going new processor, athlon64 or xp-m?

millsd44 · 12-27-2004, 05:15 PM

hey i'm getting a new processor and my budget is £200, so i was wondering if i could get a 2600xp-m and overclock it

or get a new athlon64 3000+ (newcastle) and a Abit NF8 Motherboard. Which should i do? the athlon 64 combo adds up to £171 and the xp-m is only £70. I dunno which would be a better performance? Help please.

mack · 12-27-2004, 05:21 PM

Go for Athlon 64. I upgraded from AMD 1600+ and went to AMD 2800+ and on games I jumped 40 FPS at least, with the same video card!

millsd44 · 12-27-2004, 05:23 PM

shall i go to the 3000 or the 2800, is it a big difference? and its £10-15 difference as well i think.

millsd44 · 12-27-2004, 05:27 PM

also, is it the same, will I be able to use my current HSF (thermaltake volcano 12) because it looks EXACTLY the same as the venus 12 that i was gonna get, but just remade? Whats the difference?
thanks

millsd44 · 12-27-2004, 05:53 PM

if i got the xp-m i could get another 512mb ram as well. That surely woul[d be better for gaming right now than an AMD64?

mack · 12-27-2004, 06:17 PM

AMD64 is going to boost your performance way more then a 512MB of ram, get that at a later time... My AMD64 2800+ beats a AMD Athlon 3200+.

The AMD64 3000+ will give you a small, noticable, change but not by much. I would go for 3000+ if you have it. Higher the better.

Good luck purchasing =)

True_Orb · 12-27-2004, 06:54 PM

Go as high as your budget will allow and include something like a Venus 12 or Silent Boost CPU heatsink/fan, then overclock.

For example, instead of buying a 3200 with stock cooling, get a 2800 with a Venus 12 and overclock to/past 3200 speeds (or as high as possible, I'm not terribly familiar with these processors yet.)

Alex81388 · 12-27-2004, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by millsd44
also, is it the same, will I be able to use my current HSF (thermaltake volcano 12) because it looks EXACTLY the same as the venus 12 that i was gonna get, but just remade? Whats the difference?
thanks

That HSF will work on any Socket A CPU, this does not include AMD Athlon 64 processers.

ak_smallz · 12-27-2004, 10:50 PM

i would just buy the processor, and save $$ for that next big video card upgrade your gonna have in a year or so. With that system you should run everything fine. I got the same thing (2600m, NF7-S, 512mb), but a 9600SE (dunno why i chose it...) instead of 9800pro, and it runs everything just fine.

Raekwon · 12-28-2004, 08:19 AM

i would go the XP-M 2600+ because they overclock very well, and when clocked at 2.7Ghz, (if you get it that far) i would say that it could beat a 64bit 2800+ without much difficulty, plus, you would be able to buy the extra 512Mb of ram, which makes a big difference in gaming today. but be aware, you will need good cooling if you buy the XP-M2600+