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AMD Barton 2500 to a 3200 - worth it upgrade?

Beagle

Beagle

Beagle

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Joined
5 Jun 2003
Posts
74
I fancy upgrading my system a bit but want to check with you guys if it's going to be worth it.

I currently have a Barton 2500 running at 2Ghz, on an ABIT NF7-S motherboard, with 1Gb Corsair PC3200 RAM. I mainly use my machine for audio (music production) and graphics (Photoshop & Lightwave 3D).

I can't afford a new mainboard at the present, so how much of a performance boost will I get from upgrading to a 3200? Does it O/C as well as the 2500? Is it worth the cost?

Many thanks!
 
You wont see much of a boost getting a 3200, as at stock I belive it runs at 2.083ghz and if you already have your barton 2500 at 2ghz, not really worth it. You seem to have a good motherboard, when I had my NF7/barton 2500(xp-m) it did 2.5ghz. But this all depends on stepping and if its a regualr desktop or mobile barton. If yours is the later, You should be able to get around 2.3ghz easily without worrying about temperature problems. Keep in mind that both a barton 2500 and 3200 will oc to similar speeds if they are of similar stepping/type, its more of a value thing if you can get a 2500 rather than a 3200 overclocked to a decent speed. Also if you already havent, try to download one of the last tictac modded bioses for the nf7, may help you get a few hundred extra mhz out of your cpu.
 
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I wouldn't bother for a performance boost but if you fancy fiddling just for the sake of it or to see how far you can clock a chip then try and get hold of a Mobile Athlon XP 2600 (or 2500). Mines running at a tad over 2.6Ghz up from 1.995. Had it at just over 2.7GHz at one point :D
Def get the ticktak bios for the board if you go down this route. Also remember to keep the memory divider on 1/1 (2/2 ...6/6 etc.) even if it means reducing the overall overclock as running anything else cripples the system with these chips.

Most of the 3200s were lame overclockers. There were some of the real late ones that apparently did o.k, but nothing like the mobile 2400/2500s ever did.
 
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That board should do 400 FSB. The 3200 is basically a 2500 with 400FSB instead of 333. Rasiing the FSB will get you to 3200 speeds and will cost you nothing.
 
monkeypants said:
That board should do 400 FSB. The 3200 is basically a 2500 with 400FSB instead of 333. Rasiing the FSB will get you to 3200 speeds and will cost you nothing.
Click to expand...

What he said.

I've done this on my old system, which is pretty much identical to yours (Great Mobo, by the way!!) except my RAM was cheapo stuff. It was very easy to do with the standard BIOS firmware and works like a charm.
 
Surely if he uses his PC for audio & graphics production, getting another 1GB of RAM might be a good idea? Granted DDR is pretty much dead but getting an extra gig won't exactly break the bank.

Otherwise, as above, try raising the FSB to 400MHz :D
 
Thanks for the advice - I kind of expected that.

OK, I'll try upping the FSB and adding some more RAM.

Oh, and get saving! :D
 
The 2500 runs at 11x166

The 3200 runs at 11x200

I have 3 Bartons now. A 2500, an XP-2500M, and a real 3200.

All 3 are happy at 200FSB.

I used to have a 2500 that was slighty iffy at 200FSB but that was cured by upping the volts to 1.7v

Otherwise they should all do it.. esp on a darling like the NF7
 
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