I'm going to buy a new CPU/Motherboard/RAM soon, and I want a setup which can overclock nicely. At the moment I've got an Athlon XP 1800+ overclocked up to a 2000+. But because the CPU is locked, and the motherboard doesnt support increasing the CPU multipliers anyway I'm only overclocking by increasing the FSB to 145 instead of 133. The CPU I'd like is one which is easy to unlock, overclocks quite well, and I'll obviously need a M/Board which supports altering the CPU Multipliers too. My price range is around £150 ($230) for the CPU and Motherboard. I'm really only interested in Athlons rather than a Pentium 4, generally due to lower price, even though I've heard that Pentiums overclock better than Athlons. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Go buy yourself a Barton 2500+ if your motherboard supports it. It can overclock to a 3200+ safely

Like many forums, this one is no difference that there are more AMD fans than Intel, 5:1 in favor of AMD. Primiarily due to pricing and unlock multi AMD offers. Yet, Intel processor is selling at the same 5:1 ratio over AMD if not more. There is more confident in buying a second handed P4 than a second handed XP Athlon (would you buy a used Athlon?). Intel is so screwed up they have three generation chipset / socket change in two years which opens up a lot of "cheap" motherboard (you can get one for less than $50). The 1.6A and 2A could go 1ghz overclock. The 1.8A could easily reach 2.5 ghz, with lots of 2nd handed boards and CPU. I expect many will disagree with me.

Sure you can overclock some yesterday pentiums for cheap, but can you oc any pentium to the speeds of the best chip. i.e. a P4 2.4 to 3.2. Maybe, but not cheap. Where talking about oc'ing the 2500+ to 3200+(easily). Effectively, I would say this is fast and cheap(and new). Anyways, I've heard great oc stories about both the 2700+ and the 2500+. I have an abit nf7-s w/2500+. It was $200 for all. The abit is good 'cept the nforce bios problems, but that's for all nforce. I fried one, but recovered it. dark.

Before you overclock, I would first buy more RAM. 128MB RAM is not enough to run modern application and games. Get at least 256MB. I would buy the Athlon 2500+ barton and o/c to 3200+ if you dont have to buy a motherboard. Otherwise, I dont think you have enough $$$ to buy both Barton 2500+ more memory and a new mobo, which could cost upto $300 level.

TMP-Man, it says. "My price range is around £150 ($230) for the CPU and Motherboard." its only for mobo and CPU not including the new memory so it won't cost $300. :) but as TMP-MAN said, if buying new memory it'll cost upto $300 level. Or you can add another 128MB RAM so the total be 256MB, so you might can get them all under 300.