I myself have an XP2500+ Barton running at the stock clock speed of 1.8Ghz… That’s 166MHz FSB x 11.0 multiplier. If you bump the FSB up to 200MHz, it gives you a full blown XP3200+ at 2.2GHz. (I can’t becuase my ram can’t handle 400MHz, only 333MHz). So, unless you’re good with a conductive pen/paste and aren’t worried about frying your CPU, that’s as high as you can go.
UNLESS, you buy an XP2500+M (mobile) chip. The multipliers on them are unlocked, so you can potentially run something like 200MHz x 13 = 2.6Ghz, which is almost insane. You’re probably wondering how you can do that without having a heatsink the size of Chevy small block sitting in your tower… Well, mobiles run at .25v or so less than Bartons, so by the time you use up that extra voltage, the processor is running at the stock power setting of a Barton anyway… big deal.
I might be wrong about the FSB and Multiplier settings on the mobiles, they may be capped to 166MHz, and you might be able to put the multiplier upto 16 or something… Either way, I know guys running them around 2.6GHz without trouble. Not bad for a ~$120 CAD CPU.
I dont’ think ATI makes a 7600 either… Are you sure?
If you didn’t buy it, you can’t really play it. That is, unless you’re into playing on hacked servers and/or updating to each new crack released for each new STEAM update… You’ll also need to download the game, which is larger than some monthly bandwidth restrictions… but anyway.
Just buy it. For $50-$60 bucks, either Half-Life 2 or CS:Source is well worth the money, and you get both…
