What upgrades can I do with what I've got??

[optinox]

Hi all,

I bought this computer a few months ago, anyways I downloaded a program that gives me the specs on my memory and cpu and I'm not too sure on a few things so hopefully someone will be able to help my by telling me what I can upgrade and so forth, this is what comes up with the info my system, the part of the post with the *** are things I'm not too sure of:

PROCESSSOR:

Name: AMD Athlon XP

Code Name: Thoroughbred

Package: Socket A

Technology: 0.13

Specification: AMD Athlon XP 2400+

Family 6
model 8
Stepping 1
Ext family 7
Ext model 8

Revision B0 ***what does revision mean "B0"??)

Core speed: 1994.4 Mhz

Multiplier: x 15.0

FSB: 133 Mhz ***I thought that my cpu had 266 Mhz FSB!!!??

Bus speed: 265.9 Mhz

L1 Data: 64 Kbytes

Level: 256 Kbytes

MEMORY:

DIMM #1: DDR-SDRAM PC 2100-256 MB

DIMM #2: DDR-SDRAM PC 1600-256 MB

***Would 1 stick of 512 MB of ram be better than 2 sticks of 256 MB of ram?

MOBO: Gigabyte 7DXR ***I'm not sure if this is a good board or not?

[vass0922]

Why do you want to upgrade?
Are you a heavy gamer?

FSB: 133 - that is Correct. 266 is because of the Dual Data Rate. Its 133x2.

What is your video card?

What is your goal of upgrading?
We need to know that to tell you what to upgrade.

[wju425]

Revision "B0" means you have a "B" stepping tbred which are popular cpu(s) for overclocking.

\o/ Billy

[John Prophet]

Lets see

133 is the bus speed of the "motherboard"

the INTERNAL speed of the cpu is 2x133 so you are right it is 266...that is the INTERNAL cpu speed. (or for the newer Athlons it is 2x166 or 2x200)

You're memory happens to be DDR so its is also 266mhz (133x2)

I notice you have a stick of PC1600..now that is designed to run at 100mhzx2. So either that stick is overclocked to 133 OR the OTHER stick is underclocked to 100mhzx2....so if I were you I would check that out in the bios and see what speed the memory is running at. If it is only running at 100mhz then you are losing a lot of performance right there...so you need to try to run them both at 133...and if the pc1600 wont run that fast then youd be much better off to get rid of that stick and get some more PC2100....you will have much better performance that way.

(here is a little blurb about memory speeds and naming etc http://www.purdue.anderson.edu/Cpt/C...dr%20sdram.htm )

I dont think there is any difference in performance between having one stick as opposed to two.

Here is the page with all the specs, drivers, etc etc http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/...ts_GA-7DXR.htm

Evidently it goes up to an AthlonXP 2600+(.13u) with a 266mhz....if you go to upgrade just be careful not to get the XP2600 that uses the 333mhz fsb cuz your board wont run that one.

You probably need to get the latest bios to run an XP2600.

Revision "BO" is the "stepping"....I dont know why they call it that though, lol.....it is like a "version" determined by what "batch" the processor came from.....different batches and "steppings" have some slightly different characteristics since they learn better and the process improves along the way etc....so certain "steppings" are known for instance to be great overclockers and some are just average etc. The overclocking sites have lists of which ones are which etc.

JP

[beppodmime]

From what I understand about DDR DRAM, and motherboard chipsets, I do believe that regardless of chipset, that the board HAS to default down to the slowest stick of memory. So, that means that even though you have a stick of PC2100 (133MHz memory clock), it's actually going to run at PC1600 speeds (100MHz memory clock). You could try and run the stick PAST that point, if your board's BIOS supports memory overclocking separate of the CPU, but I wouldn't really advise that at this point.

You have about the best chip that board can handle, and the system probably runs just fine as it is. If you want my advice on what to upgrade, then would be to yank that stick of PC1600 and get another stick of PC2100 (good brand). And, you might notice a good improvement from updating that motherboard. The nForce2 boards on the market right now offer top-notch performance in the AMD arena at nice prices, if you know what you want.

With your current CPU, you could spend around 140 bucks and probably get a bit more longevity out of your current system, or you could stick with what you have. If all your using the system for is surfing the net and some moderate gaming, then you might just want to save the money and put it towards something new a few years from now.

***if you plan on upgrading your motherboard, I'm pretty sure you'll need a new video card, as well. I'm not sure if modern nforce 2 boards support 1x AGP. Don't quote me on it, though. If you're not satisfied with your gaming performance, and have an old 1x video card, then I'd consider a new mobo/video.***