AMD athlon 3200+ of 2.20 ghz with 512 KB of cache level 2

S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
As some of you may know,my old...I mean VERY old motherboard has old socket A (462 pin) for the CPU.And I know...socket A sucks! (Doesn't matter what ^^ )

Socket A is super old type of the CPU socket and it is almost impossible to buy good processor for socket A.However I don't really feel like buying the whole new system.
My motherboard has old AGP graphic socket (entrance) and recently I spent about 115 dollars for the best AGP graphic card I could find.It is ATI sapphire radeon HD 4650 with 1 GB of memory and it also supports DirectX 10.1 and pixel shader up to even 4.1 version.I still did not try the graphic card,but I am pretty sure it is very good.I also recently bought 3 sticks of RAM memory for about 85 dollars.Each one is 512 MB of RAM memory DDR1.DDR1 is old I know,but my motherboard does not support more than DDR1 and it also does not support more than 1.5 GB of RAM memory.Currently I am still on my old 512 MB of RAM memory.Why?.....I don't know xD
I also upgraded my 40 GB Seagate PATA HDD to 320 GB Seagate SATA HDD.I did not pay anything for that since my brother was using it before,but he got the new one and I took his old one.He said that this 320 GB HDD does not work anymore,but it works in my system perfectly lol.Who cares it's free =D
And of course I got IDE/PATA to SATA converter for 10 dollars so I can connect this 320 GB Seagate HDD to my old motherboard.

Anyway...since I already bought the new graphic card,new RAM memory,new IDE/PATA to SATA converter and got 320 GB Seagate SATA HDD for free to FINALLY upgrade my super MANY years old PC after such as long time,I did not want to spend a LOT of money now by getting a new system.I know it is a lot better to simply buy new PC.It is easier,faster and cheaper,but I am one of those who upgrades his computer every 20 years and not every 2 like you guys do :P

Anyway...since I already upgraded most of my hardware,I was thinking to also upgrade my old AMD athlon XP 1700+ of 1.4 GHZ processor with a better one.I knew that I would be damn lucky if I even find anything for the CPU socket A and even if I do that it will be pretty expensive.Still it is cheaper than getting a new system so I decided to buy the BEST socket A processor I could find and the best one I found was AMD athlon XP 3200+ of 2.20 ghz with 512 KB of cache level 2.It was about 90 dollars plus 40 dollars for shipping.(Yea...you read it well...40 dollars for shipping...that is what happens when you live here where I live xD)
Plus another 36 dollars for ANOTHER shippment IN my country.That sucks I know...at the end you pay more for shipment than for a component you bought.Oh yea...when I was ordering processor back few weeks ago it said FREE SHIPPING...and you know what I say to that? I say: "Cut the crap :) " If it's free I would not need to pay 76 dollars for "FREE" shipping.

Anyway today I finally got this AMD athlon XP 3200+ 2.20 ghz 512 KB cache level 2 processor.I haven't tried it yet,but will soon.I know that the processor I got today is NOTHING comparing to your processors you have,but this is the best I could find for socket A.

I am not one of those super demanding users.I mostly use computer for programming and watching movies and playing games.Still right now whatever I do I always manage to find a way to make everything work perfectly on my current (super old) configuration so I still did not use ANY of those new components I got INCLUDING the HDD of 320 GB I got for free.
But I noticed that sometimes HD movies lag like hell.Sure I can always compress them in XVID video codec and movies do not lag at all then and the quality is also great.But I kinda got tired of improvizing after 20 years lol.I am not saying I would not be able to do EVERYTHING on my current configuration...I would...I always find a way lol,but after 20 years I just thought it is finally time to upgrade :P :P :P

So...what do you guys and girls think about this processor?Is it good for most stuff like watching HD movies without lag?
Do not forget that I also bought new RAM and the best graphic card I could find plus got better HDD.All that together should hopefuly be enough to watch HD movies without lag :P

Anyway give me your opinions or/and comments or/and experiences about AMD athlon XP 3200+ 2.20 ghz 512 KB cache level 2 processor!

