Just completed an upgrade

[Rik]

Hi everyone!

Ive just completed my upgrade from an MSI 745 Ulta mobo and ATI Radeon 7000 series 64meg AGP x4 graphics card to an Abit NF7-S mobo and ATI Radeon 9550 AGP x8 256meg graphics card and I gotta say, boy what a difference.

Now I have to save up my pennies to get myself a better processor, I have an AMD Athlon XP Pro 2000 and was wondering what i should replace it with?

There's a fair ammount of choice out there so i was wondering if anyone has any recomendations?

 

[Liquidlen]

Nice speed jump!
Upgrading always starts with budjet. If you are going to keep your Mb , then simply buy the best (fastest) CPU you can afford at the time.If you are saving pennies you will probably be able to get the quickest cpu your mb can handle.

 

[vnf4ultra]

Ok, it looks like your board supports athlon xp cpus with a 266mhz fsb. So a 266 fsb cpu that fits your budget will work.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=13

Here're some cpus.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ce=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=343&Submit=Property
I think athlon xp m's work in regular computers, I think some people prefer them, they supposedly overclock well, and don't need as much voltage.

 

[Rik]

Thanx for your help, much apreciated. Just been reading up on my Abit NF7-S and it says it supports " AMD-K7 duron/athlon/athlon xp/barton socket A 200/266/333/400 mhz FSB".
I notice the sempron isnt in that list and they are the most available of all the cpu's here in the uk on the highstreet. I have no idea if they are compatable or if they are any good?
I ran my old system for almost 2 yrs and didnt have an internet connection. So i have no idea about all the modern processors.
I gotta add, the athlon xp 2000+ processor i have at the mo has really done me proud, its been overclocked since the day i got it and its still going strong in my new mobo.

 

[vnf4ultra]

Oh, sorry, I listed cpus for your previous motherboard, my bad.
Any athlon xp(or xp m) with a 200, 266, 333, or 400fsb will work.
Semprons aren't "performance" cpus, but they perform well, for their price.
Check the manufacturers website to see if the board has a bios update to support sempron cpus, if so, then dl it and then flash it.

I think I heard that the 3100+ sempron(palermo core) overclocks well, since you mention oc'ing. You mileage may vary though.

It seems your board has sempron support in the newer bioses. I guess you have to get the flash utility and the bios.

What revision do you have? v1.x or v2.x?(x being any number). The different versions require different bioses.
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/bios.php?categories=1&model=6

You'd want to flash before you install a new chip to make the board compatible with the new chip.

 

[Rik]

Thanx for all your help its much apreciated. I have a rev2 board and the most recent bios (1.7 i think) as i flashed it last friday. So i think from what u say that my mobo will support pretty much any 32bit amd cpu on the market.
So once again, thanx. Rik.