Athlon XP 3000+: How good/fast is it REALLY?

[BurninMan921]

OK, Newegg has Athlon XP 3000+'s for $166 (retail versions!).

Now, I know some of the mid-range XP ratings are actualy pretty close to being true, and that the 3200+ is NOT deserving of that lable. I know that the 64 3000+ is a great chip. But, how does the XP 3000 fair? I know it (and all Athlons, including the 64) just suck at any media encoding, but oh well.

Since a good (ie, Asus) nForce mobo is well under $100, that makes the XP look pretty good - if it can keep up with a good Pentium 4 (got a 2.6C now).

Basically, here's my "mini summary" of CPU performace (please correct me if I'm wrong), from lowest-to-highest:
Gaming: XP,P4,64
General:P4,XP,64
Multimedia: XP,64,P4

Edit: oh yeah...this won't be for me. This is for a friend; I still think the Athlon 64 is by far the best CPU out now for the stuff I want to do. And since I use Linux, and have the 64-Bit edition already, I just gotta wait for the new mobos/socket type to come out. And for you Windoze Athlon 64 users, head over to AMD's site and look at the section on the Atlon 64; they have a link to a free, 1 year "trail" version of Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (umm, hoxlund, got anything that'd "help out" that release? )...

[Boba_Fett]

I know it (and all Athlons, including the 64) just suck at any media encoding, but oh well.

This is BS. I encode TONS of media with my Athlon XP systems and they crank it out just as fast as (and sometimes faster than) an equal P4 equiped machine. Anyways, at this point I wouldn't consider getting a non-Athlon 64 unless you're going for the Athlon XP 2500+ Mobile (which OCs like mad).

[BurninMan921]

Hmm...interesting. About how long does it take your system to do DivX->DVD (or something similar)?

This thing'll be a "budget" system; so A64's are out. Besides, the person this is for doesn't do anything CPU intensive very often. A few games, here and there. The XP 2500+ is nice and cheap, but a 3000+ would have a bit more punch...

[gigabyte]

dumb question, but had to ask:

what's the XP 3000 equivilent to in gigahertz?
what about the Athlon 64?

Which of the 2 are faster? can they both be overclocked? to around what?

i need answers!

[BurninMan921]

The Athlon 64's are supposed to be fairly overclockable.

The Athlon XP 3000+ is about equal to a 3.0GHz Pentium 4; however, the Athlon 64 3000+ is a bit faster across than the XP across the board. It is a bit confusing, that's for sure.

If you run a 64-Bit OS (like Linux, or the 64-Bit edition of Windows XP (trail version is out now), then you'll see a performance boost. How much? Well, Mandrake claims about 20%. With Windows, it'd be less, since only the OS itself is 64-bit. With Linux, all the software is also 64-bit (score one for open source! With the source code you can recompile for any CPU).


Right now the best cost/performance "combo" would appear to be this:

CPU: Athlon XP 2800+ ($121 @ newegg)
Mobo: MSI K7N2-V nForce2 400 ($57 @ newegg).

I was surprised to see an nForce2 mobo for that price! The "Ultra" version is $70. No Serial ATA on those el-cheapo boards, though. But for the system this is intended for, that's isn't too big of a deal. The Abit NF7-S is $102 and DOES have S-ATA; plus it's an Abit

Man, I'm turning into a Pentium 4 hater; before the A-64, I'd never even CONSIDER an AMD. Well, not since Thunderbirds anyway-those rocked!

[BurninMan921]

gigabyte, for the BEST info on overclocking go here:
http://www.overclockers.com/

They have a CPU database that shows you what people have gotten each CPU type overclocked too. Quite handy!

[gigabyte]

would it not be worth the extra $50 for the 3000 over the 2800? also, does this mean that it is not overclockable?

do the model numbers reflect the speed, so 2800 would be equivalant to 2.8 gigahertz and 3000 would be equivalent to 3.0 gigahertz?

[BurninMan921]

The XP numbers are ABOUT equal to a Pentium 4 at that speed; ie, the 2800 is about a like a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, the 3000 is about like the 3.0GHz P4.

The difference between the 2800+ and the 3000+ isn't really that much; if you've got the $50, yeah, go for it.

Keep in mind, however, that AMD has released an Athlon 64 2800+. It's not yet available to order though. It'd be best to get one of those over the XP 3000+, imho.

The XP 3000+ is a 2.16GHz chip; according to the above website, the average overclock is 2496Mhz; what that is equal to I have no idea. Probably 3700+ or so??

And there areTWO versions of the Athlon XP 3000+:
A 2.16GHz, 333Mhz FSB version and a 2.1GHz, 400MHz FSB version. I've only seen the retail bundle for the 333MHz FSB version, though.

This whole PR rating stuff is confusing; but even Intel is moving to something similar soon. No more MHz race. Now it's slower clocked, multi-core CPU's more like the Centrino or Athlon....

[Boba_Fett]

Hmm...interesting. About how long does it take your system to do DivX->DVD (or something similar)?

This thing'll be a "budget" system; so A64's are out. Besides, the person this is for doesn't do anything CPU intensive very often. A few games, here and there. The XP 2500+ is nice and cheap, but a 3000+ would have a bit more punch...

I don't do much Divx anymore (used to take me like 3 and 1/2 hours I think). I mainly do xvid and downsize (transcode) DVD-9 movies to fit on a DVD-5. I got a buddy with a 3ghz (OC'd to 3.5ghz) P4 800mhz memory blah blah and my Athlon XP 2500+M OC'd to 2.4ghz beats his proc in just about everything. Heh, he probably spent at least $500 more on his similarly equiped machine than I did You could just go with a regular Athlon XP 2500+ (I think they're around $80). With some PC3200 DDR you could probably get up to 3200+ speeds (around 2.2ghz). I believe newegg has some good quality PC3200 512mb Geil DDR for only +-$80.

P.S. I have the NF7-S from Abit and they kick ASS! The best motherboard I've ever owned

[BurninMan921]

Well, this system won't be overclocked. Heck, the person I'm building it for has been running (and is quite happy with) the GeForce2 in his system; actually, I think that the video card is a bit "overpowered" for him

I may just recommend he grab a 2800+ or a 3000+ XP for the Socket 754 (the current Athlon 64 platform). AMD's phasing it out (for the high-end, anyway. Not for mid-range!), and since they're be releasing the 2800/3000/3200 Athlon XPs for it I think that it would be a good "budget performance" machine now, plus still be easily upgradable to the Athlon 64 3700+ whenever he actually feels the need for it.

But for pure bang-for-the-buck, you can't beat the XP 2500+!!