# Vintage hardware - Athlon XP 2500+ good for anything anymore?



## Jeffredo (Nov 26, 2012)

I was digging around in my junk closet and found a motherboard/CPU that I pulled from a case years ago to recycle it for a new build.  Its a Shuttle AN35N-Ultra (they used to make full sized mobos) with an Athlon XP 2500+ Barton in it.  Is it useful for anything anymore?  I have pretty much everything I need to resurrect it save for a case and power supply.  Could get them for less than $100.  Should I even bother?  Thought maybe I could make a Linux box or a school PC for one of my nieces or nephews.  Should I just drop it off at an e-cycling place and forget about it?  I hate having so much old hardware gathering dust and slowly getting useless!


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## de.das.dude (Nov 26, 2012)

would make i good pc for your nephews.

i think it would also be good for a file storage server?

i had an am2 athlon 3500+, single core, and it rocked :O


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## erocker (Nov 26, 2012)

I use a similar system at work sometimes. Works great for browsing the web and it handles Office quite well. I have Windows 7 running on it.


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## DJEscreet (Nov 26, 2012)

I have amy old xp2400 that I built when I was at uni running down at the coastguard station that I work part time at. We use it for excel spredsheets that monitor all the equipment record checks, printing forms and scanning documents. Its not hooked up to the internet. Its running xp sp3 and office 2007 and runs like it did the day I built it. The PSU is sounding a little "whistly" right now but its still going strong. I imagine it will continue to do so for some time yet.... (with a new psu!!)


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## Peter1986C (Nov 26, 2012)

An Athlon ain't useless. For most tasks regular users give their PCs it should be good enough. It is not a Netburst type Celeron we are talking about.


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## Mussels (Nov 26, 2012)

it could certainly manage being an office machine or HTPC.


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## patrico (Nov 26, 2012)

hey, yeah a nice little office type pc, or a pc for  a child or a home file server, not useless yet


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## qubit (Nov 26, 2012)

While it would work as the others have said, I don't think it's worth spending $100 on it. I donated my 2500+ system to a friend who runs XP on it and it's not exactly quick.

Also, how much RAM do you have with it? Don't even think about Windows 7 with less than 2GB RAM. A new system starts thrashing the HDD with that 1GB RAM and goes slow, so an an old system will be hit much harder and make for a very frustrating experience. 512MB is unuseable on a modern system, it thrashes so much, let alone this old one.

It would make an excellent firewall however. I use IPCop.

Spend to $20-30 perhaps, but no more.


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## Aquinus (Nov 26, 2012)

qubit said:


> Don't even think about Windows 7 with less than 2GB RAM. A new system starts thrashing the HDD with that 1GB RAM and goes slow, so an an old system will be hit much harder and make for a very frustrating experience. 512MB is unuseable on a modern system, it thrashes so much, let alone this old one.



If you notice, it doesn't start trashing until you start opening applications with 512Mb. Windows 7 loads just fine. I have a friend with a Core 2 Duo and 1.5Gb of memory and it runs fine. Heck, he can even play Garry's Mod on it, but for the purposes as an HTPC or office machine, it will do fine with 1Gb. Granted that doesn't mean open every application you can find 3 times, you have to be sensible about how much you open at once. Honestly, occasionally you will find someone selling DDR memory for really cheap. I bought 2Gb 4x512Mb DDR-400 from someone here on TPU for 15 USD. So even if memory does become an issue, it doesn't have to be.


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## qubit (Nov 26, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> If you notice, it doesn't start trashing until you start opening applications with 512Mb. Windows 7 loads just fine. I have a friend with a Core 2 Duo and 1.5Gb of memory and it runs fine. Heck, he can even play Garry's Mod on it, but for the purposes as an HTPC or office machine, it will do fine with 1Gb. Granted that doesn't mean open every application you can find 3 times, you have to be sensible about how much you open at once. Honestly, occasionally you will find someone selling DDR memory for really cheap. I bought 2Gb 4x512Mb DDR-400 from someone here on TPU for 15 USD. So even if memory does become an issue, it doesn't have to be.



If you install only a couple of programs on it then perhaps it might run more or less acceptably, sort of. I set my rig (see specs) to use only 512MB with a fully loaded Windows 7, including internet security software using msconfig to try it out and it thrashed like crazy. Did this for every little mouse click, too.


