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budget upgrade, what to pick?

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nookuwn

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2003
:)
I'm looking for a budget upgrade from this system

1.8Gig @2.07 duron (not very stable)
512 ddr400
aiw 9700pro
485w enermax

to something with moderate overclocking capabilties.

sempron 64 2600+
nf3 mobo
maybe some memory
maybe a gf 6800

couple of questions
1. which mobo? asus K8N (not K8N-E DL) or Gigabyte GA-K8NS (not pro)

2. what are the chances of getting 2400mhz with stock volts (since s64 dont have CnQ)?
Or
How much should i expecto to oc this cpu with the above mobos?

3. how much of a performance jump from my current system?

4. or should i get something else?


thanks
 
Yes you can get 2gb kits for a couple hundred now and a gig for less than a hundred that would be your best bet. Having 2 gigs or RAM will seem like you have a new system.
 
You may want to consider going up to a 939 socket. You can pick up a Venice 3000 or 3200 for from $125-$150 and an ASRock Dual SATAII ULI1695 based board for less than $70. A couple of sticks of pc3200 value ram for $82 and your in business for $300. The mobo has an AGP and a pci-e slot so you can upgrade to pci-e or wait a while and use your current card.
 
odd, thought i deleted this post, since i made a new one in the amd section and dont have to get in trouble with the mods.

rseven said:
You may want to consider going up to a 939 socket. You can pick up a Venice 3000 or 3200 for from $125-$150 and an ASRock Dual SATAII ULI1695 based board for less than $70. A couple of sticks of pc3200 value ram for $82 and your in business for $300. The mobo has an AGP and a pci-e slot so you can upgrade to pci-e or wait a while and use your current card.

while this is future proof,it would cost me $80+tax cnd more than $160+tax cnd im planning to spend on these items. I'm thought of the original items because i think they are best price/performace (for low budget i suppose). After all I only play strategy games and rpgs.

Suppose I'm sticking with my original plans, what r my chances of getting those speeds?
 
I don't have any first hand experience with it. My guess would be the odds are against it at stock voltage, but I'm sure someone can give you a more knowledgeable reply.
 
Mine sempron takes 1.65 volts to get to 2.4ghz. And with the stock cooler, that is a whooping 58 degrees.
 
lee1026 said:
Mine sempron takes 1.65 volts to get to 2.4ghz. And with the stock cooler, that is a whooping 58 degrees.

that's kind of discuraging :eh?: ... r u sure your's a sempron 64? palermo 90nm process chip?
Which chip do u have?
 
1. which mobo? asus K8N (not K8N-E DL) or Gigabyte GA-K8NS (not pro)

Cheap and very nice board is the ABIT NF3-250. It's around $65 and a very nice overclocing board. But between those two, I would choose the Asus.


2. what are the chances of getting 2400mhz with stock volts (since s64 dont have CnQ)?

Get the A64 mobile 3000 754 Clawhammer. OC to around 2.6-2.7. Plus a Clawhammer speed at 2.7 is a Sempron at 3.2. A Duron at 3.4ish.

3. how much of a performance jump from my current system?

Sempron @ 2.6 is like a Duron at 2.8. Sempron are compared to the Intel Celeron and not the P4. An OK jump but could no better with the same budget. Getting the sempron 2600 means you'll need som PC4400 ram to get the speed you want. PC4400 ram cost around $175.

Overclock at Clawhammer to 2.7 and you'll noticable jump. If you want to spend a little more, you can get the 754 3700 Clawhammer, you'll get a free hard drive on newegg. This will also OC to about 2.6 or 2.7 and you would need to get good ram to overclock this 1:1. Just the corsair value will do 225 FSB with timing around 3-4-4-10.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103461

4. or should i get something else?

If you get a low multi CPU, you'll need good ram to run 1:1 and get good overclock. If you get a higher multi, you can buy the cheaper RAM.

I think it's cheaper to get teh 754 3700 Clawhammer (this has the 12 multi) and get the cheap ram. 1 GB of the corsair is around $80.

Basically $205 (processor and HD) +$80 (ram) = $285 -->for 754 3700-Clawhammer, ram, and hard drive

or

$64 processor + $52 hard drive + $175 ram = $291-->Sempron64 2600

The Clawhammer will give you better speed for your buget.
 
<<Spider>> said:
Cheap and very nice board is the ABIT NF3-250. It's around $65 and a very nice overclocing board. But between those two, I would choose the Asus.

