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Teach An Old Athlon New Tricks
budn3kkid writes "Seems like Upgradeware have a new gadget out for those overclockers looking to upgrade their age old Athlon mobo (KT133, KT266 etc.) with a spanking new AMD Barton CPU. Also, saw an article at ol' Tom's about it right here as well."
*sigh*
Only two comments posted, and already the link is showing a lovely error page.
Google cache still around though, grab it here.
...try this instead. The server isn't /.'d (yet), but the link to the page with more info about the XP-TMC is invalid. (None of the other product links on that page work, either...mighty fine website. :-P )
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
This upgrade raises the concern of the choked bus. I mean, who really wants to run a 3000+ on a 133MHz system bus?
I do, and benchmarks have consistently shown that an increase in bandwidth for the Athlon rarely produces a substantial increase in speed (i.e. the recent speed "jumps" from AMD).
The Political Programmer
The two main PC parts stores (small private stores, not the big-box retailers) have had no-return policies on CPUs for a while now. Once you buy it, you have to go to the manufacturer if anything is wrong. They are willing to drop it into a system before you leave the store to check it is not DOA. Best Buy, etc, may have different return policies, but I don't know anyone that is into OC'ing that would buy a CPU at an overpriced place like BB.
I'm beginning to think the problem with Athlon systems are the chipset drivers..
I have VIA KT133 board that wouldn't last over a day on Windows.. reformated and reinstalled several times and no help..
Now the system runs linux and its been up for over a month. No odd crashes, segfaults, or lockups.
My desktop computer has a nForce 2 chipset.. Totally reliable and not a single system crash.
The link is almost as reliable as my Athlon system.
It is? If you're having trouble with the stability of your system, it's most probably either your Power Supply Unit or RAM, don't blame the CPU.
I have an "Athlon System" with good RAM and CPU and it hasn't been down in about 3 years.
I don't see why you got modded up as funny, as it wasn't.
"How in the hell do you conclude that anyone that wants to overclock is likely to be a liar as well?"
That is not my conclusion. My conclusion is that someone is going to notice the selling point for this particular adaptor, namely what I quoted with a stress on "The warranty of your processor can be kept alive." And will think they now have a risk-free overclocking experience.
I have NO problems with people that want to overclock and risk burning out their system, as long as they don't ask for a refund the next day. You can overclock it, use it as a paperweight, or use it as a heater in the Winter for all I care.
The example I gave of Joe Smith returning his CPU was in the context of what the original company was pushing, not a general statement of overclockers.
Some people indeed underclock their CPU and lower the voltage, in order to cool it with a 5V fan, or get an fanless PC. :P
Here's the rigs of the creator and webmaster of the most visited french hardware site
It probably comes with a longer clip. My Spectra 333 kit did, though a motherboard heatsink thing meant that it didn't get clipped on exactly as recommended.
So now stores that sell these CPUs now have even less to work with when determining whether John Smith walking into the store asking for a CPU exchange actually had a faulty CPU to begin with or was doing mad l33t overclocking in his basement last night.
As someone that's worked for a computer store, who gives a shit? If there's nothing on the CPU indicating it's been tampered with or abused, then the retailer can make a warranty/DOA claim with their distributor/supplier and won't be left out of pocket, since if there's no way the store can prove the CPU was abused, there's no way the distributor can, either!
An Athlon XP 2600+ isn't a Barton core chip, it's a Thoroughbred "B" chip.
The Barton core chips are:
Barton 3200+ (2.250GHz, 512KB cache);
Barton 3000+ (2.167GHz, 512KB L2 cache);
Barton 2800+ (2.083GHz, 512KB L2 cache);
Barton 2500+ (1.833GHz, 512KB L2 cache).
The top Thorougbred core chips are:
Thoroughbred 2800+ (2.250GHz, 256KB L2 cache);
Thoroughbred 2700+ (2.167GHz, 256KB L2 cache);
Thoroughbred 2600+ (2.083GHz, 256KB L2 cache);
Thoroughbred 2400+ (2.000GHz, 256KB L2 cache).
Note the increased L2 cache size on the Barton, which AMD cite as the reason for the 200-300 point rise in their performance rating for those chips (eg, Barton 2.167 GHz = Thoroughbred 2.167GHz + 300). Obviously, the latest FSB bump introduced with the Barton family helps too.
In some situations a Thoroughbred 2800+ will outpace a Barton 3000+ because of it's greater clock speed but, in most cases, the Barton with its greater L2 cache will win out.
Anyhow, given this story is about "overclockers looking to upgrade their age old Athlon mobo (KT133, KT266 etc.) with a spanking new AMD Barton CPU", I thought it prudent to point out your incorrect assumption about the XP 2600+ chip.
In all likelyhood, you probably wouldn't need any sort of adapter to fit a Thoroughbred chip to most older Athlon motherboards - I know that I could swap the 1.2GHz CPU in my machine for a 2800+ with no hassle but wouldn't be able to do the same with a 3200+, or even a 2500+.
But if you're really going to skip the 2800+ for the 3000+ or 3200+, then you're paying 50 percent or 110 percent more for your CPU in the first place. And if you're doing that, then you might as well be buying a new motherboard.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I wouldn't touch a VIA chipset! Utter crap. I have an old motherboard KT133 which I was thinking of using in my Linux fileserver, but I remembered how much trouble I had with it in Windows.
The problem is the PCI implementation is flawed (to put it mildly) and especially since my fileserver on an old Intel 440BX runs a software raid array with 3 IDE controllers (including onboard), we're talking serious PCI usage here. Definately NOT a job for VIA.
My desktop (windows) is running an nForce2 and its rock solid.
So remember: VIA? JUST SAY NO!
LOL.. no one has realized that parent attempted to get +5 funny :D. the site he linked to published "articles" about Microsoft patenting 0 and 1, and other funny crap.
Get an AOpen board. The newer ones throttle the speed of the CPU and case fan based on the temp.
Life is not for the lazy.