I need a Socket A 266fsb CPU and DDR266/333 memory

[ChristopherP]

Hey all,

My sisters computer is undergoing a major upgrade tomorrow, and i will have a left over motherboard with integrated graphics and i have a hard drive.

Instead of letting them go to waste, i thought i could build a PC on the cheap.

The two components i dont want to buy new are CPU and Memory.

Does anyone know where i can pick up any socket A CPU (266fsb) preferably Athlon 1800 or Duron 1800 (or higher) for really cheap? and also 256Mb DDR333 (preferably) or DDR266?

eBay isn't very good as there is far too much interest for these items...

Cheers.

Chris

 

[Alf]

Use newegg.com they are a good site to go to.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Standard Athlon, i.e not Athlon XP only went up to 1.5Ghz ,so you will have to work miracles to get an 1800 Athlon :/ .

I got my bro a Duron 1600 from Ebuyer bout 2-3 months ago, thats 266 and it only cost me £30. So i recon you should try there dude . Good luck on the hunt .

 

[ChristopherP]

i meant XP1800

Preferably second hand though, looking for REAL cheap stuff...

savastore sell the Durons cheaper than eBuyer.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Well, it just so happens I have a 1400MHz Applebred (0.13u, XP based) Duron, unlocked, and 256Mb Crucial PC2100 surplus to requirements.

If you're interested, £27.00 including shipping, for both.

 

[muckshifter]

The AMD Sempron PR2200 is good value @ £35 (new ) ... its a T'bred fsb333 but with only 256 cache ... worth looking at if the MB can take it.

Is "second hand" really good value?

 

[ChristopherP]

Mucks: The motherboard can not take anything above 333fsb - its an old Asus one, nForce 1...

Flops: you legend, i'll take you up on that offer

It is compatible with any Socket A motherboard right supporting the 266fsb thing right? Provided it is then i'll take it

Can i buy any regular socket A cooler? ill get a cheap case and PSU from eBuyer i think, i can chuck a cooler intop the order, dirt cheap. If i get a good one i may overclock a little.

Unlocked is good for o/cing right? What exactly does being unlocked do?

Whats Applebred and whats the 0.13u?

Cheers mate
Chris

 

[floppybootstomp]

Applebred ws the same they gave it briefly when it was first made. 0.13u is the size of the 'pipes' or 'channels' within the chip. It was better than previous versions, apparently.

I have a Coolermaster socket A Cooler, as new, you can have for a fiver (read that as free, cos this thing's quite heavy) cost £13.00 new from PC World. Still in original packaging. It has a varispeed fan, controlled by a pot mounted on rear PCI bracket. Can post a pic if you want.

I'll PM you later today about payment details and stuff, btw.

 

[ChristopherP]

So the "Applebred" is the "Barton of the Durons" then, sort of...if you get what i mean... like a Thouroughbred Duron...

The cooler sounds tempting too, is it more than adequate for the CPU then, for overclocking i mean

Do you know if Durons are overclockable at all?

The system will be the following spec:

Asus A7N266-VM
AMD Duron 1400 Applebred
256Mb PC2100 DDR266 memory
Integrated GeForce 2 MX graphics
2Gb Quantum Fireball IDE Hard Drive (somewhat old)
16x DVD rom drive
Floppy drive
300w PSU
Silver Case

That lot should cost me in total £55 inc delivery. That, imo, isn't TOO bad, for a complete working system that i'm sure i could use in some way...

 

[floppybootstomp]

The cooler is more than suitable for the Duron, it kept my XP2600 cool for a while. In fact, for such a cheap cooler, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it done. Now, you wanna look a gift horse in the mouth or what?

Alternatively, I have a boxed Zalman copper finned cooler with bracket mounted 92mm fan with all original bits & bobs for £20.00 inc. shipping. They sell for around £35.00. Barely used, nice and quiet, and will cool the Duron admirably.

Your choice. If you're on a budget though, I'd go for the Coolermaster, it really is quite OK.

The Duron is unlocked. I've had it at 1.75Ghz comfortably, it will probably do more.

Now then, when you've made your mind up, let me know and I'll PM you.

 

[ChristopherP]

Now, you wanna look a gift horse in the mouth or what?

Run that one by me again? or am i just slow

But yeah, cheers flops, i'll definatly take the Duron, RAM and the Coolermaster please

So i do believe i owe you what, about £32 if my maths is correct? PM me the details

What cooler did you have to make it get 1.75GHz ?! thats a good speed for a native 1.4!

