AMD Barton upgrade?

[Alec]

I'd like to economically upgrade my PC. Don't do much gaming these days but when I do it tends to be FPS and flight sims(partically IL2).

Currently have:
XP2000/KX400+ board/512Mb 333Mhz RAM/ATI 9600 128Mb

Is is worth me putting in a XP3000 Barton 333Mhz in the board(the max it will take). Would the performance be worthwhile for £100 or less? I believe the XP2000 runs FSB of 266Mhz so the XP3000 is obviously clocked faster and has a higher FSB at 333Mhz?

I've had a trawl of Future Marks online result browser but it's not conclusive :confused:

[Sibbers]

it will definitely make your PC noticably faster... I'd probably do it :)

[sham]

i wouldnt bother tbh... spend £150 on a radeon 9800 pro off ebuyer will do you much more good- going from 1.4 athlon to 2.6xp i didnt notice a hell of a lot of difference -well nothing like the difference between 100->266mhz -> 500mhz... just seems less of a step up upgrading these days. prob more emphasis on ram and graphics seeing as though a 1ghz can do most office stuff these days with ease. I dunno it might just be the stuff I do on mine but thats my observation anyway.

[Sibbers]

i wouldnt bother tbh... spend £150 on a radeon 9800 pro off ebuyer will do you much more good- going from 1.4 athlon to 2.6xp i didnt notice a hell of a lot of difference -well nothing like the difference between 100->266mhz -> 500mhz... just seems less of a step up upgrading these days. prob more emphasis on ram and graphics seeing as though a 1ghz can do most office stuff these days with ease. I dunno it might just be the stuff I do on mine but thats my observation anyway.

Depends really but the rule is generally this: if you want higher resolutions then spend the cash on your graphics card. if you want faster frame rates then spend it on the CPU. if you're serious you wouldn't do one without the other anyway.

I guess its subjective but I think that the CPU is the better buy bringing better performance all round. The 9600 is still a capable card and will run about any game made quickly at 1024x768x32.

[M pro]

Ever thought of overclocking?

If that AMD 2000xp of yours is a B core it will overclock easily to 3200xp speeds if your mems up to the task

Then you could spend the money on a 9800pro and really see your computer fly

[Alec]

Not really keen on overclocking as I plan to donate my CPU/RAM/Board to my parents in 6 months or so. But just out of interest how do I determine if my CPU has a B core? My memory is 2 x 256Mb Samsung PC2700 sticks.

Wasn't that long ago that I upgraded to the 9600 128Mb so I can't really justify replacing it at the moment.