What is the fastest/best overclocking Socket A processor

[Nealoc187]

Situation is this - I need more processing power without upgrading my entire system. I've (stupidly) invested too much into this old Asus A7N8X / AthlonXP Barton 2500+ system to scrap it just yet. I've got a very nice PSU (silverstone Zeus 550W), good ram (2gb Corsair XMS 184pin PC3200 DDR), a brand new 400gb Ultra ATA (IDE) Seagate Barracuda HDD, a decent ATi X850XT PE AGP card. All of these components do what I need them to do except the 2500+ XP Barton. I figure now that the Socket A chips are quite antiquated, I can probably pick up the best of the Socket As for cheap as hell.

I want to overclock on air with a good cooler like a Zalman (have yet to purchase a cooler, any recommendations?)

So the question is, what processor should I look for as far as the fastest out of the box goes and what will give me the best overclocks. If those two are not easily found in the same processor what would you guys recommend for both the best stock speeds and best overclocking speeds in the Socket A flavor?

Edit:

Alternately, if there is another mobo/cpu combo I should look at that will still be able to utilize my existing components, what would you guys suggest?

 

[benbaked]

Well the best Socket A processor without a doubt is any of the mobile Athlon XP Barton cores. The XP-M 2600+ is the highest stock chip, rated at 2 GHz, and along with the other mobile Bartons they should generally overclock to between 2.2-2.7 GHz. Some might clock higher, and some of the "bad" ones won't even go above 2.2 GHz, even with significant loads of vcore.

The problem with Athlon XPs, and mobiles in particular, is that for some reason the chips are still far too overpriced in the used market (in my opinion anyways).

The best route for your current situation is to dump that Asus board and XP chip, and purchase a used and inexpensive Socket 939 motherboard that has AGP. Asrock made a good motherboard for Socket 939 that has AGP, PCI-E, DDR; I think the board is called the DualSATAII. One of those boards, and an inexpensive Athlon 64 would be an inexpensive upgrade and will be loads faster then an overclocked Athlon XP.

Also, with Socket 939 you can get a dual-core chip such as an Opteron 165 for under $100 new. A dual-core Opteron or Athlon 64 X2 will squash that Barton like nothing.

 

[Enablingwolf]

With the A64. Your best going 754 AGP or 939 PCI-e/ the AGP 939 were kind of poopie.

I still am running my old AXP 2400 and it a solid chip. Be it old and tired. It still chugs along @ 2.4 pretty easy. Though my 754 Venice @ 2.8 mops it up.

This stage in the game. Just save up for a PCI-e machine and get into what is out video slot wise and leave the AGP alone. Replace any parts on the AGP machines, as they fail.

Alot of the 939 parts are darn cheap and do well still. Even though it is an older socket. If I was sticking out AGP. I would go for *754 board and get a cheap 3200 Venice*. Otherwise. I would move on to PCI-e/ Which would get you more gains if you want to game. I dig my X850XTPE It is very long in the tooth and I am bieng left behind in video cards. The cost alone moving upwards makes it totally apeealing moving onwards to PCI-e.

*Says owner of a 462 & 754.*

 

[RockyC2D]

I'm running a amd athlon xp mobile 2500+, mine has been stable and overclocked for the past 4 years.

 

[Enablingwolf]

The 462 was a solid arc that seems to last forever. I know mine has lasted me for years and all the abuse I have given it.

There is two versions of the A-XP. The PC2100 / PC2700. The older 266 had unlocked multis on older variants (until date code 0339). Which made for really fun times. Even if the FSB is a little limited. On this forum. The barton core(333) 2500+ was a winner and everyone was getting around 2.4 - 2.5 pretty easy on air. The mobile 2500/2600 got a little easier to keep cool. Which of course was desirable. So I would pick one of them if you can find one at a good price. On average, they did about the same. Depending on the baord you used. Average, they are about equal though, it was temps that helped the mobiles along.. Now if you happen to have an older Abit NF7s (w/ soundstorm & modded BIOS) your in luck. That was a good setup there. Which to this day, no other board has ever come close to matching the onboard sound.

