Searching for an "old" AMD CPU

[El Barto]

I'm fed up ! I can't stand to play BF1942 on certain maps anymore...it's way too slow. I can't use TeamSpeak because it kills my performance (and I probably average around 5FPS). I don't have enough money for my complete upgrade (mobo, memory, cpu), so I'm thinking if I could find the fastest processor that runs on my motherboard and if it's cheap, I'll get it. So if any of you guys (especially you AMD guys) know where I might come across an AMD Athlon T-Bird 1.4Ghz 200Mhz FSB CPU, let me know. I've checked pricewatch and there's only one site with it, and they want $130. No way. I have an Asus A7V (original).

[FthrJACK]

upgrade your mobo first, then get CPU later. a good mobo will increase your performance anyway.

if you have SDRAM make sure you get a board that will support sdram and DDR OR, get some cheap nonbranded DDR for now. i know a place i can pickup 256mb pc2700 for £28.

you cant get good sdram for that! put some beter stuff in later when you can afford.

i would do the mobo first then get the CPU later. that way you could get something like a XP1800. they are dirt cheap now, and very good performance too.

you have a good graphics card dont you?

[El Barto]

Yeah, I have a GF4 Ti4200 64MB. I was thinking about going the motherboard + RAM route...Asus A7N8X + 256MB to start. I was going to go for the gold and get Corsair right away, but maybe I should get some cheaper stuff to start off, then get Corsair in the future. Will having slower memory mixed with faster memory result in a performance hit?

[FthrJACK]

yeah it will, what you mean by slower? you cant mix pc2700 and pc2100 and get them both to run at 2700, infact that setup prolly wont be very stable at all. its not like 133 and 100 ram, much more picky is ddr.

if you mean cheap pc2700 and corsair 2700 then it will run fine sure. just dont expect the cheap ram to be same specs as the corsair. your system will run fine tho, but TWO sticks of corsair ram in one day will give beter performance than one cheap and one branded stick yeah.

the fact your card has 64mb ram might also be a factor in the pacific maps, i have heard other ti420 owners complaining about it and on large desert maps too they get lower frames, but still playable on the desert ones. its not a bad card, but not amazing either.

damned graphix cards cost too much, i have a raddy 8500 64mb and a ti440. the raddy ive lent a friend indefinatley, hes having to upgrade his PSU just to borrow it tho lol

[El Barto]

Well, what I would most likely do is get the motherboard and a stick of 256MB DDR2700 from Crucial...it runs around $45 or so. It's CAS2.5. The Corsair would be CAS2, DDR3200. What I should have asked was, will this limit the performance of the DDR3200 if there's a DDR2700 present? I'd probably end up putting another 256MB of Corsair down the line.

[pvt. JOKER]

gents, just wanted to add my experiences to the list.

i have a soyo k7v dragon plus mobo, athlon xp 1700 and recently added 512 mb of no-name ram. my vid is a 64mb geforce2, 'bout 1 year old, and i'm running winxp. before i added the ram, i had 256mb, the maps would take forever to load and then when it did, there were always stutters. since adding the extra stick [total of 768], they load in seconds, not minutes, and not a single drop in frame rates. everything i've read says add the ram for better performance. winxp alone runs nearly 100 meg from memory, so that addition would probably be the most beneficial.

as for mixing the different speeds, pc2100, pc2700 etc, i'm not sure you can do that unless your mobo supports it???

so....in conclusion....

more RAM=more better game

[LURCH]

I am just putting what I have in my system. I have the SOYO KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum with a AMD XP2000+, 2 PC2700 512Mb DDR sticks of Corsair, I have a ATI 9000 Pro Video card with 128Mb DDR memory, I have the WesterenDigital 120Gb ATA100 8.5ms with 8Mb buffer HDD, I have a Volcano9 fan cooling the CPU and a 48x24x48 Sony CD-RW.

The server I am building has almost all the same except the video card is only a GF4 64Mb and a 24x cd-rom. These are the only differents.

[El Barto]

For the server, I might suggest you get two (or more) smaller drives instead of one big one, for better performance. Set up a RAID if your board can support it and you should get better performance. The harddrives always seem to bottleneck the speed. I would also get an Asus A7N8X mobo, the nFORCE2 chipset is the best chipset for the XP's.

[FthrJACK]

Barto, with a stick of pc2700 in and a stick of faster ram in, your system will only run at the spoeed of the slowest component.

if you get a stick of 3200 you should take the 2700 out. i havent seen many good boards out there that run two speeds of DDR.

i dont recall seeing one that runs 2700 and 3200 either, they are mostly 2100 + 2700 or sdram and ddr boards.

Maybe i just havent looked enough

[El Barto]

That's what I figured. I remember vaguely hearing something about RAM only running as fast the slowest stick, so I thought I'd double check. And yes, there's now PC3000 (366Mhz), PC3200 (400Mhz), and PC3500 (433Mhz). The nFORCE2-based boards run at 400Mhz, if I recall correctly.

[zipp51]

Just a note Barto,on your slow perfomance.With a high end graphics card such as the Ti 4200 which has ddr memory and the Asus mobo running only PC133 your AGP is trying to get what you mobo,processor,and memory don't have.Your system as it stands may run better with a non ddr graphics card unless the 1942 game requires ddr graphics acceleration.I have an old slot a Abit mobo and tried running a Radeon ddr card and got very unstable results.I now run a Rage Fury 32mb sdr card and the perfomance is very good on that system.I agree with FathrJack with buying a good mobo and adding mid-grade components such as cpu and memory,you can upgrade later and satisfy your need for speed.

[El Barto]

Quick question...will I be able to run my old 1Ghz Athlon T-Bird on the A7N8X until I get a faster processor?

[zipp51]

Quick question...will I be able to run my old 1Ghz Athlon T-Bird on the A7N8X until I get a faster processor?

It looks as though you can Barto.You can't use PC100 or PC133 memory however only PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600

The A7N8X Specs for processor and FSB are as follows;

FSB

333 / 266 / 200 MHz

Processor

Socket A for AMD® Athlon™ XP/ Athlon™/ Duron™ 600MHz ~ 2.8GHz+

Thoroughbred core CPU ready

Your present mobo is a 200mhz front side bus(FSB) which is also what your 1GHz Athlon socket A is compatible with and the A7N8X says it supports both.If you can wait I would get an Athlon XP chip.You can get the XP 1700+ for $59 and the A7N8x itself for $111.That would make a nice highly upgradeable combo.

[FthrJACK]

joker and zipp put my point across beter than i did. its down to you mobos bus speed and ram ram ram.

a friend of mine has a similar system to mine but 256mb ram, his maps take ages to load and he gets lower frames. i have 512mb pc2700 (crucial tech), in a week im going to get another 256mb of cheap non branded stuff as its only £28 and check it out.

[El Barto]

Thanks for all the tips. The setup I'm most likely going for is an A7N8X (Deluxe?) with 512MB PC3200 DDR and an XP 2200+. I think I'll get the mobo and 256MB memory and upgrade from there.