Hi TFT,The upgrade to 1gb of ram would give you a nice boost in "smoothness" in the sim.However, if you could find a buyer for your 2600 among family for friends to help offset the cost of a new 3000, then I would get both the 3000 and the additional 1gb or ram. That would get you a very nice increase indeed :-)Take care TFT and let us know how the upgrade goes!!

Hi sim-friends,My current system has AMD 2600, 512MB@333, Ati Radeon 9600 pro.What part should I upgrade to get most value out of it. Either the cpu or the memory?Is it worth to get an AMD 3000 or is it better to get double memory up to 1G?SincerelyTFT

Some guys might shake their heads about this but anyway. While everybody is talking about graphics cards and processors I found that FS is hugely memory bandwidth dependant. And that is where you have a huge problem with your 333 memory. You do not say what mobo you have, not all of them can stand aa higher FSB. But I would invest in very good pair of 512MB memory sticks. Then I would unlock the CPU (if it isn't unlocked by default) and try to up the FSB to 200 MHz. Now the problem with this is that you cannot foresee what FSB you mobo can stand. If you are unlucky it will quit with 180. Than this had not been a good investment. Maybe you can borrow some PC3200 from a friend and try it out.Just my 2 cents.Alex

Thanks both of you,Motherborad is the asus a7n8x-e deluxe with fsb 400mhzSO;Where can I see what FSB I

Heinz,your FSB is actually 166. But as two works steps are combined in every cycle, the performance is similar to an FSB of 333MHz when compared to old 100MHz, machines. The same applies to the 400MHz FSB you are mentioning. In fact it is 200MHz x2(double data rate) = 400MHz.You can see your actual FSB in the BIOS, under the Advanced Chipset Features page.Your board can easily do an FSB of 220 MHz, with the approppriate Memory. As fas as I know Asus recommends Corsair XMS.However in order to be able to up your FSB you will have to lower the multiplier of your processor. In other words you have to unlock it, if that is not already the case. Many of the XP2600+ processor were unlocked by default as far as I can remember. If not, there are numerous manuals in the web for that. The processor speed is determined by the FSB and the multiplyer e.g. 200 Mhz (FSB) x 11,5 = 2300MHz processor speed. So in order to run the processor at a reasonable speed you have to lower its multiplier. Are you located in Germany (name) ?Alex

Hi Alex,Thanks for the infos.As far as I understand I should buy memorys for dual function?AMD Athlon

Interesting article:http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=480

Hi Heinz,Alex is correct in his definitions and explanations. Bottom line is this... your motherboard is capable of 400+FSB, but your CPU and memory are only rated at 333. The current A7N8X boards (including your E model) will automatically detect the buss speeds of the CPU and memory, and then set the correct FSB (for you that is 333).I have a similar system that you are considering, and I'll make this recommendation... buy a 2600 Mobile Barton. They are great overclockers, and with good air cooling you should be able to hit 2.4Ghz (or higher) for a total cost of around $170.00US (including a top quality heatsink and fan).The reason I would go with the 2600 Mobile Barton has to do with what is coming in the very near future. Within a few months we'll be seeing more and more 64 bit CPU's and related motherboards and memory at better prices. Many folks will be upgrading to the new technology. If you buy that 3000+ Barton (desktop version) and some PC3200 or even PC3500 memory, you'll be spending a substantial amount of money for a short term upgrade. Why not set much of that money aside for 6 months or so and get into the 64 bit technology once the first generation prices have come down a bit.Good luck,Greg

Heinz,Greg is correct too in what he explains. The question is whether or not you can pull off the $$ to upgrade both CPU and processor. My suggestion came from the fact that you can upgrade the memory without changing the CPU but not vice versa. A CPU upgrade to a Barton would always make it necessary to change your memory too. As for the multiplyer: The BIOS only allows you to change the multiplyer in 0.5 steps. So in your case that would be 10.5 instead of 10.4 which would mean a very slight overclock of the CPU which should be zero problemo. Of course the memory upgrade would allow to change to change to a Barton (400MHz FSB / 512MB L2 cache) CPU whenever you like.To make sure you get the right RAM buy bundled dual channel sticks.A very good site for Austria and Germany to get this stuff is www.overclockers.de. They have a wide portfolio of dual channel ram and also offer Barton CPUs with a guaranteed (!) overclocking potential which is very interesting if you want to go with Gregs suggestion. Alex

