righty, i want to upgrade my processor (AMD Athlon xp2400+) but know very little about what i can get. I have this motherboard ASROCK K7S8X (http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7s8x.htm)
I know u guys seem to know alot about this kinda stuff so what is the best chip i can buy that will fit this board?

"socket 462" is "socket A" and fsb="front bus speed" which on ebuyer is called simply "Bus Speed" you need an AMD chip.

I can only find 3000Mhz processors, hardly worth upgrading.

Check that your system is running correctly.

Are the harddrives using DMA?

How much memory do you have? (#1 way to increase system performance is more memory)

thanks richard :thumbsup:
well I have 1gb of ram, and I dont have a clue about this DMA thingy lol
It isnt worth upgrading? wont i notice the difference at 3ghz since mine is only clocked to 2ghz?

Originally posted by Craigy
thanks richard :thumbsup:
well I have 1gb of ram, and I dont have a clue about this DMA thingy lol
It isnt worth upgrading? wont i notice the difference at 3ghz since mine is only clocked to 2ghz?

you said you have xp2400 and upgrading to xp3000 wont appear very different.

There is a little bit of an issue here. The AMD's do more per clock cycle than Intel, so an Intel running at 2000Mhz does less than an AMD doing 2000Mhz, so your xp2400 can run at 2000Mhz but calls itself 2400 so that they don't look slower than intel chips - because there not.

So we compare 2400 to 3000 not 2000 to 3000.

DMA is direct memory access. It means data can be loaded to Memory without being routed through the CPU, so whenever the harddrive is being used your system is really being slowed down.

Might be an idea to check your bios settings.

There's probably something you can look at in windows, but someone else will have to help you with this.

Sorry, I got to step in.
Originally posted by richard
you said you have xp2400 and upgrading to xp3000 wont appear very different. Originally posted by richard
"socket 462" is "socket A" and fsb="front bus speed" which on ebuyer is called simply "Bus Speed" you need an AMD chip.

I can only find 3000Mhz processors, hardly worth upgrading.

Check that your system is running correctly.

Are the harddrives using DMA?

How much memory do you have? (#1 way to increase system performance is more memory)
but AMD XP3000 is not 3GHz ;)

And as far as hard drives and other IDE hardware are concerned, it's usually UDMA ;)

OK, firstly you have an sis motherboard, these are very cheap and nasty, consider replacing it.
Go for a socket 939 motherboard with an athlon 64 processor, you can use you existing memory in it even if it is not ddr400 (aka pc3200). You might want to consider upgrading it to ddr400 soon after if it is not as to aleveiate bottlenecks.
You can get a nice epox one with an AGP slot for your existing graphics card, it has a good nvidia chipset which includes a lot of features, compatibility and stability. I've got one of these myself.

DON'T whatever you do get an intel P4 'PRESSHOT' see:
http://www.very-pc.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=27

If your feeling adventurous get a motherboard with PCI-express and get a new graphics card too! The x700 and 6600 cards are good value.

If you find this all daunting come down to our store and we'll do it all for you in our antistatic room, we'll also sort you out with some good advice.

http://www.very-pc.co.uk/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=9&Itemid=32

Also scarlet, stop being a stickler, the AMD isn't 3GHz but it is so efficient it performs as well as a 3GHz intel toaster (pentium) without the need for excessive electricity wastage through high clock speeds, poor design and poor manufacturing processes.

It should be noted however the 3000 chips on socket 462 chips are no longer XP's they are Semprons, which are slightly slower & slightly cheaper. XP's are no longer in production.

Remember Intel inside, should be outside.

thanks for all your advice but i was hoping to just upgrade the processor and not end up replacing the whole machine..

I have 1gb of ram, 80gb hd, radeon 9800, amd xp2400 and the usual cdrw/dvd drives. But when i play games like halflife2, doom3, etc etc and i get really weak framerates (20-35) even on low settings.
Would overclocking be an option? is there anything that i am missing...? it seems a little daft that i cant play these games and i dont want to be paying out for loads of new parts.
(I have U DMA set to auto.. is this right?)

Originally posted by Craigy
thanks for all your advice but i was hoping to just upgrade the processor and not end up replacing the whole machine..

I have 1gb of ram, 80gb hd, radeon 9800, amd xp2400 and the usual cdrw/dvd drives. But when i play games like halflife2, doom3, etc etc and i get really weak framerates (20-35) even on low settings.
Would overclocking be an option? is there anything that i am missing...? it seems a little daft that i cant play these games and i dont want to be paying out for loads of new parts.
(I have U DMA set to auto.. is this right?)

UDMA auto is right.

upgrading you cpu to fix this problem is unlikely to help, I dont know much about graphics cards but that would be what I would upgrade first. the new games use rendering methods that older cards (and some new ones) may not support which then have to be reproduced in the CPU - but like I said, i've not really been following graphics cards stuff recently.

I think your graphics card should be fine, it's not top of the line anymore but is certainly capable of running Doom 3 and HL2 at decent settings.

Ideally I would go for a new motherboard and processor, but if you really don't want to do that then go for an Athlon XP 3000+

Also make sure you are running the latest graphics drivers and have them set-up properly. At the least check triple-buffering is turned on under the opengl setting which can make a big difference to performance.

well i set triple-buffering on and got a slight performance increace.. i guess im gonna have to save and get the xp3000 *sigh*

Craigy, Go for it, it will be a good learning process for you.
I would suggest getting an Athlon XP 3000 or a Sempron 3000. They are not that expensive and you could ebay your xp2400 for not a lot less!

Also ensure you have some reasonable quality 333MHz DDR's pc2700.

Your graphics card should easily be good enough, as someone already said, but make sure you have the latest drivers on the ATI website.

You could also double check your cmos settings , AGP options for example.

i think i might just do.. my graphic card settings are fine and i am using PC2700 333MHz ram.
right then.. which do i need??
chip 1 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=8328330067&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=46310)
chip 2 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=8328330067&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=55149)

Chip 1 as it has the right fsb speed for your motherboard (333). That chip is OEM so you'll need to get a Heatsink and fan for it too.

Originally posted by Nazo
Chip 1 as it has the right fsb speed for your motherboard (333). That chip is OEM so you'll need to get a Heatsink and fan for it too.

thanks Nazo, i already have this heatsink (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=58513)

will it do?

Yep, looks fine. You might want to clean off any gunk left on it and re-apply some thermal paste if it's been on your current CPU though.

ah thats what i forgot to ask u guys... how can i clean my old processor as i think the cheap crappy paste is drying lol my temps are getting higher every day.