I would like to know what you people think about this processor before I start using it in the next several days =D CAN'T WAIT! =D

Just for the record here is my current and future system configuration:

CURRENT:

-512 MB of RAM DDR1 memory
-Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP graphic card of 64 MB VRAM memory
-AMD athlon 1700+ of 1.47 ghz with 256 KB of cache level 1
-14 years old Seagate IDE/PATA HDD of 40 GB - 5200 rpm

FUTURE:

-1536 MB of RAM DDR1 memory
-ATI sapphire radeon HD 4650 AGP graphic card of 1024 MB VRAM memory
-AMD athlon 3200+ of 2.20 ghz with 512 KB of cache level 2
-5 years old Seagate SATA HDD of 320 GB - 7200 rpm
 
First i would like to start off by commending you for enjoyong your PC by tweaking an upgrading it to the max. That is where we all started at some point and we all sink money into things knowing the ROI maybe poor but that is life.

Back to you first question the XP 3200+ was a great CPU, it beat the crap out of the P4 back in the day clock for clock in gaming but ouside of that im not sure.

In regard to HD video you are gong to come up short in my eyes but only time will tell after you make the install.

I sunk money in a couple of systems just like this when everyone told me it wasn't smart but i had fun with them. Long story short though to eventually meet my goals I sold them many moons ago and invested in new hardware. Hindsight is 20/20 but this would have been a better choice in the end for as well.

Let us know how it performs after you add the new ram, cpu, and gpu!
 
lion149 said:
Back to you first question the XP 3200+ was a great CPU, it beat the crap out of the P4 back in the day clock for clock in gaming but ouside of that im not sure.
Click to expand...

Wow really =D ? AWESOME :P
I mostly use my PC for programming anyway,but when I want to get some rest I like playing games :P Currenty I am playing games such as Half-Life 2,Half-Life 2 episode 1 and 2,Doom 3 (my favorite.I like getting scared like sh!t ^^),Biohazard 4 and believe it or not I also play super old game called Star Wars jedi knight dark forces 2.On my current configuration,those games like Doom 3,Half-Life 2,Biohazard 4 and so on work awesome believe it or not.They do not lag at ALL.There ARE parts where game works a LITTLE BIT slower because of too many textures,but it still doesn't lag at ALL and FPS is pretty good.I adjusted ALL the configurations in the operating system,drivers and games properly and everything works so damn good even with my current configuration.If with my new components (which I will use soon probably) games will be working the SAME,but HD movies would not lag,I would be MORE than satisfied because the way games and everything else currently works,I just cannot complain.So what if I have to put the graphic level to minimum in games and drivers......as long as it works good I am not complaining.I am not one of those who needs to have the BEST ULTRA quality graphic level :P

For example.In Doom 3 game,my FPS is usually 30.Sometimes less,sometimes more (depending on the structure level),but by looking at how the game actually works,I would say it is 45 FPS and not 30 because it works so damn good.And the most important it doesn't lag at all so I guess my current CPU is good more than enough.It works at 20 to 25 to 30 FPS in HUGE rooms with a LOT LOT LOT of textures,but I am pretty sure that the new graphic card will fix that too since it is a LOT better than my current one which is VERY old lol.Still I cannot complain.I would rather have the game work like it does now rather that have 60 or more FPS,but that it lags every time when I jump,duck,shoot or whatever I perform =)

Other games work even better,but I really cannot compalin.Plus I also changed the thermal paste on my many years old graphic card.When I took the fan and cooler off,the thermal paste was not dry...it was not almost even there loooooooooool.It was so damn old that it almost completely disappeared hahaha!And at that point I realized that I should really change the thermal paste.Anyway I removed old thermal paste,put the graphic card,cooler and the fan in a dishwasher (shut up lol),washed it at the highest level and then let it to dry in a hot room for 24 hours.After that I put the new thermal paste,returned back the coolder and the fan and then plug the graphic card back in the AGP slot.Turned on the computer and VIOLA!Temperatures are now a lot better,the fan is not so noisy as it was before and it also spins faster.I then tryed Doom 3 and it worked better.I actually got about 5 FPS more on the SAME places where before I had 5 FPS less.Same applies to other things such as movies etc...

