Amd!!!!!

[bodhi]

Trying to buy an amd chip is a nightmare! Whats the difference between XP, newcastle, clawhammer and all the other daft names they give them?!!! Apparantly its better to buy a 2600Mhz as the fsb is faster, true?

 

[Reefsmoka]

Your on about the nick names. Different chips have different names, the most common for AMD at the moment is the Barton, which goes from around 2400XP-3200XP. You have the thoroughbred which was from around 1800XP-2400XP. I think the clawhammer is the 64 bit ones (not the FX range), which go from 2800+ - 3800+.

The FSB of the Thoroughbred is 266mhz, the Barton is 333mhz and the Clawhammer is 400mhz.

Correct me if im wrong please, as i'm not an AMD expert.

I dont know where you heard that "the FSB on a 2600XP is the fastest", it sounds like a load of tosh to me.

 

[Me__2001]

reef i think thats correct

 

[floppybootstomp]

Just one small omission there reef, the Barton XP3200 is 200fsb, as far as I know it's the only one in that family with that speed.

 

[bodhi]

no, what i had heard is that after 2400 the fsb is faster, said 2600 before by mistake. But thanks, that has cleared it up a lot for me!!!! Thought there was about 50 Billion different processors! :-(

 

[ChristopherP]

Flops - its 200MHz double pumped (advertised as 400MHz FSB) right?

Just to save confusion.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Flops - its 200MHz double pumped (advertised as 400MHz FSB) right?

Just to save confusion.

Yep

Incidentally, the best XP chip as far as cooling's concerned is the XP2400. Don't know why, but that version runs cool at 2Ghz stock speed. imo it's worth forgoing the extra 0.1Ghz or whatever offered by the higher versions.

 

[Thermaltke]

so whats up with my 3200, is that why theres quite a bit price difference between 3200 and 3000?, my program displays my FSB speed at 200

 

[ChristopherP]

but the XP2400 has an FSB of 266MHz right? As opposed to all the above ones being 333MHz...

Maybe that is why?

 

[bodhi]

What do you reckon the best value for money chip is now. Building a mate a computer soon and thinking of the XP2600 so that the fsb is 333Mhz. I need PC3200 RAM for that too right?

 

[bodhi]

Oh yeah, and is corsair value memory good? Anyone used or have opinions on it? Seems quite cheap, you can get 512Mb PC3200 for about 60 quid!!

 

[Reefsmoka]

I think the best value for money is the 2800XP, its a pretty nifty processor for the price.

Now as for memory, it goes like this :

PC2100 = 266
PC2700 = 333
PC3200 = 400

Now you want PC2700, because the 2800XP runs at 333Mhz FSB. 512Mb of PC2700 ram paired with that processor will run beautifully .

You must make sure you motherboard supports 333mhz FSB though, read the manual, or browse through the bios to find out.

 

[floppybootstomp]

but the XP2400 has an FSB of 266MHz right? As opposed to all the above ones being 333MHz...

Maybe that is why?

Yes, you're right.

I think I'm having one of 'Those Days'

My daughter's machine has an XP2400 in it, even on full tilt, never gets above 48C.

And yes, Corsair memory is very good.

And, er, as reef says, really (see his last post)

 

[bodhi]

Think im gonna get the XP2600 cause its only 70 quid and its for my mate who just really wants to do office stuff. Just want to make sure what i get him is future proof for at least a wee while! Am i better to just get PC3200 RAM? I take it it will run at 333 just now, but will be better if he upgrades in the future. Also, can anyone suggest a good board to go with the XP2600 and a decent place to buy it. Thinking of buying from ebuyer or overclockers. Thanks peeps.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Think im gonna get the XP2600 cause its only 70 quid and its for my mate who just really wants to do office stuff. Just want to make sure what i get him is future proof for at least a wee while! Am i better to just get PC3200 RAM? I take it it will run at 333 just now, but will be better if he upgrades in the future. Also, can anyone suggest a good board to go with the XP2600 and a decent place to buy it. Thinking of buying from ebuyer or overclockers. Thanks peeps.

XP2600 it is then. I'm using one of those in my 'video editing' machine, a good chip.

It's OK to use PC3200 RAM for sure, if you don't mind paying the extra, but as far as I can see, right now, the only upgrade that would take advantage of it is the XP3200 CPU.

By the time your mate upgrades, systems will have moved on so if I were you I'd save a few pennies and just go for PC2700 memory.

Which motherboard? there's a lot of good boards out there right now, but as a general rule of thumb I'd say go for an Nvidia-2 chipset based board and one with dual memory facility. And of course one that can handle an XP2600 OK (which, to be honest, is just about all AMD XP boards atm).

Other considerations are on board sound and LAN, dual BIOS, easy Bios update and, of course, the colour of the main PCB

I'd suggest Abit, Gigabyte and Asus.

 

[bodhi]

Thanks floopy! You clarified everything for me then just confused me again! Think i might go for the kinda curry coloured asus board! Are they still that horrible brown colour? On board sound should be fine i would imagine, and also onboad LAN, cause think he is planning to get broadband at somepoint, and through telewest, so onboard LAN would be useful for him i guess. I use USB for my broadband but hey ho. So you think a nice ASUS board with onboard LAN and sound with an XP2600 and corsair value ram would be a good start for his computer? I can sort out the rest of the stuff myself, just want to get the basics right. Cheers again.

 

[ChristopherP]

You will probably find that in a good many places PC3200 400MHz RAM is actually CHEAPER than the PC2700 333Mhz RAM...

Check out the prices of both instead of just going straight for the 2700...

Chris

 

[bodhi]

why on earth is the faster memory cheaper?!

 

[ChristopherP]

Probably because its becoming more common and its cheaper to mass produce...

Same with the P4 chips...

...800fsb cheaper than 533fsb...

...Prescott cheaper than Northwood...