I live in canada and this Abit is abit (lol) hard to find, dontt even know how much it cost. Though, since u suggest asus I'm settle with that for now, but the Gigabyte is so much more colorful :cool:


<<Spider>> said:
Get the A64 mobile 3000 754 Clawhammer. OC to around 2.6-2.7. Plus a Clawhammer speed at 2.7 is a Sempron at 3.2. A Duron at 3.4ish.

ok when i said budget, I really meant budget :). this chip and a nf3 board would've cost me $280+tax cnd, where i only plan to spend less than $200 cnd.


<<Spider>> said:
Sempron @ 2.6 is like a Duron at 2.8. Sempron are compared to the Intel Celeron and not the P4. An OK jump but could no better with the same budget. Getting the sempron 2600 means you'll need som PC4400 ram to get the speed you want. PC4400 ram cost around $175.

Overclock at Clawhammer to 2.7 and you'll noticable jump. If you want to spend a little more, you can get the 754 3700 Clawhammer, you'll get a free hard drive on newegg. This will also OC to about 2.6 or 2.7 and you would need to get good ram to overclock this 1:1. Just the corsair value will do 225 FSB with timing around 3-4-4-10.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103461.

I'm hoping for a 2400mhz oc, that's to my understanding is comparable to a64 3400+. That should be plenty compare to my duron 2gig.

<<Spider>> said:
If you get a low multi CPU, you'll need good ram to run 1:1 and get good overclock. If you get a higher multi, you can buy the cheaper RAM.

I'm aiming at the s64 2600+ which has a 8x multi, so my goal of 2400mhz is basically 300x8, with this speed I can use divider, so i dont think i need better memory for this chip, right?
 
you won't need better memory - heck, I bought the cheapest PC3200 that I can get my hands on and I am currently 2.56 GHZ and 1.87 Volts.
 
You can use the divider but that will make make your performace suffer. Especially on gaming and video. So overclocking the sempron to 2.4 may not be equivalent to A64 3400. It maybe more like A643000.

To be equilvalent to a A643500, you'll need arounf 313 FSB 1:1 ratio. Take a look at this review.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/sempron-2600_8.html

Besides, Runing a 166/200 divider means 260FSB. You still going to need good RAM. If you run 133/200 divider, you can get 209FSB but that'll be huge performance drop and will only be comparable to a A643000 or so. If that works for you, that's fine.
 
I'm cool with a64 +3000 performace, though i do belieave @ 2400mhz the s64 is better than a64 +3000. i might get the s64 3000 though since it has CnQ for upping voltage and a 9 multiplier. :eh?: it's $25 more though, I hope I won't get carry away with this :)
 
dividers do not hurt your performance much, not with the intergrated memory controller anyway. Having to run your memory 1:1 is a old fashioned idea from the chipset days.

And out of my 2.56 GHZ CPU I can squeeze out a 38 second superpi 1M. that is not bad, really, it is on par with P4 at about 3.5GHZ.
 
dividers do not hurt your performance much, not with the intergrated memory controller anyway. Having to run your memory 1:1 is a old fashioned idea from the chipset days.

Try runing 3D mark at high FSB then compare it to low FSB. You'll see a HUGE drop. If you also look at reviews on high FSB vs low FSB, you'll see the same thing. You can also try running sandra and test that out. Lowing the FSB does make a huge different, especially on the 754 platform with the single memory controller. This even makes a big difference on the 939 platform with the dual memory controler.
 
lee1026 said:
And by the way, you will not need CnQ to mess around with the voltage.
:-/ im pretty sure I saw several times that i only can adjust the voltage if the chip suppport CnQ. Need reasearch now
 
Try runing 3D mark at high FSB then compare it to low FSB. You'll see a HUGE drop. If you also look at reviews on high FSB vs low FSB, you'll see the same thing. You can also try running sandra and test that out. Lowing the FSB does make a huge different, especially on the 754 platform with the single memory controller. This even makes a big difference on the 939 platform with the dual memory controler.
I believe that was mostly due to the speed of the memory. Memory at 200MHZ is slower then memory at 300MHZ.


And as for needing CnQ to mess around with the voltage, how do you think that I got 1.8volts?
 
lee1026 said:
And as for needing CnQ to mess around with the voltage, how do you think that I got 1.8volts?

thats true, thats y i asked u earlier which model exectly u have. Ur chip is little different from the the one im thinking of. Yes its 90nm, but no 64bit instruction, I think its paris core, not palermo.
 
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