An Amazing Processor for an amazing price...
Written: Sep 07 '05 (Updated Dec 21 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, Smooth, and Reliable...
Cons: None so far...
The Bottom Line: Not so expensive 64-Bit processor...
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| vchand's Full Review: AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 2.0 GHz (ADA3200BPBOX) AMD Pr... |
The AMD Athlon 64 3200+ is the smoothest and fastest processor that my I could afford at this point in time (this system is for my wife). I will try my best to get all of the most helpful information on this review, but I may still miss some information.
QUESTIONS I ASKED BEFORE MAKING THE PURCHASE :
These are the five most important questions I ask myself before I purchase processors or other parts for my computer:
1. How fast it is? (speed/frequency)
2. How much is it?
3. What else do I need with it? (motherboard/memory/etc)
4. What do the benchmarks say? (similar brands and models)
5. Where to purchase it from? (online/offline)
1. The speed is important because that is the 90 percent of the reason I would even consider purchasing it. I want to know how it will increase the performance of my computer and what kind of applications or games will take full advantage of it. I want to know what this processor is specially designed for; games or applications?
2. The price is the second thing I look for when deciding on purchasing a processor because I want to know that I can afford it before I invest any more time in researching about it. I want to look at the MSRP and the retail price for online and offline stores that I can trust.
3. Now if it is in my price range I will research and see if I need to replace my existing motherboard and memory sticks. I also want to know if it will be compatible with my operating system. I want to know if it will support my current hardware setup.
4. After research online and some google searches, I find some reliable benchmark results to see how the processor compares with other brands of the same class or even other models of the same brand. Just to see if I can get a lower model and still get what I want. It will never hurt to just find out.
5. The last of all is deciding where to purchase the processor from. I looked at tigerdirect.com, newegg.com, Circuitcity, CompUSA, and Frys Electronics and found that newegg.com was the cheapest and the most reliable store I would purchase from.
INSTALLATION :
The installation was as easy as always when it comes to AMD processors. I purchased the Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard again to go with this processor since I already have a system that uses it and plus it is after all an Asus. The easy installation guide that is in the box comes in handy if you are doing this for the first time. The guide clearly guides you step-by-step on what to do to properly install you processor.
After installing the processor, you can either choose to install the stock heat sink (which is also perfectly good if you do not plan to overclock) or one of you favorites that will keep you processor cool and performing at its best. One tip I would like to give you if you are planning to install it yourself; use Arctic Silver thermal grease when installing the heatsink.
Now when you boot-up for the first time with this processor, you would probably have to clear your CMOS to make sure you start out with a clean system. Then just install your operating system or if you already have an operating system install, just boot up. One thing to keep in mind when booting for the first time is to keep an eye on the processor temperature (especially if you used a different heatsink and overclocked).
I knew that this motherboard requires certain memory sticks because of the problem I had the first time I installed on my own system (AMD Athlon 64 4000+). I did not want to have the same problem again.
THE FEATURES I LIKE :
Two of the features I like the most are AMD's Cool N' Quiet and Enhanced Virus Protection technologies.
The Cool N' Quiet technology helps to reduce noise and power consumption by the processor. It automatically throttles the processor speed along with a thermally controlled heatsink fan(s). When the processor is not being used that much, it reduces the processor and the heatsink fan(s) speed to reduce the amount of heat and noise this is produced by the processor and the fan(s).
The Enhanced Virus Protection technology is only on AMDs Athlon 64 processors. It is designed to prevent many viruses from infecting your computer. Enhanced Virus Protection works together with Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Windows XP. When enabled the operating system watches for a lot of activities that often imply a virus has infected the computer.
Other than these two newer technologies the processor supports the standard Athlon 64 features including SSE2, a 1000MHz (up and down stream) Hypertransport link to motherboard, integrated dual channel memory controller, 8 extra 64-bit registers and other very useful features.
MY EXPERIENCE :
I have had this processor for about four weeks now and it has not yet given me any problems. It does not overheat (I did not overclock yet) ever. I did notice a great difference in speed from my old AMD Athlon XP 2500+ system I had a while back.
I did not perform any benchmarks on this processor, so I would not be able to provide any scores. All I can say is that it felt faster and smoother than the Athlon 2500+ so I would assume that the scores would have been a bit higher also. My old AMD Athlon XP 2500+ used to get around 6573 for 3DMark 03 and 1678 on 3DMark 05 (actual data). These benchmarks are accurate as of September 10th, 2005.
My wife’s new system computer runs way faster than my old Athlon 2500+ and provides me with the capability of 64-bit computing for the future. I have installed Windows XP Pro SP2 on this new computer and this processor does not even blink.
SOME SPECIFICATIONS :
Front Side Bus Speed: 1000 MHz
Processor Type: Athlon 64
Socket Type: Socket 939
Architecture: 90 nanometers
Clock Speed: 2.0 GHz
Performance Index: 3200+
L2 Cache Size: 512 KB
L1 Cache Size: 128 KB
Platform: PC
MY FINAL THOUGHTS :
I used to have an Intel Pentium based computer (my first computer) that my data bought back in 1998. It was fast (133MHz); at that time it was a state of the art computer. In 2003, I finally got tired of that old guy and decided it was time for me to upgrade to a much faster computer, so I built my very first system (2.2GHz); which was the fastest in its time. Then just about a month ago, I upgraded again to 2.4GHz (do not be fooled by the technical difference). It is only a 200 MHz upgrade technically, but when you use it, you will feel like there is a 1 GHz difference. After a lot of requests/orders from my wife, I finally built her this computer for her to use for her computing needs. My wife has not complained about any speed problems or the system hanging for any reason. I have noticed that the computer boots up really fast, programs startup quickly, and the Low-Fi games run smooth as ever. And on top of that, this system is ready for the future with 64-Bit capability. Are you ready for the future?
SOME OF MY RELATED REVIEWS :
Asus A8V Deluxe
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AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU
AMD Sempron 3000+ CPU
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Preventative maintenance for your PC…
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Copyright vchand 2005, All rights reserved.
Recommended:
Yes
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vchand
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Member: Vic
Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 170
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