Keeping up with the Joneses...

[GHoosdum]

So I recently upgraded to an Asus A7N8X deluxe with XP2100+ (oc'ed to XP2700+ speeds) and 1 GB PC2700 DDR... now my friend is making moves like he wants to build a new system. He's running a PIV 1.7GHz system. He'll probably upgrade past me. Now therein lies the rub... I don't want him to outfold me. Right now he's got 2 PIV 2GHz's and his 1.7GHz folding for our team (Yeah, I'm a member of Team 93 also) and I've got my 2 XP rigs folding for that team... well if he builds a new system it will be an AMD also, and I suspect I won't be able to out-fold him anymore. What should I do? Keep in mind I definitely can't afford to stay on the "bleeding edge" but I was thinking of buying a Barton and OC'ing to 400FSB on a new nF2 board (even though I'm still broke!)... opinions are highly welcome!

[danball1976]

Just what you can afford/need.

[Black Hawk]

Get some DDR400 and a cpu that OC's higher.

[Deerhunter]

Friendly competition is nice in gaining Folding Points for your team.
To stay ahead can indeed be costly.
All of my rigs in my Farm have AMD 2100 T-bred Bs and they seem to keep me ahead of most of the pack since I run them all at least 2.2 Gigs on air cooling. You can put together some nice folding rigs for $300.

[EMT]

T-Bred B 1700+ $40-45 @ Newegg. Get them while they're hot. Mine's running ~2400MHz (still testing) with SLK-800 and a mediocre fan. Best value ever :) the main concern is then mobo etc. and maybe cooling

[GHoosdum]

I've got one of these T-Bred B 1700's (bought it two weeks ago for $43 from Newegg) in my secondary rig. But it's running at stock speeds, because I'm not a great OC'er on anything other than nF2 mobos... I wouldn't trust myself without the locking bus speed of AGP/PCI features.

[mmonnin]

Well once its to 166FSB set it to 5:1 then AGP and PCI will be back in spec.

Switch the CPUs and OC that crap out of the 1700+.

[GHoosdum]

Do you think I can get 166FSB out of it on an Asus A7V266? BTW, I used to like Via... but once I went nF2, I'll never go back!

[Geeky1]

Try looking for a 760MPX board on Ebay and in the Refurb sections of places like Newegg and Monarch Computer, as well as in the Deal/Trading sections of forums... if u dropped a couple 2200s or 2400s in there (and they aren't very expensive anymore- 2 2400s are <$200) then that should more than take care of it... :D