1.2 GHz -> 3.2 GHz = $200? But...

[Phoenix '971]

For this discussion, I will assume Canadian dollars. ($1 Cdn. ~ $0.75 U.S.).

Summary: I am a semi-poor university student considering upgrading to a P4 Celeron setup as opposed to an Athlon or P4 setup which may cost a few hundred dollars more. Not a serious gamer.

I am considering purchasing a used Asus P4B motherboard ($60) plus a Celeron 2.4 GHz (~$140 w/ tax) to replace my Celeron 1.2 GHz, 512MB SDRAM, i815EP motherboard/CPU system. I consider myself to be a casual overclocker, where I select a CPU that has good overclocking potential, and push it as far as it'll reasonably go, with stock or slightly better cooling (i.e., take the side of the case off. ). Having a look at the CPU Database, it seems like 3 GHz+ appears to be a reasonable overclock for this CPU.
Now, will this setup give me a reasonable performance boost for the money? Taking into account I don't upgrade all that often; I've been using the above 1.2 GHz setup for over 2 years now.
I understand the Celeron has sub-par performance (I've read the recent Anandtech review) and that one would likely recommend me an Athlon XP or something, but if I were to do that I would need to get a new board and replace all my RAM. Considering the following cost for an "equivalent" Athlon XP 2400+ system:
Asus A7N8X-X - $125
Athlon XP 2400+ - 125
512MB PC3200 - $102
This comes to just over $400 with taxes (tax rate is 14%).
I know that in the first scenario I'm getting a used board but no one seems to be offering a used Socket A board now.
I'm not that serious of a gamer, in fact during semesters I have little time to play games... I run a GF3Ti200 and my favourite games (Mafia, GTA3, VC) run satisfactorily on my setup right now.
Now if I'm able to get $100 for selling my current board and CPU, I can pull this off for about $100 in all... money's a slight concern; I have the money now but I need to pay for courses and textbooks.
What do you think?

 

[9mmCensor]

The Celeron based system is slow...

For some overclocking I recomend:
1800+ AMD XP TBRED-B *DLT3C* JIUHB = $110
Abit NF7-S, ASUS A7N8X-X, ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (145, 159, 102)
same Ram

 

[batboy]

You forgot to figure in the cost of RAM with the Celeron system, so you need to add another $100. As much as I love Intel... for your budget... you might be better off with an AMD. Look for a bargain on an Abit NF7 and a T-bred XP1700+ or XP1800+ CPU. You'll probably have to spend another $20 to $30 on a heatsink for the AMD, but if you get the Intel and if your power supply is an older unit, it won't have the extra power connector to make it P-4 compliant, so that will make the Celeron system cost even more if you have to buy a new PS too.

 

[Phoenix '971]

My PSU is up to date, it's a 350W Enermax, P4 compliant.

 

[batboy]

Oh, now I see why you didn't figure in RAM for that proposed Celeron system. That Asus P4B uses SDRAM. Trust me, a Celly with SDRAM will suck big time. Seriously consider something else.

 

[Phoenix '971]

As an alternative... I could spend maybe $50 more and pick up an Asus P4XP-X - an 845D based board with 2 SDR and 2 DDR slots; it also has the option for fixed PCI/AGP frequencies... from what I've heard going past 150 MHz FSB on 845D boards shouldn't pose too much of a problem?
Then I can upgrade my processor and RAM as my budget allows.

 

[barton2500]

Don't go with SDRAM with a [email protected] Ghz...it will be as slow as a P4 1.6 Willamette. Remember that for the P4 architecture to be fast, it needs high FSB, dual channel DDR RAM. First, 2.4 Ghz -> 3.2 Ghz would be FSB 133, which is slow. And you are using SDRAM, which is 1/4 of the bandwidth of dual channel DDR. So you have a paper tiger: 3.2 Ghz processor that is as fast as the first pentium 4s.

AthlonXP 1800(retail) + A7V8X-X+256 Mb (Generic) DDR400 would be a lot better. That works out to $86+$86+$51 = $203. Which is close to $200 like in your Celeron+mobo setup. These are Cdn dollars from www.look4computer.com.

If you were to spend $400, you can do either AMD/Intel and expect a better system.

AMD:
Barton 2500(retail): $128
A7N8X: $123
2 x 256 Mb DDR400: $102
Total: $353
Add a cpu cooling upgrade like the Coolermaster Aero or Thermalright SLK900 for about $30 if you want to OC to at least 2.2 Ghz. In that case, get an OEM cpu since you won't need the stock heatsink or the warranty.

Intel:
P4 2.6C $235
2 x 256 Mb DDR400: $102
Asus P4P800: $149
Total: $486

Generally Intel OCs reasonably well with stock cooling. Run that 2.6C at 250 FSB for 3.25 Ghz and the RAM at 5:4 ratio for a speed of DDR400 in dual channel mode. This setup is much faster than the AMD although a bit more expensive.

P4R800-VM for $117 at ncix.com is probably a good bet as well. It is cheaper than the P4P800 and also has a Radeon 9100 IGP which should a bit better than your G3 Ti200. Not sure how well it OCs though.