If you cannot find a mobile chip that works on your board. Try and find 2500 or a 2600. You want the Barton core if supported. The T-Bred was the (PC2100) 266 version.

Edit:

If you have a 333 board look for a Sempron 3000+/ It has all the goodness of the Barton, but the Semprons could go rather high with a little love. Stock it was 2.0Ghz. It may still be easy to find and give the best chance to get a good clock out of it. Though for the price. You can bump up to a 3200+ 754 Venice and board probally. That will get you the most gain for your setup.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103035

(I hate ECS boards, and the VIA chipset is not a winner. Though out of the box stock. You will get alright gains cheaply. It will all work with what you have too. It is the only reason I linked this deal. The CPu just rocks though. If you like, find a DFI NF3 later on and get really nice clocks. It is only $66 for the deal.. Need I say more. My 3200 Venice does 2.8..YMMV)

 

[Nealoc187]

The 462 was a solid arc that seems to last forever. I know mine has lasted me for years and all the abuse I have given it.

There is two versions of the A-XP. The PC2100 / PC2700. The older 266 had unlocked multis on older variants (until date code 0339). Which made for really fun times. Even if the FSB is a little limited. On this forum. The barton core(333) 2500+ was a winner and everyone was getting around 2.4 - 2.5 pretty easy on air. The mobile 2500/2600 got a little easier to keep cool. Which of course was desirable. So I would pick one of them if you can find one at a good price. On average, they did about the same. Depending on the baord you used. Average, they are about equal though, it was temps that helped the mobiles along.. Now if you happen to have an older Abit NF7s (w/ soundstorm & modded BIOS) your in luck. That was a good setup there. Which to this day, no other board has ever come close to matching the onboard sound.

If you cannot find a mobile chip that works on your board. Try and find 2500 or a 2600. You want the Barton core if supported. The T-Bred was the (PC2100) 266 version.

Edit:

If you have a 333 board look for a Sempron 3000+/ It has all the goodness of the Barton, but the Semprons could go rather high with a little love. Stock it was 2.0Ghz. It may still be easy to find and give the best chance to get a good clock out of it. Though for the price. You can bump up to a 3200+ 754 Venice and board probally. That will get you the most gain for your setup.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103035

(I hate ECS boards, and the VIA chipset is not a winner. Though out of the box stock. You will get alright gains cheaply. It will all work with what you have too. It is the only reason I linked this deal. The CPu just rocks though. If you like, find a DFI NF3 later on and get really nice clocks. It is only $66 for the deal.. Need I say more. My 3200 Venice does 2.8..YMMV)

Thanks for the advice, I guess I've got some thinking to do. I found a 3200+ barton that I just missed on ebay, didn't get home in time. It went for $40...

I also just found an XP-M 3000+ that I might try to pick up if the price stays really low. Failing that or any other good deals, I may take the advice given here and step up both the motherboard and proc at the same time.

BTW since you were asking, I currently have one of the older 2500+ bartons which ran a 11x166mhz with an unlocked multiplier. I'm currently running it at 10x200 (I'm new to the overclocking thing, haven't really messed around with it much, just been reading mostly.)

 

[Enablingwolf]

The s462 3200+ was not that great of a chip. It was hot and had little overhead room for overclocking. It was pretty much the end of the line for that socket.

The Venice will give a pretty good bonus performance gain. Since it has the benifit of having the memory controller right on the CPU itself. So you will get a performance perk right out of the box. The A64 2800+ which I used for a long time. Gave higher performance then the A-XP 3200+. It does well even though it is an outdated socket. It runs cooler and has greater performance in many areas. You will see the best in gaming actually. Normally I would not suggest anything names ECS, and the limiting VIA. For the price and what your working with. I think it is an alright pick. Even if the PCI does not lock and holds you back on an overclock. You will benifit moving to the 754 over the 462.

I have a X850XT PE and a s754 3200 Venice. It can do ok for what it is. In my 462 machine the card is very limited. The CPU bottlenecks the card really bad. All you will need is that Venice combo and a cheap cooler for it.

