• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

help upgrading from Athlon XP 2400+

Punce

Punce

Punce

Associate
Joined
9 Sep 2003
Posts
137
I'm currently running an Athlon XP 2400+ on an Abit NF-7 mobo with 1Gb Geil value RAM. It has been overclocked to 2.2GHz.

It's main use is for making music running Pro Tools LE v7, and if I have a busy arrangement going on, the CPU starts maxing out (which is not good when recording or playing)

So I would like to cure this problem hopefully by upgrading board and cpu, and I'm looking for recommendations.

Here is a compatibility page from the Pro Tools web page
http://www.digidesign.com/compato/xp/002/
(The right hand column)

The cheaper the better lol
thanks
 
Hi

For audio work you're best going Intel or Dual Core (P-D/AMD X2)

As budget is an issue I'd go for a single core Intel CPU (dual core CPUs are pricey)

Something like:

CP-094-IN Intel Pentium 4 630 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-094-IN)
£104.95 £104.95
MB-128-AS Asus P5GPL-X Intel 915PL (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-128-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
GX-060-LT Leadtek GeForce 6200 Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-LT)
£28.95 £28.95
CA-006-SK FSP Sparkle ATX-400PNF 400W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-006-SK)
£25.95 £25.95
Subtotal £219.80
VAT £38.47
Total £258.27

The problem is that you're forced to PCI-E so you'll need a new graphics card & PSU

You could also look at:

CP-094-IN Intel Pentium 4 630 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-094-IN)
£104.95 £104.95
CA-006-SK FSP Sparkle ATX-400PNF 400W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-006-SK)
£25.95 £25.95
MB-061-AB Abit IG-81 Intel 915G Micro ATX (LGA775) Motherboard (MB-061-AB)
£57.95 £57.95
Subtotal £188.85
VAT £33.05
Total £221.90

This has integrated graphics.

Both chipsets aren't on the qualified list though - they're under "Not Tested/No Known Issues with Digi 002"

To get a qualified chipset you'd need to move to DDR2:

CP-094-IN Intel Pentium 4 630 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-094-IN)
£104.95 £104.95
CA-006-SK FSP Sparkle ATX-400PNF 400W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-006-SK)
£25.95 £25.95
MB-110-AS Asus P5LD2-VM Intel 945G Micro ATX (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-110-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £270.80
VAT £47.39
Total £318.19

This motherboard also has on board graphics

To go AMD:

CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£184.95 £184.95
MB-053-AB Abit AV8 3RD Eye VIA K8T800 Pro (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-053-AB)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £244.90
VAT £42.86
Total £287.76

The chipset on the motherboard (Via K8T800 Pro) is on the qualified list. It's AGP so you'll be able to use your existing graphics and PSU

The AMD system will be the faster out of the two
 
ajgoodfellow said:
To go AMD:

CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£184.95 £184.95
MB-053-AB Abit AV8 3RD Eye VIA K8T800 Pro (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-053-AB)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £244.90
VAT £42.86
Total £287.76

The chipset on the motherboard (Via K8T800 Pro) is on the qualified list. It's AGP so you'll be able to use your existing graphics and PSU

The AMD system will be the faster out of the two
Click to expand...

This is a very good choice IMO.
:)
 
I doubt there would be any problem but its better to be safe then sorry when your computer is pretty much doing a single job. TBH for what hes doing the addition of PCI-E (which is what the ULI chipset adds) is of no benefit as he doesn't game.
 
Thank you so much for the advice.
Looks like I'll be going for the following...

ajgoodfellow said:
To go AMD:

CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£184.95 £184.95
MB-053-AB Abit AV8 3RD Eye VIA K8T800 Pro (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-053-AB)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £244.90
VAT £42.86
Total £287.76

The chipset on the motherboard (Via K8T800 Pro) is on the qualified list. It's AGP so you'll be able to use your existing graphics and PSU

The AMD system will be the faster out of the two
Click to expand...

My graphics card is only the Sapphire Radeon 9600, but it works quite well with my projector (2nd head DVI), and you were right that I'm not a gamer.

Will I notice a helluva difference in cpu overhead?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom