I'm about to make a purchase, but I'd like to double check before forking over $190.

I currently have an Athlon 2100+, and would like to upgrade to the 3200+.

The question is, will I see a difference in speed, and how much? For instance, I do a good amount of video conversion (AVI to MPEG2), and would love to speed that process up. Would I see a significant increase in speed? Would it help immensely if I got faster RAM? I believe I have generic PC2700 in there now. I'd be going for some fast, Crucial branded memory.

So, should I go for the upgrade, or should I wait until the next generation and start from scratch?

Well, going off marketing clock speeds, it's jumping 1100. Thats a smidge over a 50% jump, in theory. Will you notice that difference, probably, but there is a good chance it won't be as big as you are hoping for.

My system upgrades tend to be quite large and the difference is easy to see. I went from a 300 Celeron -> 433 Celeron laptop -> P3 800 desktop then decided the quick upgrades were getting expensive. I then held onto the 800 until 2 years ago, jumping to a 2.26 P4. My next jump I plan on getting an Athlon 64 4000+ sometime next year, along with a new video card and such.

I'd like to do that, but I'm hesitant to go 64 yet, as I don't like the idea of replacing the motherboard at this point. Heck, I might anyway, but I want to wait until they've set on a configuration which will allow me to be sure that a year or two later, if I only want to upgrade the processor, I can. Is that the case yet?

This sounds much like the upgrade that I was planning for myself (3200+ and a GB of DDR400) until I realized that I don't do anything with this machine that warrants it. But if you have the money...

The actual jump in clock speed isn't very much (1.73GHz -> 2.2GHz). But there is also the front side bus speed, too. A jump from 266MHz to 400MHz, especially if you pick up a pair of DDR400 sticks along with the CPU, will certainly make a difference.

Will it be noticeably faster? I think so. But whether or not you will be happy with that can only be determined after you purchase it or decide to wait for something better to come along.

It's a trade-off I deal with all the time - desire versus impatience.

Are you sure your mobo can handle a 3200? Most boards that would have come with a 2100 a year or two ago are unlikely to be able to take a 3200. Power supply and FSB are the likely limitations. Most older boards simply won't have the 400MHz FSB (actually 200 I think isn't it but double pumped?)

Over the past 15 years, it has become very apparent to me that, for an upgrade to have a really noticeable effect, it must involve new CPU, new mobo, and new memory.

As much as we all wish and pine for a simple CPU replacement to have a massive impact, it just doesn't happen that way.

But a new 10000rpm WD Raptor drive.. now *that's* an upgrade (but noisy).

Cheers

Thanks, guys, I think I've been convinced enough not to get it. I suppose I knew I wouldn't get the giant leap I was looking for, but I still wanted to check.

Have things sorted themselves out in the 64bit arena yet?

Oh, and yes my motherboard would have supported it. It's an A7N8X, and while the eariler ones didn't come with support for the full range of processors, the firmware upgrade I did makes it possible.

Thanks again. Now I just have to decide whether I spend my money on the next gen of this stuff, or get some of those TV-on-DVD box sets I've been wanting