AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Retro Build

[eidairaman1]

Yeah thought you might have been. No worries. Sry matey.

No worries, its all good. Lol

 

[storm-chaser]

New motherboard has arrived!!! Moar eye candy… here are some of parts I've assembled for this build.

Athlon XP in it's new home, ready to crunch some numbers!

New Motherboard has arrived!

Yes sir, latest revision board (2.0)

Back of the box listing features (sorry about the glare):

My original Creative Labs Dxr2 DVD-ROM drive from 2004

Found a couple old video cards to try out:

Found a 2GB kit of DDR PC3200 CL3:

Dxr3 Decoder card to go along with my Creative Labs DVD

 

[MrGenius]

Not quite true mate. They made a HD 2600 XT AGP. Got one here if you wana see? They are hard to find! The X1950 Pro is faster tho ; )

Actually...

The last 3 Radeon AGP cards were:

HD 4350 AGP (released 9-29-2008)
HD 4650 AGP (released 5-18-2009)
HD 4670 AGP (released 8-18-2009)

Between those and the HD 2600 XT AGP were the HD 3000 series AGP cards(3450, 3650, 3850).

EDIT: Here's what I'm running in my retro rig.

Fully stable overclocked to a little better than a stock 4670 AGP(6.0 GPixel/s 24.0 GTexel/s)

 

[Bones]

New motherboard has arrived!!! Moar eye candy… here are some of parts I've assembled for this build.

Athlon XP in it's new home, ready to crunch some numbers!
View attachment 110638

New Motherboard has arrived!
View attachment 110639

Yes sir, latest revision board (2.0)
View attachment 110640

Back of the box listing features (sorry about the glare):
View attachment 110641

My original Creative Labs Dxr2 DVD-ROM drive from 2004
View attachment 110642

Found a couple old video cards to try out:
View attachment 110643
View attachment 110644

Found a 2GB kit of DDR PC3200 CL3:
View attachment 110645

Dxr3 Decoder card to go along with my Creative Labs DVD
View attachment 110646

The BIOS files I posted will work with that board - Go for it.

 

[storm-chaser]

The BIOS files I posted will work with that board - Go for it.

EDIT: I found them on page 4. Thanks! Look forward to trying them out.

 

[Bones]

With a good chip, RAM and cooling at least 230 on the bus is expected - Doesn't sound like alot but then again the board isn't exactly setup for heavy OC'ing anyway - However one of mine has hit 240 before and it's still capable of it now. The other one gets at least 235 with a good chip and RAM itself.

You'll also see an extra NB voltage selection too, I believe in truth it's more of a "Placebo" selection but still use it (1.9v's).

I will say since the board has OV protection, modding it can be done but there is no way to get around it.
The OV protection kicks in when the CPU goes over 2.0v's so if a CPU volt mod is done, getting around 1.95v's for the CPU is all you can expect to get but it does give 1.85v's as is, RAM voltage is 2.9v's.

 

[storm-chaser]

Thanks Bones! Your advice is all I could ever ask for and more. I think my 80mm copper cooler, CL 2.5 gskill ram and a CPU with late stepping and build date (0439) will afford me some breathing room in terms of the overclock.

Again, nothing too crazy I'm just looking to have a little fun tweaking and tuning and I want to protect my precious vintage equipment. I think for the most part, this is going to be a system I actually use from time to time and I won't just look at it and call it good after build completion.

Just ordered up this SSD drive, we are getting there...

 

[hat]

I think an overclocked 478 build would be interesting as well...

 

[storm-chaser]

I think an overclocked 478 build would be interesting as well...

478 doesn't interest me near as much. The Athlon XP is much closer to my heart if that makes any sense. This is a nostalgia build, 100%.

 

[Keullo-e]

Though HT is interesting at its first implemention. I remember P4 HT being the only singlecore processor which runs Crysis on Vista without chopping audio.

 

[storm-chaser]

Figured if Im going all out I might as well jump for a new case...

 

[Susquehannock]

I think an overclocked 478 build would be interesting as well...

478 doesn't interest me near as much. The Athlon XP is much closer to my heart if that makes any sense. This is a nostalgia build, 100%.

Same here. Socket 462 interests me much more. Yet I have been toying with idea for while now building same era socket 478 system to do some comparisons. Prices on that hardware has not skyrocketed near much as the AMDs. nForce2 values are through the roof.

I believe AMD's motivation for numbering their CPUs as they did was to address the performance per mhz disparity between the two. 1467mhz 1700+ because it performed on par with 1700mhz P4 and so on.

Some may remember the CPU war of that era. Intel was accused of all sorts of dirty tricks. Encouraging benchmark makers to favor their side. Back door dealings with hardware manufacturers to ensure drivers favored their platforms. Controversy that persists even with modern hardware to this day.

