Upgrade from AMD Athlon XP 1900 to 2600: is it worth it?

[Guest]

Hi all,

I have an AMD Athlon XP 1900+ 133MHz bus speed Socket A CPU. I have identified using the following URL: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/TYPE-Athlon%20XP.html that the fastest processor in this family at 133MHz bus speed is the 2600+ any CPUs beyond this appear to run at 166MHz bus speed. Is this true? Is there not a faster processor than the 2600+ with a 133MHz bus speed? Would upgrading from 1900+ to 2600+ be worth my while?
Obviously my motherboard has a bus speed of 133MHz. Would there be any benefit in using a 166MHz bus speed CPU on this motherboard? If say I used a 3000+ 166MHz bus speed CPU on this motherboard, would the bus speed of the motherboard limit the CPU performance considerably?

Thanks
Tristan

[Guest]

Sorry I appear to be confused, the AMD Athlon XP 1900+ actually runs at 266MHz bus speed. The fastest at this bus speed is 2400+ Is this a worthy upgrade or is there a faster CPU in this family available?

[gshv]

Your first post is correct - the fastest Athlon XP with 266 MHz FSB is 2600+:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%20XP%202600%2B%20-%20AXDA2600DKV3C.html

As this is the fastest processor with 266 MHZ bus, it is usually overpriced on places like eBay. It's probably 50% more expensive than Athlon XP 2600/333. I'd recommend to look for prices first - upgrading the motherboad and processor may cost the same as upgrading the processor to the fastest in its class.

Gennadiy

[Guest]

Thanks for your help. Is the FSB 2 times the bus speed of the CPU? The site seems to say that the bus speed is 133MHz, yet the FSB is 266MHz? How does this work?

[gshv]

Yes, bus frequency is 133 MHz, but the processor sends data twice during each bus cycle, which makes it effectively 266 MHz bus speed.

Gennadiy

[Guest]

Would there be any benefit of installing say a 3000+ 333MHz on a 266MHz motherboard? I take it the bus speed of the motherboard would limit the potential of the CPU?

[gshv]

The speed of the processor will be limited by locked clock multiplier. The 3000+/266 (real frequency 2167 MHz) will run at 4/5 of its intended speed, that is at 1733 MHz.

Gennadiy

[Guest]

Would it be beneficial for me to buy this processor instead: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Mobile%20Athlon%20XP-M%203000%2B%20-%20AXMA3000FKT4C.html Is it possible to use an Athlon XP-M CPU on a motherboard that takes an Athlon XP CPU? What's the difference between these two types of processor?[/b]

[gshv]

Certainly, this processor (if supported by your motherboard), would be much better than what you currently have. Try to find out if your motherboard supports:
- mobile processors, i.e. the motherboard should have support for lower core voltage.
- Barton core, i.e. Athlon XP processors with 512 KB L2 cache.

Gennadiy

[Guest]

excellent, thanks for your help