athlon xp 2500/2600 barton?

[r00ki3]

I'm going to be building a couple of computers for my cousins and am looking into the xp barton family as they aren't serious gamers. In order to save money, I think I'll overclock a couple of 2500/2600 rather than buying 3200's. I read up on people achieving 3400 speeds with the 2500 and only 3200 speeds with the 2600 because they aren't unlocked. Is this true with all 2600 barton's? Which is more stable? Which is better for silent overclocking (ie produces less heat). And which would you guys recommend?

 

[2thAche]

Not all Bartons are unlocked. It depends on the build week and it's pretty much a crapshoot. ALL Barton MOBILE CPUs are unlocked, but not all motherboards will run them. ASUS A7N8X Ultra boards WILL run a Barton mobile.

Mobile 2500s are good for at least 2.2GHz even undervolted. Because they run undervolted, they'll make less heat and are pretty bulletproof.

I still use mine in my media machine, and have shortcuts using NF2 ClockGen to go between 1.8/333 and 2.2/400 right out of Windows.

The good thing about the "desktop" 2500+ is that even if it's locked, running 200FSB will put you at 2.2GHz, which most of them can run with a nudge in vcore. I've had 3 and they all could do 2.1 stable at stock VCore, and all could do 2.2 with a bump or two in vcore. 2600+s have a higher multi so you'll be stuck with a lower FSB if they can't get a high clock.