Barton Palomino Thoroughbred Athlon MP/XP/ET- ACK!

Ok, well I'm joking about the Athlon E.T. but jeeze, could they make it any more confloosing? It all come from space, now.

What's the difference between the Althon XP and MP? Barton and Thoroughbred?

I think I've settled on an Asus ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe here: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-478&depa=0

and the AMD AMD Athlon XP 2700+ here; http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-342&depa=0

But I want to know whether there is a better processor for this board.
Like...would the XP 2800+ "Barton" give better performance because of the larger 512k cache, even though it's only rated at 2.08 Ghz?
How about the Athlon XP 3000+?

Or...could I get better performance while still staying in the same price range by going to something else? (+$50 max)

Jeeze..I used to be good at this stuff...when I upgraded to 1Ghz T-bird on an Asus A7v133, the choice was easy. Now it's like...reading Chinese..or something...

 

"What's the difference between the Althon XP and MP? Barton and Thoroughbred?"

MP is for multi-processor motherboards. XP is for single-processor motherboards.

The Barton core is newer, runs at a faster FSB speed (333Mhz or 400Mhz) versus the T-bred core (266Mhz or 333Mhz) and they have twice the L2 cache.

"Like...would the XP 2800+ "Barton" give better performance because of the larger 512k cache, even though it's only rated at 2.08 Ghz?
How about the Athlon XP 3000+?"

I would definitely go with a Barton core, but it all depends on what you use the computer for... If you are gaming, then yeah, I'd say go for the Barton, maybe even a 400Mhz Barton if you can spare the extra cash. If you only use it for web surfing, word processing, etc. then you'd probably do better to save the cash and go with a 333Mhz Barton 2500+. They are an excellent value at $80.

Also, don't forget to match the memory speed with your front side bus speed. It won't hurt to get faster memory than your FSB in case you want to upgrade the processor later.

PC3200 = 400Mhz
PC2700 = 333Mhz
PC2100 = 266Mhz

 

you should definetly go Barton if you can afford it. the additional L2 cache and higher FSB do make a bit of a difference.

for example, a 2200+ (thouroughbred B) is by far outperformed by a 2500+ (Barton), yet they have nearly identical clock speeds:

2200+ @ ~1.8ghz (133x 13.5 = 1795.5mhz)
2500+ @ ~1.8ghz (166x 11 = 1826mhz)

i would recommend getting either a 2600+ Barton (be careful, there are 3 versions, only 1 is Barton) or a 2800+ as you can get one OEM for under $90 now.

or, if you have a little extra cash, you may want to opt for a 3000+ or higher with a 400mhz FSB, they also have a slight performance gain over the 333fsb bartons... but not by much.

 

Thank you. I'm not much of a gamer, but I do occasionally. I mostly do music and video recording/processing. Some of it can get quite processor intensive when running realtime sound effects

Did you mean to say you'd reccomend the 2500+ Barton? I can't find a 2600+ Barton processor...
So it sounds like, in any case, the Barton core would be a better "performance drug"

 

Ahh...where can I find one of those Barton 2800+ for under $90?

 

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Ok... my cats somehow managed to submit a post by themselves! lol!

Umm, yes... Bartons are very good for sound editing. Try newegg or maybe a local shop. Make sure you get OEM (but you'll need to get your own heatsink)

 

Just forget the MHz, model, cache and use AMD's rating system.
Like Apple pointed out long ago MHz is only one factor amoung many in system preformance. Intel is finally coming around to this and AMD has been listing its products this way for some time now.
i.e. a 2800 will be faster than a 2200 rated chip from AMD.