I wantes to enlighten you to the idea of maybe jumping to the 754 might be the best (and overall cheaper) option to consider. Not just for the fact the 462 is old and expnsive comapred to what you can install. I still like my trusty ol' 462. It has served me very well for many years. For gaming my 754 eats it up. Even though I have a 6600GT in my 462 machine.

 

[Nealoc187]

The s462 3200+ was not that great of a chip. It was hot and had little overhead room for overclocking. It was pretty much the end of the line for that socket.

The Venice will give a pretty good bonus performance gain. Since it has the benifit of having the memory controller right on the CPU itself. So you will get a performance perk right out of the box. The A64 2800+ which I used for a long time. Gave higher performance then the A-XP 3200+. It does well even though it is an outdated socket. It runs cooler and has greater performance in many areas. You will see the best in gaming actually. Normally I would not suggest anything names ECS, and the limiting VIA. For the price and what your working with. I think it is an alright pick. Even if the PCI does not lock and holds you back on an overclock. You will benifit moving to the 754 over the 462.

I have a X850XT PE and a s754 3200 Venice. It can do ok for what it is. In my 462 machine the card is very limited. The CPU bottlenecks the card really bad. All you will need is that Venice combo and a cheap cooler for it.

I wantes to enlighten you to the idea of maybe jumping to the 754 might be the best (and overall cheaper) option to consider. Not just for the fact the 462 is old and expnsive comapred to what you can install. I still like my trusty ol' 462. It has served me very well for many years. For gaming my 754 eats it up. Even though I have a 6600GT in my 462 machine.

When you say "the venice will give a pretty good performance gain" you mean a socket 754 A64 chip right? I noticed you mention an A64 2800+ and also an A64 3200+.

 

[Nealoc187]

Oh I just noticed, the S754 boards appear to all be PCI-E which would mean I'd need to pick up a new vid card too.

edit: nevermind I'm stupid, I found some S754 board with AGP slots.

 

[Nealoc187]

What do you think about this board with an A64 3200+ Venice S754...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186069

That's the only board I find on the egg that will work with all I currently have. I need 3 dimm slots because my corsair XMS is 1x1GB and 2x512 and that ECS board only has two dimm slots. I don't know anything about Foxconn or SiS chipsets...

 

[Enablingwolf]

When you say "the venice will give a pretty good performance gain" you mean a socket 754 A64 chip right? I noticed you mention an A64 2800+ and also an A64 3200+.

Yuppers Even though the Venice started originally on the 939 socket. Which was a nice overclocker. Still is, even though they degraded two models for the socket 754.

The A64 has a few sockets around(754 and 939). The 754 is what I am mentioning. It starts out with the 2800+ and ended up with the 3700+ They fiddled with the Venice core of the 939 and slide it into the 754 socket. Which came in the 3000+ and 3200+ flavors. It was a refresh of a 754 before it finally got killed off kinda. All A64's are PC3200(DDR400).

On the socket 462 it starts out roughly with the 1800+ and ends up with the 3200+. There is a few speeds for the RAM in this socket. There is PC2100(DDR266) and the PC2700(DDR333).

The socket 462 PC2100(266) covered the Palamino and Thoroughbred cores.
Upwards as it matured. PC2700(333) covered the Barton cores. It was pretty easy to figure out what you had. AFAIK no Bartons came in PC2100(DD266) variants.

So if you have a 2500+ (DDR266) s462 you have a Thoroughbred core. The Thoroughbred went up to the 2600+. The Barton started at the 2500+ and went upwards to the 3200+... Confusing.. but the FSB tells all. Also the L2 cache. Since the Barton had the 512 and the lower (266) chips had only 256 L2 cache.

 

[Nealoc187]

So if you have a 2500+ (DDR266) s462 you have a Thoroughbred core. The Thoroughbred went up to the 2600+. The Barton started at the 2500+ and went upwards to the 3200+... Confusing.. but the FSB tells all. Also the L2 cache. Since the Barton had the 512 and the lower (266) chips had only 256 L2 cache.

CPU-Z says I have a barton core so I must have the PC2700 version though I am using PC3200 ram because I am now at 10x200. My stock settings were 11x166mhz and 166 x 2 is 333 so that must be what I have, the 333 barton.