Coolermaster with some arctic ceramique up to the job you reckon? will fit several case fans into large ATX case also...

Would it be faster than an AthlonXP2000 (1.64GHz 266fsb) at 1.75GHz or not? not that it matters, just wondering as my sister has a 2000 in her machine and she could run BF1942 quite nicely with her GeForce 2 integrated graphics...

 

[floppybootstomp]

The Coolermaster cooler with the ceramique stuff will be fine, just depends how fast you want to have the fan running as to how cool it will be. And what your ears can suffer. Although this thing ain't too noisy even on full blast. And Duron's don't run hot.

In pure speed, yes, you can get the Duron running as fast as an XP2000, but remember, the Duron is a scaled down chip, only half the cache, I believe, so in 'real terms' it won't be as fast. But I've used it to run a Win98 install, and it's no slouch.

Obviously not up there with the latest, but hey, it's cheap

OK, agreed, £32.00 for all three items, when you consider 256Mb of Crucial PC2100 on it's own costs around the same price, you ain't doing so bad matey

But they're only sitting here doing nothing for me.

Tomorrow's Saturday, if you'd like to confirm your agreement by PM at some time, I'll mail them out Monday morning, I think I know you well enough by now.

Payment by cheque, bank transfer or postal order.

PM me to confirm and letting know preferred method of payment, and I'll return a PM giving details.

 

[ChristopherP]

Well the cooler will be on full speed all the time, i dont care about the noise, i just want a fast (ish) machine for very, very little money!

I'll chuck windows XP on there, see how it copes. May test it with BF1942 too - would be awesome as then 4 machines on the network, all have the game installed so FUN multiplayer sessions!!

I'll post you a cheque, if thats ok, you may trust that it will clear, as i did with your Zippo Just PM me your address... it's probably in my inbox somewhere though, but i think i deleted it.

You know what, i've been thinking it was saturday ALL day today, only a couple of hours ago did i realise that it was Friday today, and that was due to TOTP's being on the box!

Well yep - £32 is a good price, i was looking at £20 for 256Mb PC2700 RAM on eBay alone, so it definatly works out cheap

Pleasure doing business with you (again!) Flops.

PM sent.

 

[ChristopherP]

Hey Flops...

FINALLY got a decent motherboard for this Duron - an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe edition - NForce 2ST

Thought i might aswell have some fun with the unlocked 1400...

See the pictures

And for you more technical people...

I think i could definatly get even more from this - but the memory is PC2100 so i cant't push the FSB right up as 266MHz Hynix is not the best for the job...! I dropped the memory down to 80% but that only works with 166MHz bus...

Chris

 

[Alf]

Very impressive Chris!! how does it fly?

 

[ChristopherP]

Better than it did

 

[psd99]

chirs thats pretty good there

it was originaly a 1400mhz

and u got it up to 2ghz?

thats sorted
i wish i knew how to do that!
i have xp1800 on this machine (1.53ghz)
getting it to 2.0 would be GREAT!

ne suggestions my old mucker?

i hear overclocking can be leathel!

 

[ChristopherP]

Yep - 1400MHz to 2004MHz - PRIME95 STABLE!!! Stock cooler as well!!!

The only reason it goes that high is because it's unlocked - which means you can change the multiplier... If anyone dosent know what that is, the Front Side Bus of the system is multiplied by this number to give the total operating frequency, while double to give the frequency of the RAM.

So by increasing the front side bus from 133MHz (266MHz as AMD double pump them) to 166MHz (333MHz) and dropping the memory frequency to 80%, then changing the multiplier of the new front side bus up a few notches, you get an AMAZING overclock.

One thing that annoys me about the A7N8X-E Deluxe, is you cant manually select any FSB - you can choose 100, 133, 166 or 200. Nothing else. This chip WILL go higher, it's just the limitations of the motherboard i think.

Still - this board beats an Asus A7N266-VM by M I L E S!!! In fact you cant even compare them!

PSD, look into a conductive pen/pencil modification for the L1 cache of your XP1800 - you might be able to unlock it.

 

[crazylegs]

Thats a nice healthy Overclock Chris.... Getting the right board makes all the difference doesn't it....

 

[ChristopherP]

ceratinly does!!

I'll try and get it higher still, see if i can up the FSB gradually via software, to find the limitations of the ram...

I think the way i have it set up, if i can push the FSB up by 1 MHz, the memory frequency will increase by 2MHz (double pumped) and with a multiplier of 12, the total frequency will increase by 12MHz. I think thats right... if not, close to...