CPU / Memory bus speeds. Worth worrying about?

milltown

No doubt been asked a million times before but, alas, the search function is on holidays.

In my PC I have an Athlon 2400+ with a 266MHz FSB and a gig of PC2700 ram running at 333MHz. Would it be fair to say that things would run a bit sweeter if it was all at 333MHz? Or would I even notice a difference?

It's in a Shuttle along with a 9700pro and an Audigy sound card so obviously heat is a concern and therefore overclocking the cpu is a no no.

Reason I ask, I'm in a fidgety mood and would like to give the PC a bit of a boost without breaking the bank so I'm considering grabbing a Barton core chip off Ebay. Plenty of XP2500+s about but would it be a waste of time going from 2400 to 2500 even with the FSB boost?

Edit: Also forgot to ask - Would I be better getting an older 333 FSB chip or one of the 400Mhz jobbies. Would the speed mismatch twixt CPU and RAM make a difference there?

Khannie

milltown wrote:

Plenty of XP2500+s about but would it be a waste of time going from 2400 to 2500 even with the FSB boost?

I reckon it's unlikely you'd notice the difference.

milltown wrote:

Edit: Also forgot to ask - Would I be better getting an older 333 FSB chip or one of the 400Mhz jobbies. Would the speed mismatch twixt CPU and RAM make a difference there?

Yes, it would. What you're considering is a no-no.

alantc

Cut out the grill at the back and replace the fan. My hdd temp droped from about 50 to about 30.

http://student.dcu.ie/~henryb2/shuttle/0.htm


I'm not bothered overclocking because it would mean a noisier PC and I'd hate that.

milltown

As things stand I'm not worried about temps. PC has been rock solid since I put it together and rarely gets turned off. At one stage I had been meaning to "de-grille" it, but I forgot.

When I got it I experimented with a number of different fans. The standard one was always the quietest and the few degrees temp drop wasn't worth it for the others. That was back when I bought it with the intention of overclocking. I've since realised that toasting the insides made no discernible difference to anything other than meaningless benchmark scores. And reliability.
Now I mostly want peace.

milltown

Jaysis! Page three already. This board moves too quick.

Minor bump needed I think.

unkel

milltown wrote:

It's in a Shuttle along with a 9700pro and an Audigy sound card so obviously heat is a concern and therefore overclocking the cpu is a no no

Well, the best value for money upgrade that will give you a significant increase in performance imho is:

1. Buy a Barton 2500+ 400Mhz second hand here on boards and sell your 2400+ (€25)
2. Buy a gig of PC3200 ram and sell your PC2700 ram (should cost you very little to swap - €15)
3. Get slightly better airflow in your shuttle case and replace the fan (€10?)
4. Overclock the Barton to a 3200+ (most take this very well, with only minimal extra heat - mostly without even a higher vcore!) (€0)

Total costs: €50 provided you can procure the parts

Mutant_Fruit

New motherboard that supports the new processor.. at least €50.

unkel

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

New motherboard that supports the new processor.. at least €50.

Well, if the shuttle mobo doesn't support 400Mhz FSB (OP didn't state what mobo he has), there's not much point in upgrading at all...

I guess a new SFF mobo (mini-ATX) for the shuttle would be a lot more than €50