 

[agent_x007]

View attachment 110647

Fully stable overclocked to a little better than a stock 4670 AGP(6.0 GPixel/s 24.0 GTexel/s)

If it used GDDR3 or DDR3...
Anything over HD 2600 XT/X1950 Pro will be CPU on Socket A bound in almost every case.

 

[storm-chaser]

You know, it's a shame Cyrix went out of business so early in the CPU game. I think it would have been cool to see more competition which would have driven more innovation on the CPU development front. Even though we have seen some amazing CPUs from both intel and AMD, I think there was more left on the table and it's just to bad Cyrix couldn't capitalize on that.

Looking back on my own build history, I think my very first build was a Pentium 133 in 1999, followed by an AMD K6 2 450 in 2001. I then moved to the Athlon XP platform in 2004.

I still have my pentium 133 from those days (actually, I recently fired it up for the first time in about 15 years). For your viewing pleasure, ladies and gentlemen:

 

[Mr.Scott]

Socket 462 interests me much more. Yet I have been toying with idea for while now building same era socket 478 system to do some comparisons. Prices on that hardware has not skyrocketed near much as the AMDs. nForce2 values are through the roof.

Best overclocking socket 478 board is a P4C800-E. Try to find one. Price will be no different than a good NF2 board. Maybe more.

 

[Susquehannock]

Best overclocking socket 478 board is a P4C800-E. Try to find one. Price will be no different than a good NF2 board. Maybe more.

True. Those ASUS are the one to have. Up there with the NF7-S and DFI lan party. Pricing seems to have changed a lot since I last looked several months ago.

 

[MrGenius]

If it used GDDR3 or DDR3...
Anything over HD 2600 XT/X1950 Pro will be CPU on Socket A bound in almost every case.

They've been made. But good luck finding one.
http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-480.shtml

DX10.1, OGL 2.1 and SM 4.1 support. It can matter. And is why you'd want to have a newer card regardless of a CPU(or other) bottleneck. Not to mention the lack of VRAM. Which can be an even bigger problem.

 

[eidairaman1]

If it used GDDR3 or DDR3...
Anything over HD 2600 XT/X1950 Pro will be CPU on Socket A bound in almost every case.

Didn't affect me. I was playing COD4 with 2 game file extensions changed.

 

[Outback Bronze]

P4C800-E

Didn't like the IC7-MAX3?

 

[agent_x007]

Didn't affect me. I was playing COD4 with 2 game file extensions changed.

You didn't experience FPS increase in line with CPU OC ?

 

[neatfeatguy]

I myself want to go back to that Era. I had the AMD ATHLON 2000+ 1.7 OC'd to 1.9 with 2GB RAM with GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x and a 420W PSU XP running it. May go back in time as my G'Pa left me a old hp but the case is heavy...

I had my Athlon X2 3800+ (Windsor) OC'ed from 2.0GHz to 3.1GHz.

I kind of got hooked on OC'ing my CPUs initially. I was so pumped about what my 939 socket Windsor chip could achieve, I moved to a X2 5800+ (Brisbane). When I couldn't get that CPU to run stable over 3.4GHz I was heartbroken. The system would boot all the way upwards of 3.9GHz, but the second core wouldn't run stable over 3.4. I was hoping for about a 50% increase over the stock speeds, like I was able to achieve on my Windsor chip......but I couldn't even break a 10% OC. I stopped caring about how well my CPU could OC, but it never stopped me from pushing them when I could.

 

[Keullo-e]

I moved to a X2 5800+ (Manchester).

Manchester was a 90nm S939 single-core, dual-core chip with one core disabled.

 

[hat]

I had my Athlon X2 3800+ (Windsor) OC'ed from 2.0GHz to 3.1GHz.

I kind of got hooked on OC'ing my CPUs initially. I was so pumped about what my 939 socket Windsor chip could achieve, I moved to a X2 5800+ (Manchester). When I couldn't get that CPU to run stable over 3.4GHz I was heartbroken. The system would boot all the way upwards of 3.9GHz, but the second core wouldn't run stable over 3.4. I was hoping for about a 50% increase over the stock speeds, like I was able to achieve on my Windsor chip......but I couldn't even break a 10% OC. I stopped caring about how well my CPU could OC, but it never stopped me from pushing them when I could.

The first rig I overclocked was an AM2 system featuring an Athlon64 x2 5200+. Default speed was 2.6, I could get max 2950 before bad things happened. It would not go over 3GHz no matter what. This was the older F2 stepping chip, though, not the newer F3 that could go over 3GHz.

 

[Bones]

For 939 a Manchester is a dual core, the single core version of it being a Venice.
X2 5800 is obviously AM2.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Didn't like the IC7-MAX3?

Not particularly. Had a couple of them. The P4C800's out performed them every time.