Upgrade?

[Wildbill]

rI am getting a chunk(small) of $(around $250) back from uncle sam,
and would like to upgrade my computer. Can anyone make any
suggestions?? Especially a BIOS upgrade. I have version 1008, but I
notice there is a version 1013 out. Should I upgrade??? I am not
experiencing any problems associated with BIOS to my knowledge.
I have thought about an Athalon XP3200+, but am undecided.

Thanks,
Wildbill

A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athalon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

 

[Ed]

rI am getting a chunk(small) of $(around $250) back from uncle sam,
and would like to upgrade my computer. Can anyone make any
suggestions?? Especially a BIOS upgrade. I have version 1008, but I
notice there is a version 1013 out. Should I upgrade??? I am not
experiencing any problems associated with BIOS to my knowledge.
I have thought about an Athalon XP3200+, but am undecided.

Thanks,
Wildbill

A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athalon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

Can't you just over clock it to a 3200+ or do you have a locked CPU?
Ed

 

[Wildbill]

Can't you just over clock it to a 3200+ or do you have a locked CPU?
Ed

I can't overclock, it is locked
A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athalon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

 

[Nero]

Athalon????
ATHLON

 

[Ed]

I can't overclock, it is locked
A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athalon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

How about 176 x 12.5 = 2200MHz then?

default chip settings
2800+ 166.66 * 12.5 (2083 MHz)
3200+ 200.00 * 11.0 (2200 MHz)

My 2800+ is close to 2 years old and does 2200 MHz with VCORE at 1.70V
no problem (default is 1.65V), newer chips usually run faster with less
Vcore and 2.4GHz on air is not unheard of for these chips. About the
only thing you may need is a decent HS/fan if you are using the retail
stock cooler.

Ed
--
Barton @ 2.2GHz (176 x 12.5)
CPU External Freq. MHz [176]
CPU Frequency Multiple Setting [Menu] (Auto for locked CPU)
CPU Frequency Multiple [12.5x]
System Performance [User Defined]
CPU Interface [Optimal] (or Aggressive)
Memory Frequency [100%]
Memory Timings [Auto] or [User Defined]
FSB Spread Spectrum [Disabled]
AGP Spread Spectrum [Disabled]
CPU Vcore Setting [Menu]
CPU Vcore [1.725V] (example only)
Graphics Aperture Size [64MB] or [128MB]
AGP Frequency [66MHz] or [Auto]
System BIOS Cacheable [Disabled]
Video RAM Cacheable [Disabled]
DDR Reference Voltage [2.6V] (or more if OC)
AGP VDDQ Voltage [1.5] (default)
AGP 8x Support [Enable]

 

[Ed]

Athalon????
ATHLON

ATHLON ?
Athlon

 

[Paul]

I can't overclock, it is locked
A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athalon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

What kind of an upgrade do you want to do ? You could spend
the $250 on a video card, if you are a gamer. It is pretty
hard to make a significant improvement in your processor,
as 2800+ and 3200+ are pretty close to one another.

If you plan on doing the video card upgrade, you'll want to
make sure the power supply has enough +5V on it, for the
extra load. It takes 16.6 amps from +5V for a 3200+ and
2x512MB ram. A 9800pro adds roughly 5 amps to that. And
each disk drive takes 1 amp as well. (The FX5200 is very
good on power, and hardly uses any power, by comparison.
And your 2800+ will use a little less power than the 3200+.)
Check the label on the side of the power supply, to see
how much current you have on +5V.

If you move to a Barton running at FSB400, be aware you will
most likely have problems with the RAM. For that reason alone,
I would stay contented with the 2800+, if it is currently
working error free. To make my A7N8X-E work well at FSB400
cost me more expensive CAS2 ram.

Paul

 

[Wildbill]

sorry for the mis-spelling

ATHLON ?
Athlon

A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athlon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

 

[DaveW]

I would recommend getting a faster video card for your system. The FX 5200
is the bottle neck in your system.
Now, DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE your motherboard's BIOS UNLESS you are having
serious problems that ONLY a BIOS upgrade will fix. BIOS upgrades often
fail, leaving you with a dead unuseable motherboard. All BIOS upgrades do
is repair known faults, they do NOT increase performance.

