OT: CPU Upgrade Question

I have an Epox 8Kha+ mobo and am considering upgrading from my Athlon 1700XP CPU to an Athlon 2400 XP. Since my ISP doesn't provide me access to any Epox newsgroups, I was hoping to find some answers here: 1. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade as far as racing sims go? (Present cost is about $180 at newegg.com) I'm using a Radeon 8500LE vidcard. 2. From what I know, the highest CPU that my mobo can take would be an Athlon 2600XP (266 FSB) but they are expensive and hard to find. (All I find are 333 FSB versions). So would the 2400 be a good choice? I figure that this upgrade should be simple, and I'm hoping to get the most bang for my buck. Thanks! Bert

I have an Epox 8Kha+ mobo and am considering upgrading from my Athlon 1700XP CPU to an Athlon 2400 XP. Since my ISP doesn't provide me access to any Epox newsgroups, I was hoping to find some answers here: 1. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade as far as racing sims go? (Present cost is about $180 at newegg.com) I'm using a Radeon 8500LE vidcard. 2. From what I know, the highest CPU that my mobo can take would be an Athlon 2600XP (266 FSB) but they are expensive and hard to find. (All I find are 333 FSB versions). So would the 2400 be a good choice? I figure that this upgrade should be simple, and I'm hoping to get the most bang for my buck. Thanks! Bert

BRH wrote:

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> > I have an Epox 8Kha+ mobo and am considering upgrading from my Athlon > 1700XP CPU to an Athlon 2400 XP. Since my ISP doesn't provide me access > to any Epox newsgroups, I was hoping to find some answers here: > > 1. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade as far as racing sims go? > (Present cost is about $180 at newegg.com) I'm using a Radeon 8500LE > vidcard. > 2. From what I know, the highest CPU that my mobo can take would be an > Athlon 2600XP (266 FSB) but they are expensive and hard to find. (All I > find are 333 FSB versions). So would the 2400 be a good choice?

Yes, good performance for the money > I figure that this upgrade should be simple, and I'm hoping to get the > most bang for my buck. Just beware that your Vid card is reaching it's limits, I recently upgraded from an XP2200 to an XP2600 (333) and hardly got any increase in my FPS or my 3DMark score despite the fact that my R8500LE is heavily OC'ed Running the card at 310/310 I scored 9300 (ish) with the 2200 and 9900 (ish) with the 2600, you'd be surprised how hard I've been trying to break 10k....or maybe not :-), so an 18% increase in CPU power and a 25% increase in FSB speed gave me a 6,5% increase in video performance, I can't remember the FPS increase in NR2002, but it was more or less the same increase However, upgrading the CPU before the vid card is always a good choice unless your vid card is really old and you have a lesser CPU than I had Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--

Thanks for the reply, Goy. Hmm..... My R8500LE only overclocks to about 285/285 reliably. With my XP1700, my 3D Mark score is about 8400-8500. It sounds like I can probably expect a score of about 9300 if I go with the 2400XP (assuming it would equate to your 2200XP at 310/310). That's only a 10% increase or so...... So maybe it wouldn't be worthwhile after all. Goy Larsen wrote:

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> BRH wrote: > > > > I have an Epox 8Kha+ mobo and am considering upgrading from my Athlon > > 1700XP CPU to an Athlon 2400 XP. Since my ISP doesn't provide me access > > to any Epox newsgroups, I was hoping to find some answers here: > > > > 1. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade as far as racing sims go? > > (Present cost is about $180 at newegg.com) I'm using a Radeon 8500LE > > vidcard. > > 2. From what I know, the highest CPU that my mobo can take would be an > > Athlon 2600XP (266 FSB) but they are expensive and hard to find. (All I > > find are 333 FSB versions). So would the 2400 be a good choice? > > Yes, good performance for the money > > > I figure that this upgrade should be simple, and I'm hoping to get the > > most bang for my buck. > > Just beware that your Vid card is reaching it's limits, I recently > upgraded from an XP2200 to an XP2600 (333) and hardly got any increase > in my FPS or my 3DMark score despite the fact that my R8500LE is heavily > OC'ed > > Running the card at 310/310 I scored 9300 (ish) with the 2200 and 9900 > (ish) with the 2600, you'd be surprised how hard I've been trying to > break 10k....or maybe not :-), so an 18% increase in CPU power and a 25% > increase in FSB speed gave me a 6,5% increase in video performance, I > can't remember the FPS increase in NR2002, but it was more or less the > same increase > > However, upgrading the CPU before the vid card is always a good choice > unless your vid card is really old and you have a lesser CPU than I had > > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > > http://www.theuspits.com > > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