 

[Enablingwolf]

What do you think about this board with an A64 3200+ Venice S754...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186069

That's the only board I find on the egg that will work with all I currently have. I need 3 dimm slots because my corsair XMS is 1x1GB and 2x512 and that ECS board only has two dimm slots. I don't know anything about Foxconn or SiS chipsets...

Try and get a nForce3 board. If possible locate a NF3gb. DFI had a board that was killer for the nf3. It was a superb board for its time. Called the LanParty UT nF3Gb.


VIA ans SiS was not all that great for overclocking. I would choose VIA over SiS though. AFIAK, both had *PCI locking issues. I can look to see if that board listed does lock or does not. If the PCi does not lock. Higher clock will cause major torubles. If you do not push the limits of the hardware or such. A mold overclock(how can you not go to the top though?) wil be muc heasier to just run it and be ok. Though the better baords offer much nicer biois and otions for control over the hardware.

If you can locate it cheaply on eBay or the classifeids here. Grab a nF3. Used they should go pretty cheap. Tip top wpuld be the DFI brand. Then the board I use. Ggiabyte GA-K8NSpro.

* If the PCI does not lock. You can run into issues with the PCI bus. Which in turn can corrupt hard drives and other mayhem. Not limited to cards for sound and NiC's working properly.

 

[Enablingwolf]

CPU-Z says I have a barton core so I must have the PC2700 version though I am using PC3200 ram because I am now at 10x200. My stock settings were 11x166mhz and 166 x 2 is 333 so that must be what I have, the 333 barton.

It geting to 200 on the RAM is a great indicator you have the Barton core. 200+FSB into itself on the 462 was a nice strech. I don't recall ever seeing a Thoroughbred getting that high on air.

By relaying all the numbers. It shows how much the A64 can benift you. The A64 starts out @ 200 speeds and goes upwards. The A64 overclock a little differently then the 462. Once figured out. You can really push the buggers. My 2800+ ran @ 270x9. Which got me 2.4Ghz. My 2.5 run The Venice runs 255x11, which gives me around 2.8Ghz. The funny part. My RAM only runs 200 or so Mhz. Overclocking the A64 is a tad different, but has benifits if you have limits on RAM or other parts of the system. Oh and my Veniceload temps are wh at my idle temps are on my 462.

 

[Nealoc187]

Is this the NF3GB board? It says NF3 250GB...

 

[Enablingwolf]

Is this the NF3GB board? It says NF3 250GB...

*snipped out link*


That board is the cream of the 754 boards. Seriously.. It does not get any better for the socket! If you plop in a 754 Venice 3200. You will get performace, the 462 can't even come close to. If played right. The DFI can push 300bus speeds. Not a for sure, but it is very possible.

 

[Nealoc187]

That board is the cream of the 754 boards. Seriously.. It does not get any better for the socket! If you plop in a 754 Venice 3200. You will get performace, the 462 can't even come close to. If played right. The DFI can push 300bus speeds. Not a for sure, but it is very possible.

Nice I will try to pick it up

 

[Enablingwolf]

The 754 is very dated. Not to many still use it around here. Everyone has moved on years ago to 939 or now on a Conroe. Like in my first post to you, and as Ben stated. 939(and beyond) is where it is at. Though you did state you wanted to use as much as you can. If you get all this together. Might want to then look for a nice cooler. The options for killer cooling become wider once you get off the 462. Sicne the 754 and 939 are very close. So your air options are much brighter. I would see if your going to be able to follow through before you pick a CPU cooler you might like.

 

[Nealoc187]

Cool well I appreciate all the help. I'm going to try to pick up one of the 754 boards you mentioned. I was going to check the classifieds here but I found a sticky post saying I need 100 posts to access them and pretty much all my posts have been in this thread besides maybe 5 other ones, so I've got a ways to go lol

 

[Nealoc187]

BTW, any other S754 boards you'd recommend besides the lanparty and your board? I don't need an extreme OC really since I'm very new to it, but obviously I'd like to get the most performance from my money that I can.