Athalon 2000 to 2600 upgrade worthwhile?

Machine is running Athalon 2000 XP CPU, has 1.67 GigaHertz + 133 front side bus.

Can purchase Athalon 2600 XP, has 2.16 GigaHertz + 333 front side bus. Cost $85.00.

Question is, performance increase? Worth the investment? Have 768 MB memory installed, memory upgrade better??

All responses appreciated.

Martin

 

I am sure you will see some performance increase with the CPU upgrade, but is it worth the $89, sure if you have money to burn. To me your biggest benefit would be the 133 to 333, but I am not really sure how much benefit you will notice over all.

 

Hi bmartin: Well, I don't have money to burn, and would not upgrade unless some substantial benefit. I do a lot of video encoding from AVI to MPEG 2 or WMV and it is pretty slow. I was hoping a CPU upgrade would shorten the time it takes to encode and burn a movie to DVD.

I just don't know how to quantify any performance gain, if any. I'm expecting delivery of a ATI 9800 pro by tuesday, was thinking that new video card + upgraded CPU would help the times.

Martin

 

I'd say the answer is yes, most definately worth it.

sidebar: spent the last 3 weeks in your fine state

 

Hi Rockster: good to hear from you. You should have dropped by to see me while you were in Georgia.

Your reply just cost me $85.00, and beyond that, for another few dollars I can bump it up to an Athalon 3000.

Seems like everytime I buy something for this machine, I look back on it and say to myself, "why didn't you spend the few extra dollars to get the better/faster item? "

One problem is when you purchase the top of the line cutting edge technology, by the time you have it installed it is obsolete and last years hot item.

It is always a battle between budget and desire. That's why I'm not driving a Mercedes. The budget overcomes desire.

Thanks again for the response.

Martin

 

Hi Steve: I appreciate your doing the legwork for me. I was going to go to the Soyousa site to check this out before I actually placed the order.

Going there anyway, see about CPU support and BIOS flashes needed if any.

Thanks for the info.

Martin

Edit: I guess I can just unplug existing and replug new with no other mods except if BIOS flash needed.

What I've been doing is when I upgrade my processer, I use the replaced ones as hand-me-downs to son's and daughter's machines. That way I don't feel so guilty about the money spent.

 

Installed Athalon 2800+ CPU earlier today.

Question: How do I tell if it is running the 333Mhz frontside bus as advertised and if not, is there settings in the BIOS for this.

On POST I see: "Memory Clock is: 166Mhz (DDR333)" With 2000+ CPU I had set the BIOS for 200, and the reading for Memory Clock was 200Mhz (DDR400)

I've looked in Aida 32, and unless I missed something, I don't see a listing for FSB.

Help will be appreciated.

Martin

 

Edit:
I see your memory in your sig now.

 

ssmith: Excuse me?

 

Thanks Pete: Yup, I missed something. Looked at it but did not make the connection. DUH

Reports: Real Clock 167 MHz (DDR) Effective Clock 333MHz

Is this consistant with the advertised 333MH Front Side Bus?

Thanks,

Martin

 

OK, Thanks Pete

Martin

 

Hi all: I was poking around the Crucial site and checking for possible memory upgrade. I have PC2700 DDR (768mb) in this machine.

What I think I'm reading on that site is that my PC2700 DDR is restricting my FSB and I should be using PC3200 in order to get the max FSB bandwith out of my VIA KT 400 chipset. (which I now understand is obsolete, old and slow)

Comment?

 

Hi Martin,

I had a little confusion about which system you are working on (maybe ssmith10pn did as well).

It seems the 2000+ to 2600+ upgrade is for your old Soyo motherboard, now in your children's possession. You were not working on the system in your signature information. Now you are looking to upgrade memory in your main system .

Would it be worth adding the old Soyo board's information to your signature and calling it system 2? May save people confusing it with your main system information. Also, since the hardware is going from one to the other it would be easier to see if they were compatible.

Just a thought. Enjoying the discussion.

Matt

 

mattman,

I guess I'll jump in here for Martin since he's not on, and you are. He is working on his system, the one in his signature. He has been experiencing alot of BSOD's and has recently installed a new video card, CPU (Athalon 2800+ instead of 2600+ he was considering) and flashed the BIOS. He is now thinking that his current memory might be slowing things down also.

 

Hey Mattman: Sorry for the confusion. My old board was Soyo K7VTA Pro. New board is Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra Platinum. Kids boards both running Asus.

Martin

Edit: Dave: thanks for jumping in for me. Your post beat mine by 4 minutes. I just got home from son's baseball game.

Martin

 

Thanks guys. I'll have to follow more closely.

Matt

 

The reason I edited my post was I wanted to know what RAM you were running but then I found it in your signature.