FQQ4C 1.45V $95 shipped
XP-M2400+ AXMD2400FJQ4C 1.35V $96 shipped
XP-M3000+ AXMA3000FKT4C 1.65V $141 shipped

The XP-M2600+ is only $15 more than the XP-M2400+ so it's really the best buy.

Hope this helps!

Only three mobiles count for us though, the 2400+, 2500+, 2600+,
others are either not Bartons or are high voltage parts (might as well get a cheaper desktop CPU).

Especially stay away from the 2200+, that's not a good overclocker at all in comparison to the three that count...

Both 35 watt and 45 watt versions of 2400+ are not recommended nowadays either because even though you may get lucky, chances are greater you will not when compared to your odds when you get 2500+ or 2600+ mobiles...

So get mobiles, not XP-Ms

I vote for the a either 2500+ or a 2600+, I have two 2600+ xp mobile, one is the I stepping from 0350 and a A stepping from sometime 04, both overclock exactly the same, but if you ask me they were worth every penny, I didn't won't to spend too much money on a whole new system and wanted decent performance, and when you bring that fsb up the performance increase is so much more apparent then when just raising the multiplier. Right now I'm very happy with my system and if I upgrade is because i wanted to not because i needed to upgrade.

I just ordered an Athlon 2600 Mobile from newegg last week and I got the IQYHA stepping. So hurry if you are going to order one. Because newegg is luck of the draw, they dont give you stepping codes before you order.

Congratulations, good for you but it's always the luck of the draw, even if you hurry to order, these things can change by the hour...

IQYHA's are considered better, but ive seen AQYHA's do fairly well too.
so go for a 2600 mobile from newegg, you might get lucky and even if you dont, you're bound to get a chip that does at least 2.4ghz

c627627 said:

Only three mobiles count for us though, the 2400+, 2500+, 2600+,
others are either not Bartons or are high voltage parts (might as well get a cheaper desktop CPU).

Especially stay away from the 2200+, that's not a good overclocker at all in comparison to the three that count...

Both 35 watt and 45 watt versions of 2400+ are not recommended nowadays either because even though you may get lucky, chances are greater you will not when compared to your odds when you get 2500+ or 2600+ mobiles...

Click to expand...

I certainly agree, for the $10-15 difference, go for the 2600+ mobile.

But to clarify, there are two versions of the 2200+ mobile
AXMD2200FJQ4C is a Barton
AXMH2200FQQ3C is a Thoroughbred
http://www.thedigerati.us/info/amdcpuchart.html#xpm

NewEgg sells the Barton version and my 2200+ definitely is a Barton. It has 512K L2 cache and the long Barton core.

Not saying to buy it - just that the AXMD2200FJQ4C does belong in the mobile 2400, 2500 & 2600 family. (Well, the only reason would be to get the cheapest 1.35v CPU for a low voltage application.)

Anyone else noticed that NewEgg's price (with shipping) on the 2200 and 2400 mobiles keeps creeping up? At least it makes it easier to go for the 2600+!

Get 2600+.
I regret getting the 2500+.
Not that I'm not satisfied with it, but it reqires more cooling .

I'm being tempted by that 1.35 V, 35 W, 2400+ at only $3.00 more than the 2600+ at 1.45V and 45 W.

Which of these two should I pick up?

Well, I guess never mind. I just read an earlier post in this thread warning me to stay away from the 2400+ lest I get one that won't overclock as well as the 2600+.

I thought lower default voltages and Watt ratings were a SURE sign of a CPU that could be overclocked higher.

BTW, I'm not greedy. I just want to be able to set the FSB to 200 MHz and bring down the multiplier wherever it needs to be to achieve that. If I get 2.2 GHz out of it in the process GREAT! Otherwise, if I were only able to achieve the default speed 2.0 GHz, albeit at the higher FSB speed, I'd be happy with it.

If you are building a new system, why not go A64. No point in A-XP systems. A64s are about the same price range and have much better performance.

But if you must go XP-M and to choose 2500 or 2600, I would go with the 2600.

Yeah, but you're talking about A64 with a Socket 754 Motherboard aren't you?

I didn't want to do 754 b/c of no Dual Channel DDR. Also, I'm confused about what to go with in Socket 940/939, and the processors are NOT so available.

If you disagree, please tell me what is a nice price comparable combo. I'm paying about $200.00 total for the Motherboard and processor, and I'm on a pretty tight budget.

The RAM and the Heatsink don't make any difference because they will both be compatible.

ForForToo said:

Is Newegg good about telling you the stepping number and date codes for the CPU you're ordering, or are they snooty about it?

Click to expand...

No, but they are recording serial numbers and id'ed two 2600+ that I just bought. Wonder if those defective chips dumped on the market had anything to do with recording the serial# ?