The Athlon XP route is probably still less expensive than the Athlon 64,
especially if you are interested in overclocking.

My choice for an enthusiast's/overclocker's Athlon XP system would be the
Athlon XP Mobile 2500 or 2600 paired with the Abit AN7.  You should have no
trouble running one of these processors at Athlon XP 3200 speeds (2.2GHz).
You may even be able to run it faster, but you'll need a very good heatsink
for this.  You stand a better chance of getting the fastest Athlon XP speeds
out of this particular processor than the Athlon XP 3200, because it has an
unlocked multiplier and you won't be limited by your motherboard's maximum
front side bus speed.

See this Tech Report article on the Athlon XP Mobile 2500 for more
information; it includes quite a few comparisons of different speeds and
kinds of processors.
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q1/athlonxp-m-2500/index.x?pg=1

On the other hand, the Athlon 64 is a faster processor, perhaps in no small
part due to it's integrated memory controller.  I would think that the
Athlon 64 2800 would make a good choice, especially if you can pair it up
with a motherboard that is conducive to overclocking, i.e., it has a locked
PCI/AGP bus speed.  The favorite chipset for this combination of factors
(high potential fronstside bus speeds and locked PCI/AGP bus) appears to be
the Nvidia Nforce3 250.  Motherboards using this chipset (as well as the
alternative K8T800 Pro) are just now becoming available.  This chipset is
really meant for the next generation of the Athlon 64 motherboards, which
will use a 939 pin socket, but it's found it's way onto the current 754 pin
sockets, in the meanwhile.

Anandtech has some information on these new chipsets and 754 socket
motherboards using them.  http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=2063

They also have some information on the launch of the new 939 pin
motherboards and Athlon 64 processors, as well.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=2065&p=1  Although these have
been officially launched, I don't think there are any available right at
this moment.

John Sproule

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Favre" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 2:26 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Please Help With AND 64 2800+ v. AMD XP 3200+ and MOBO
Combos


> First, if you had your druthers, which would you pick?  Which is going to
work best now and in the future?  Building own pc for gaming and office aps,
no vid editing.  Spending around $800 for the whole schpiel.

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