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As a happy owner of a Asus A7v133c
Motherboard , I could but not help feel that I was being left behind
in the CPU stakes . My faithful T-bird 1ghz is now a full 1ghz +
behind in the speed stakes , and as for Motherboards , well the
KT333 chipset would seem to be the place to be . Since Im not made
of money , and I was looking for more speed , the cheapest and
easiest option was to buy a new CPU . AMD
XP1700 Actual MHZ for
this cpu is 1466 , with a 11 multiplier ( 11 x 133 = 1466 ) . I cant
but help to mention that a lot of people seem to be having problems
with the XP cpu's and KT133 chipsets . Here is what happened to me ,
and most likely you . On booting the system , it automatically sets
the bus speed to 100mhz ( 1100mhz cpu clock ) . What you have to do
is go into the bios and set your bus speed to 133mhz so that the cpu
will run at the correct speed . XP cpu's run default 133mhz
bus , and likely most KT133 chipset motherboards will not
know this and there fore boot at their default 100mhz bus speed . So
with my MB set to 133mhz bus the cpu is running at the correct speed
, and I have had no problems what so ever . XP1700
vs T-bird 1ghz @ 1066mhz Most of
you already know that the 1700 is not the actual clock speed of the
XP cpu , but rather the level of performance when compared to the P4
cpu . XP1700 ( 1.466mhz ) vs T-bird 1ghz . Thats 400mhz more clock
speed , so lets see what that actually means in real world
performance . Heat
: The XP cpu's are said to run cooler
than their T-bird fore bares , and I must say that this is just the
case . Room temp is 22deg Celsius , the T-bird did some 43deg
Celsius with my Arkua 7528 doing the cooling . Same cooler , same
room temp and this time its the Xp1700 , 41deg Celsius . Thats
400mhz more in clock speed , and 2deg C cooler . 3Dmark2001
: I was getting just under 4000 3Dmark 2001
points with the T-bird set at 8 x 133mhz = 1066mhz . My graphics
card is a GF2 titanium and when OCed to the max will do around 4400
3Dmarks . So with everything at stock clock speeds lets see what the
XP1700 does for my system . 
Well
thats just over 10% in 3Dmark 2001 for a 46% boost in cpu speed ,
and believe it or not , is right on the money for what I was
expecting . Sisoft
Sandra 2001te : Might be time for me to download the latest
ver of sisoft but this will have to do for now . Please only use
these scores to compare the two cpu's in my system as I have a fair
bit of stuff running in the background . T-bird
1ghz @ 1066mhz 
Thats
2976 MIPS in the Dhrystone test and 1464 Mflops in the Whetstone . XP1700
1.466mhz. 
Ok
. thats 4038 MIPS for the Dhrystone test and 2048 Mflops in Whetstone
. CONCLUSION: Compared
to the P4 1.6ghz cpu the XP1700 just kills it in the Dhrystone test
, but in the Whetstone test the margin is much closer . A very good
performance boost all round thank you , a more powerful cpu will
always give your system a performance boost , something
you may not notice from buying a faster HDD , more ram or a slightly
faster graphics card . Buying a faster CPU has always been the
easiest way to upgrade your system , and I must say that it still is
. So if you though that your Asus A7v133c MB wont support a XP cpu ,
now you know different , just remember to set the bus speed to
133mhz . Warning: It
would seem that some retailers ( Sunday computer market stall
holders ) dont want to give you any Warranty when buying a XP CPU
unless you buy a cooler from them at the same time . I told them I
was using the Arkua 7528 but only got a blank stare back and was
told no cooler no warranty . So find one that will sell you the CPU
with warranty without having to buy a new cooler . Overclocking
: I havent tried to
overclock this cpu yet , seriously , its just so much faster than my
old T-bird 1ghz , so Im going to hold of until I unlock the cpu ,
and then see how far I can push this cpu . Updated
: Who am I kidding , I had to see what it
could do , at 140mhz bus I got 1540mhz cpu clock , and with
the graphics card Oced to 291mhz core and 458mhz Mem clock the
3Dmark2001 score was 4877 , 3Dmark2000 gave 9969 marks .
Unfortunately my ram becomes unstable after 140mhz bus speed , so
the only way to find out what it will do is to use faster ram (
pc166 ) or unlock the cpu . Extra voltage to the cpu does not help
at all , so Im rather sure that the limiting factor is my
Pc133 ram . |
