I am wondering which I would get better performance out of... not OCed AMD XP 2700+ ($110) and 3 x 128mb Crucial pc2700 RAM or OEM AMD XP 2500+ ($80) OCed to 200 x 11 and good HSF ($30) and 512mb pc3200 crucial ram ($80) www.linuxteens.com

The 2500 will run as a 3200 @200FSB so it will be faster.

second both faster cpu and ram providing you can o/c it and keep temps down Athlon xp 2500+ @2.17 pc 3200 512mb ram radeon 9200se win xp home oem

Yes but will it really make a difference. I mean the OCed 2500 (11 x 200=2.2ghz) is only slightly faster than the 2700 (at 2.17ghz). So I guess the real question is which is better: 768mb pc2700 RAM or 512mb pc3200 RAM. eskiled www.linuxteens.com

The 2700 is running out of spec though. The 2500 isn't a real overclock persay. You are running all the busses at spec. The only thing you are doing is changing the FSB setting for the CPU. If the processor is up to it, which most are, this is no different than if you bought a 3200XP. The other system may be running the busses out of sync. If so, that is hard on the components, especially the HD.

"The 2700 is running out of spec though." How so? "The other system may be running the busses out of sync. If so, that is hard on the components, especially the HD." I dont even know what that means. Please explain. Thanks so far, keep it coming though eskiled :) www.linuxteens.com

The PCI bus specs call for 33MBs/sec. AGP is 66MBs/sec. Both of these busses are factors of the FSB. A example of what can happen is this. When you raise the FSB from say 166 to 176 you may be raising the PCI bus from 33 to 35. This is because the PCI in this can runs at 1/5th the FSB. Once you get the PCI bus to 37 or 38 many harddrives start balking at even running. Even if they do run, gradual data corruption can occur do to timing issues. There are some MBs that attempt to lock the AGP bus and possibly the PCI. I am not sure of this. When using the 2500XP processor meantioned above the processor normally runs a 166FSB x 11. When you set to 200FSB x 11 all the other busses run at spec. The divisors simply change. This is done automatically by the MB. All you are doing in this instance is running the processor at a frequency it was designed to run at but wasn't tested for. There is a small possibility the processor isn't up to the task and therefore will either need more voltage, or won't boot at all. The only other issue is this. You are in effect running a 3200XP. Therefore you need to supply suffiecent cooling for that processor, not for a 2500XP. There are many folks that ARE using the retail HS/fan for the 2500XP and running the FSB @200. Hope this explains it for you.