I did of course the same thing for all my other computer components too. ^^

One of the main reasons why I bought new graphic card is because my current graphic card has only pixel shader 2.0 and there is just no way for me to play new games even if I try to emulate newer shaders through software.And the reason why I bought the best CPU I could find is because I just want to watch HD movies without any lags.I kinda got tired of converting each movie to other codecs in order for them to work normal...it takes HOURS for each movie to convert.Now just imaginate how long it would take me to convert an entire serie of 132 episodes xD Like...entire life xD

As for RAM memory...well...if I already upgraded everything,why not that too :P Besides newer games DO require more free RAM resources in order to even work and I kinda got tired of just 512 MB of RAM after so many years not to mention that my PF (virtual RAM memory on the empty HDD space) usage is pretty high and I sometimes have to wait a LOT longer for some operations to complete because free HDD space is never as good as real RAM memory even if you set virtual RAM memory to 4096 MB which is the highest level on 32-bit operating systems.I am not saying it is bad...I always manage to find ways to do ALL the work.I am used to on improvizing anyway :D


claptonman said:
If I could've shipped to your country, I would've sold my 4670 AGP for $100... :(
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man!You have NO IDEA how expensive everything is here where I live.Most of the people do not even have anything to eat of how bad the situation is here.So the thing you pay 100 dollars,I pay 500 dollars for the same thing PLUS the shipping too which is also a LOT.So much about the free shipping ha? xD
Well my laptop 160 GB SATA HDD (which is pretty new btw) died few days ago and of course they don't wanna take it back because my country and law and ESPECIALLY politicians SUCKS,so do you maybe have some cheap laptop SATA HDD? It can be even 100 GB.The thing is...I don't wanna pay another 600 dollars for a simple laptop HDD of just 40 GB where you guys can get HDD of 500 GB for a LOT less than 600 dollars :P Oh yea...plus shipping is almost another 100 dollars.Man...700 dollars for HDD.That sucks!I BARELY bought few laptop HDDs of just 40 GB and they ALL died withing few months and they NEVER EVER wanna take them back!:mad:
Same applies for every other single computer component. :(
My advice: Never come here on vacation =D

LoL next time when you are buying something and you think it is expensive,just add number 500 to it and you will see how lucky you actually are for the difference of me =D


Cheers mates!
 
what country are you in? and i woulda sold you my 2200+ for a decent bit less, and prob need to put some new thermal paste on that cpu if you don't have any
 
Thanks for your offer,but I already have 4 socket A processors.
Maybe if you have a cheap SATA HDD for a laptop of 30 dollars or so maybe I would consider it.The thing is I bought 8 laptop HDDs for a laptop and payed more than 200 dollars for each one and guess what.....they ALL died within 2 months including the new one from 3 days ago.I had a warranty for them,but they did not want to take them back.Bastards!

The thing is I spent TOO MUCH money on laptop HDDs and they ALL died for no reason.Some of them have been used only for a week and also died.
So I decided that I am not paying more than 30 dollars for a laptop HDD from now on.I spent a LOT of money on HDDs.Here in Croatia where I live they were so damn expensive and they all died.I am not paying more than 30 dollars for a freaking HDD from now on.I just want a simple laptop SATA HDD which won't die for no reason lol.And not pay 200 or even 400 dollars for a laptop HDDs like I did here which died in few weeks 0_o!!

So if possible,I would need a simple freaking HDD which won't die for no reason lol.And I am not giving more than 30 dollars for it because I spent more than 1400 dollars on my HDDs here where I live and they all died :mad:

Lol you guys should be happy you don't live here :P Things are a LOT cheaper for you and they at least work.Here it is a LOT more expensive and it works for few weeks and that's it xD And that sucks.Imagine you spent 300 dollars on 100 GB laptpop HDD and that it died after 2 weeks,but you were not able to return it back even with a warranty.Well....that is unforcenately how things work here.And my situation is even worse.I bought them 8 and ALL of them died and I never got my money back.And that is the reason why I decided to never again pay more than 30 dollars for a freaking HDD.Of course here where I live it is impossible to find laptop HDD of 30 dollars even if it's 10 GB big lol.
 
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