Wondering if you tech-warriors can help me out..

[CHIZZY]

I am looking to now upgrade my cpu from an AMD Athalon xp 1500 to an     
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ / 512KB Cache / 400MHz FSB / Socket A / Barton Core / Processor, found here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=586899&CatId=1953

I have never done a CPU upgrade before, but I have done minor upgrades like new HD, video cards, and assorted pci cards. I have a few questions:

What exactly is involved in this upgrade? Will I be able to do this myself? I don\'t know much about BIOS or anything. The company who put my computer together went out of business, otherwise I would just let them do it, they were great.

I also would like some feedback on where to buy from, I never went anywhere for RAM or HD\'s but my local place.

Thanks in advance. :beer:

I\'ll say this right off the bat: without looking, I\'m near-positive you need a new motherboard to run that CPU. From experience (I once ran an 1800+) I can say the bus speed on the mobo you have is no more than 266MHz. (133x2)

The XP3200+ has at least a 333MHz bus. (it says 400MHz on the site, to confirm that)

So ultimately, given that you\'ll need to upgrade your mobo anyway.. I strongly suggest forgetting the XP 3200+ and going for a Socket 939 Athlon 64 instead.

[CHIZZY]

See, that\'s what I need...thanks, any recommendations on a good mobo? I don\'t want anything crazy, I only run 3 or four programs on my studio comp, but I need to run 2 progs at once. I also have pci usb cards & a pci video card. don\'t need much more than that. I also have 1G ddr ram that I don\'t want to buy again. Essentially, when I\'m running Reason & Ableton together, I\'m currently pushing 40% cpu usage on relatively bare-bones setups...(not running a ton of effect plug-ins, using economized reverbs, etc..) I\'d like to cut that down a bit...otherwise, I\'m cool. Do you think trying to up my RAM to 2G would chill out the CPU?

1GB of DDR will do you well.

As far as mobos go.. I\'d go for the A8N-SLI (since it\'s cheaper now) but given your non-gaming (?) situation I\'m a little perplexed as to what the cheapest mobo/CPU combo is for the price.. and if you can use your current RAM with it..

What is your RAM? PC133 or PC2100+?

hmm new mobo time, it may have been the best decision to hold off on the graphics card because now you\'re limited to AGP boards instead of PCI-Express.  No biggie, but for upgradability PCI-e is the way to go.

upgrading the cpu/mobo combo should definiltely help though.  Many of the multimedia programs benefit from SSE2/SSE3 instruction sets.

I\'ve been trying to find a decent socket 939 AGP mobo on Newegg but have been generally unsuccessful. :\\

The ABIT AV8 is what I have and newegg still has it.  Very stable skt 939 board, but I can\'t seem to overclock the CPU worth a damn.  I\'m getting ready to upgrade right before or soon after christmas.

Anybody want to buy a BFG 6800GT?

JBean: Is that a PCI-E 6800GT, and if so, how much?

nope, it\'s AGP... making the switch to PCI-E while my AGP card is still worth a decent amount.  Selling the MOBO too.

Ebay it is!

Wait, wait! How much?

i\'m not sure.  They are going anywhere from 230-270 on ebay

How serious are you about buying it?

Not very. I\'ll pass.

If it were PCI-E and under $200, I\'d probably consider it.

JBean just tell him it\'s PCI-e and you\'re $200 richer.

it\'ll probably fit in a PCI-E slot, you just have to push really hard

don\'t worry about any crunching sounds, it means it\'s well seated

Sold!