"...and also offer Barton CPUs with a guaranteed (!)"WOW! That's way cool!But the Mobile Barton's defy logic. I recently upgraded my wife's system to an A7N8X-E with the 2600+ Mobile. Her old system had 512Mb of Crucial PC2700, and I didn't order any new (faster) memory when I bought the board and CPU. I figured I didn't have anything to lose trying the 2700... if it wouldn't clock up I'd just order some 3200. But the system is running at 12 x 200! Ramped right up and is happy as a peach! Won't go to 205, but it's still running a little faster than my 3000+ Barton @ 11.5 x 205.This is risky, Heinz, and one would understand why some wouldn't accept the risk. But I've read of quite a few folks hitting 200FSB with the 2600+ M on these ASUS boards using PC2700.It certainly is nice that you guys have a source of guaranteed overclockable CPUs.Cheers,Greg

Greg,I understand perfectly what you are saying :-). My current CPU is a XP2700+ (not a Barton), and I am running exactly the same board with PC333 from Apacer. Guess what FSB is 209 multiplyer is 11. And I have it running perfectly stable even with hour long sessions of FS, which I found to be an extremely stressing program for memory and cache (when running normal benchmarks like Sandra I can run stable up to 215MHz FSB). So I call that pretty decent, for my 3 year old RAM. I even have differently sized sticks in there (1x512MB, 2x256MB) would you believe that?The only thing is, I did not want to make that suggestion in a Forum where it is likely that people are around that are not that computer savvy. You can induce a lot of problems with stuff like that, which the average user might not be able to handle (computer won't boot, Windows gets corrupted, even the BIOS can go loco). Going the expensive RAM route together with a new Barton which has a guaranteed and tested overclocking potential, there isn't a lot that can go wrong, even if you are a newbee to overclocking and tweaking.Alex

"The only thing is, I did not want to make that suggestion in a Forum where it is likely that people are around that are not that computer savvy. You can induce a lot of problems with stuff like that, which the average user might not be able to handle (computer won't boot, Windows gets corrupted, even the BIOS can go loco). Going the expensive RAM route together with a new Barton which has a guaranteed and tested overclocking potential, there isn't a lot that can go wrong, even if you are a newbee to overclocking and tweaking."In retrospect I think you're right, Alex. Alot of folks could run into trouble trying to get their system to run like yours. In my zealousness to save another simmer some money I offered the idea. Heinz may not even want to deal with the effort of building and overclocking a system like yours and mine. Indeed, there was no great effort (other than the good fortune of having good memory) in overclocking my wife's new system. But again, that was more luck than anything else.Cheers,Greg

Thanks for the ideas guys.Greg, who is saying I

Heinz,please be advised that overclocking can make your system unusable if you don't know what you are doing. In order to find the maximum range of overclocking you will have to crash your system deliberately which always can lead to file corruption. If your computer can't handle the speeds it won't boot. In some cases you will have to use the CMOS reset on your board in order to load the BIOS defaults. The crashes can always lead to corruption of important Windows files. So there is always a risk that you have to reinstall the OS. In some rare cases even the BIOS itself can get corrupted, in this case your machine will be unusable until you plug in another BIOS chip. And hardware can fry when there is too much heat. I hope that is enough of a warning. You still wanna go?Yes, I have PC333 or PC2700 in my computer and Greg in his wife's machine. So it is possible to up the FSB of your machine with the RAM you have in there right now. If you simply increase the FSB you also increase the CPU speed, so you might wanna lower the multiplyer as discussed before. It might be necessary to increase the RAM voltage in the BIOS a little. I always go up in steps of 5 MHz, run a memory/cache benchmark like SiSoft Sandra, then the next 5 MHz. When I run into problems I go down in 1 MHz steps. I always keep a multiplyer that ensures the CPU is running at, or under its specs. After you have found the max. FSB you can start experimenting further with the multiplyer. What you can expect really depends on your hardware and how far it gets, noone can foresee that. I had a very noticable improvement whan going from 166 to 209 FSB. To talk about FPS on a particular system is very vague if you don't know the settings, the addons etc. but believe me the difference will not be subtle. I don't want to write an overclocking guide here as others have done that already much better than I ever could. These guys e.g. have many guides, databases and hints on how to do it:http://www.overclockers.com.Good luck,I am holding my breath :-),AlexP.S.: C what you have done Greg?

"P.S.: C what you have done Greg?"Me bad, Alex!Indeed, Heinz, overclocking your system is not something you'll do quickly. It takes time and alot of effort. While it can be rewarding and boost performance over stock speeds of the equipment, it clearly is not for the faint of heart. It's as much a hobby as simming! :-) And there are no guarantees that your equipment will overclock to your target speeds.But if you do wish to go the overclock route there are plenty of resources to make it possible (one of them is Alex himself).Good luck with your decision,Greg