 

[Rob Stow]

I would recommend getting a faster video card for your system. The FX 5200
is the bottle neck in your system.
Now, DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE your motherboard's BIOS UNLESS you are having
serious problems that ONLY a BIOS upgrade will fix. BIOS upgrades often
fail, leaving you with a dead unuseable motherboard. All BIOS upgrades do
is repair known faults, they do NOT increase performance.

The OP didn't say anything about what he uses his computer for,
so you have no way to know if the video card is a bottleneck or
not. For all you know an FX 5200 is overkill for the things he does.

 

[Kylesb]

| I would recommend getting a faster video card for your system. The
FX 5200
| is the bottle neck in your system.
| Now, DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE your motherboard's BIOS UNLESS you are
having
| serious problems that ONLY a BIOS upgrade will fix. BIOS upgrades
often
| fail, leaving you with a dead unuseable motherboard. All BIOS
upgrades do
| is repair known faults, they do NOT increase performance.
|
| --
| DaveW
|

Me thinks one comment is a bit of FUD. BIOS upgrades do not often
fail. However, when a failure does occur, it certainly is a pain.
Asus mobos include a bootblock feature to recover from a failed BIOS
flash. Are you aware of this feature? It's been around for some time
with Phoenix/Award and AMI BIOSs.

 

[Ben Pope]

I would recommend getting a faster video card for your system. The
FX 5200 is the bottle neck in your system.

....if he's playing games, yeah. But for encoding video? Running a
database? Compiling code?

Now, DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE your motherboard's BIOS UNLESS you are
having serious problems that ONLY a BIOS upgrade will fix. BIOS
upgrades often fail, leaving you with a dead unuseable motherboard.

BIOS upgrades do not often fail, unless your power often fails.

All BIOS upgrades do is repair known faults, they do NOT increase
performance.

Thats not strictly true. On the A7N8X Rev <2.0 the BIOS was upgraded so
that the FSB could successfully be increased to >190MHz, supporting the
200MHz FSB CPUs. Many a time a BIOS upgrade has increased performance in
other ways too.

Ben

 

[Wildbill]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my questions. I should have told
you that I use my computer mainly to store and edit videos of my
grandchildren,write letters, and to balance my checkbook of course.
lol
I think I will play it safe (I think?) and buy a new BIOS chip with
the latest version already installed. I have built several computers,
this one is my first ASUS and first AMD, but I have never flashed a
BIOS. I have however heard lots of horror stories about it.
And Ben, please post the URL for your home page. I have visited it in
the past and have found some useful info, but can't find it now.

Thanks,
Wildbill

A7N8X-E Deluxe
1008 Bios
2X 512 Xerox PC3200
AMD Athlon XP2800+ Barton
Windows XP Home
GeForce FX 5200 128MB
3D Vision TV Tuner

 

[Ed]

I would recommend getting a faster video card for your system. The FX 5200
is the bottle neck in your system.
Now, DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE your motherboard's BIOS UNLESS you are having
serious problems that ONLY a BIOS upgrade will fix. BIOS upgrades often
fail, leaving you with a dead unuseable motherboard. All BIOS upgrades do
is repair known faults, they do NOT increase performance.

Flashing the BIOS is not rocket science, read the mobo manual and follow
the directions, there's really nothing to it, just don't let the power
go out while flashing, but we all have UPS on our PCs so that's not a
problem. ;p

I just think its silly to buy a 3200+ when a 2800+ can easily be pushed
to speeds faster then a 3200+ with little effort.

Ed

 

[Ben Pope]

And Ben, please post the URL for your home page. I have visited it in
the past and have found some useful info, but can't find it now.

It's in my sig...

Beware that it doesn't cover the -E variant, although much of it applies,
obviously.

Ben