Thanks for the reply, Goy. Hmm..... My R8500LE only overclocks to about 285/285 reliably. With my XP1700, my 3D Mark score is about 8400-8500. It sounds like I can probably expect a score of about 9300 if I go with the 2400XP (assuming it would equate to your 2200XP at 310/310). That's only a 10% increase or so...... So maybe it wouldn't be worthwhile after all.

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> > I have an Epox 8Kha+ mobo and am considering upgrading from my Athlon > > 1700XP CPU to an Athlon 2400 XP. Since my ISP doesn't provide me access > > to any Epox newsgroups, I was hoping to find some answers here: > > 1. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade as far as racing sims go? > > (Present cost is about $180 at newegg.com) I'm using a Radeon 8500LE > > vidcard. > > 2. From what I know, the highest CPU that my mobo can take would be an > > Athlon 2600XP (266 FSB) but they are expensive and hard to find. (All I > > find are 333 FSB versions). So would the 2400 be a good choice? > Yes, good performance for the money > > I figure that this upgrade should be simple, and I'm hoping to get the > > most bang for my buck. > Just beware that your Vid card is reaching it's limits, I recently > upgraded from an XP2200 to an XP2600 (333) and hardly got any increase > in my FPS or my 3DMark score despite the fact that my R8500LE is heavily > OC'ed > Running the card at 310/310 I scored 9300 (ish) with the 2200 and 9900 > (ish) with the 2600, you'd be surprised how hard I've been trying to > break 10k....or maybe not :-), so an 18% increase in CPU power and a 25% > increase in FSB speed gave me a 6,5% increase in video performance, I > can't remember the FPS increase in NR2002, but it was more or less the > same increase > However, upgrading the CPU before the vid card is always a good choice > unless your vid card is really old and you have a lesser CPU than I had > Beers and cheers > (uncle) Goy > http://www.theuspits.com > "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" > --Groucho Marx--

BRH wrote:

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> > Thanks for the reply, Goy. > > Hmm..... My R8500LE only overclocks to about 285/285 reliably. With my > XP1700, my 3D Mark score is about 8400-8500. It sounds like I can probably > expect a score of about 9300 if I go with the 2400XP (assuming it would equate > to your 2200XP at 310/310). That's only a 10% increase or so...... So maybe > it wouldn't be worthwhile after all.

Don't stare yourself blind on the 3DMark score, it's mostly a video card benchmark after all, you will benefit from the faster CPU in Sims as your CPU will have more HP to deal with the other stuff a Sim demands your CPU to deal with Furthermore, 8500 is a pretty decent score in itself, my "work" PC "only" score about 7500 and that's an XP 2000, but I know that's because of a slow MoBo, it's an "ancient" ASUS A7M266 (AMD 761) which I love to death for it's reliability, but as DDR based MoBo's go, it's slooow :-), still, it suggests that your system is well tuned In my opinion, the R8500 is an excellent choice for a sub 2000 (ish) CPU and goes nicely hand in hand with the one you've got, nice balance, and like I said, unless you have a "shitty" vid card, which you don't, the CPU is the first thing to upgrade, I was merely hinting that you may also want to look at a new vid card in the not too distant future as well I'm pleased with my upgrade so far, don't have much time for gaming these days, but the new CPU will be accompanied by a R9x00 of some sorts in the near future, the CPU upgrade happened now as I had a buyer for my old CPU, the cost of the holiday season prevented the video card from joining it right now :-) And yes, I've been extremely pleased with the OC'ing potential of this card, I've got two others as well, 64 MB as opposed to the 128 in my gaming PC and they don't OC nearly as well, 275 and 285 respectively, but I'm not 100% sure if that's all down to the vid card itself as I tried one of the 64 MB cards in my gaming PC and it OC'ed better there and I wonder if the AGP port on the different MoBo's might have something to do with it I haven't looked into it much as I'm not *that* interested in OC'ing anymore :-) Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy http://www.theuspits.com "A man is only as old as the woman he feels........" --Groucho Marx--