I have an Abit NF7 motherboard that I believe will support Barton core processors. Would an XP2500 be a good buy? Newegg.com has the retail box for only $96 What are the overclocking potentials? Would I be better off saving up for an Xp2800 or above? Thanks in advance. I also have 2 sticks of 256mb pc2700 ram and plan on runing Duel channel synchronus(sp?). maybe I do need that iespell program after all.
abit NF7 board supports 333fsb cpu. I have a baton 2500+. it performs very well but they don't OC well... the one I got can't go over a 370 mhz increase... the good thing about bartons is their 333 fsb which let you run the fsb and the ram synchronously (333/400 ddr) and their 512k L2 cache. the bad thing about bartons is that they don't have much overclocking gap... if you want to OC, then get a Tbred 2400+ or over with a 333 fsb... that is a popular choice for OC'ers. don't get me wrong... I've overclocked my barton 2500+ to a barton 3000+ (2.2 GHZ). But if overclocking is on top of your priorities list, then grab a 333 Tbred cpu because they get higher speed frequencies gain than the bartons... as for dual channel ddr, by grabing a 2400+ (2ghz, correct me if I'm wrong) you should be able to hit 2.5-2.6 ghz which is better than the bartons.. but mostly equivalent due to bartons 512k L2 cache. the choice is yours... whichever you take will satisfy you I'm sure. but if you ask me, you could drain a little more performances from a 333 Tbred than a barton as for dual channel, the motherboards do everything for you. You just put your 2 dimms in 2 slots for the dual channel (which slots is specified in your user manual) and its settled. by having pc 2700, if you grab a 333 fsb cpu, you can run the fsb and the ram synchronously. If you grab a 266 cpu, you will run asynchronously meaning little less performance hope that helps
Thanks Tribal! I'd say that having the equivilent of an xp3000 is a pretty good deal. I don't think the NF7 is that good of an overclocking board anyway. Could you do me a favor and list your settings for Fsb and multiplier as well as Vcore and such? What are your temps like? I think I'm sold on getting the 2500 then. But not until after I get more storage. Having only 25GB, on 2 HDD, isn't cutting it.
I just ordered a Barton 2500+ a couple days ago actually...from Newegg.com also. They have it on sale from ~$130, so its an excellent deal. If you read the 60 or so 5 out of 5 star reviews on it, you'll see that a lot of people say they are good overclockers. I can't wait to get it.
Yeah, I might have to spring for both a large hard drive and the Xp2500. But if I do I'll be broke for a while. At least until I find a job. Are there any special codes I should be looking for on a Barton chip like you did for Athlons or XPs (ex. AXDA or whatever)? I don't know if Newegg allows you to request chips with certain codes but it would be good to know.
I have 180 fsb, 12.5 multiplier (2250 ghz), 1.8 V core, 48C idle and 51C full load (with termalright AX-7 hts) I have corsair twinx 2*256mb pc 2700 cas2 2-2-5 at 2.3V my board (a7n8x rev. 1.6) doesn't allow any higher fsb... maybe by having more fsb and smaller multiplier, I could get higher but I'm in the sweet spot so... Bartons are new so i don't think you can choose between codes like the last XP 1700 that goes to 2.2 ghz. check there for barton 2500+ overclocking review http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDUz
Okay right now I'm running the 2500+ at 185x12.5, 2.31GHz. A decent overclock. At the moment I'm using only one 256MB stick of GeIL Golden Dragon 400MHz. When I go much higher over 185 FSB, my sound card fails. I'm sure it can go higher though. Temps run around 46-50ºC with Volc7+. Overall I'd give the Barton two thumbs up.
your soundcard fails because your fsb is too high and it influence the pci bus. I have the same problem... I could hit 185*12.5... but wasn't stable enough... looks like you got a better one than me
Yeah I just tried 12x200, and not only the sound card fails, but the video card is all pink. I think the processor handles it pretty well though.
Anyone know how to unlock multipliers over 12.5 for the XP2500? Since 185FSB is the highest I can get with my system, I want to change multiplier from 12.5 to 13, but 13 is locked.
Doesnt the abit mobo unlock all multipliers upto 24x ? Maybe there is an option in the BIOS to do it.
Can you not lock the pci bus on the nf7. It thought you could, or atleast change the pci bus divider? 8-ball
Dammit. I just found out that to unlock the multipliers over 12.5, you have to blow away (cut) the connection between the third and fifth L3 bridge. That's not good. I'm not sure I want to try that... I wish I had an nForce2 board so I could go over 200FSB.
Well...as usual, I like to live dangerously. I have three words for you...operation successful!. I cut the bridges about .00005mm at a time, but in the end it was worth it. I now run 185x13, and have yet to test the stability.