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## Mussels (Nov 26, 2012)

i've ran a sempron 2200+ i think it was on windows 7, it worked ok with 1GB of ram.


then again, whats wrong with XP? i've had XP running at <100MB of ram at idle on a fresh install, and with something like CCCP for media playback, you know it can handle anything.


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## Tonim89 (Nov 26, 2012)

I use a Dell Pentium4-based with 1GB DDR 400 at work and it runs smoothly for office tasks and email.

I think it could be interesting to revive this equipment and use it as workstation, if you have someone else to use it for simple tasks and web browse.


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## jeepdriver (Nov 26, 2012)

I run a Athlon MP, OC'd to 2.43 GHz. Infinity NFII ultra board, 2 gig ddr 400, ATI X1950 AGP, 500w psu, modded Tt3 case. XSPC water block, pump/reservoir, corsair fans, and a automotive transmission cooler for a radiator. Ubuntu 12.04. Got under $400 in it and I love it !


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## brandonwh64 (Nov 26, 2012)

I would like to find something similar to this to use as a router. Something like a ITX with a PCI slot.


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## Jeffredo (Nov 26, 2012)

qubit said:


> While it would work as the others have said, I don't think it's worth spending $100 on it. I donated my 2500+ system to a friend who runs XP on it and it's not exactly quick.
> 
> Also, how much RAM do you have with it? Don't even think about Windows 7 with less than 2GB RAM. A new system starts thrashing the HDD with that 1GB RAM and goes slow, so an an old system will be hit much harder and make for a very frustrating experience. 512MB is unuseable on a modern system, it thrashes so much, let alone this old one.
> 
> ...



Only have 1GB of RAM for it (PC2700).  I could install XP on it - that's what was on it previously.  Just have an 80GB IDE hard drive for it, but I wouldn't install much so that's not an issue.  Yeah, the cost of a case and PS is the only outlay.  If I had those it would already be built, but its hard to turn loose of any money for a PC I don't really need.


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## yogurt_21 (Nov 26, 2012)

print server


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## Frick (Nov 26, 2012)

I'd use it as a workshop computer.


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## Aquinus (Nov 26, 2012)

Frick said:


> I'd use it as a workshop computer.



Absolutely! Do you need Windows? Could Xubuntu suit your fancy as a Windows alternative? It's pretty lean on memory and CPU so it leaves more resources for music, video, browsing, etc. If you really want to talk about saving memory you could customize a bare (cli only) Ubuntu installation and install only what you need.


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## Jeffredo (Nov 26, 2012)

Yeah, I have XP (or I could install Mint or something).

In a nutshell:

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Shuttle Nforce2 mobo
Rosewill HSF 92mm Socket A HSF
2GB Crucial Ballistix PC 3200 RAM (found it in another junk box!)
80GB Maxtor IDE hard drive
Radeon X850 XT AGP
Either Win XP or a Linux distro

Again, looks like all I'm missing is the case and PS.  I'll see what I can scrounge up on sale.


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## MilkyWay (Nov 26, 2012)

Depends how much ram it has but some distro of linux will run acceptable on it, theres many with lots of pre installed programs to get you started. I cant directly compare but a 939 pin Athlon 64 3500+ was okay at surfing the net when i used my cousins pc (highly useable), where as an old pentium 4 was really slow and pushing it.

At least with the 939 pin it has SATA and pci express, not so sure about older sockets.

EDIT: Yeah looking at the specs above it would run okay for just daily computing tasks. Try look for power supply and case bundles as those are usually cheaper, i wouldn't spend a lot.


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## Aquinus (Nov 26, 2012)

Jeffredo said:


> 2GB Crucial Ballistix PC 3200 RAM (found it in another junk box!)



If you have 7, I would throw that on there. If not, give Linux a try. It won't hurt. Worse comes to worse you can always go back to XP, but I would rather use some form of linux before I did that.


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## Jstn7477 (Nov 26, 2012)

You may need to use XP if you want working AGP GART drivers. Thank NVIDIA for dropping the ball 7 years ago on that one.


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## jeepdriver (Nov 26, 2012)

Directron has some case/psu combos for just under $40.  The power supplies with these may not the greatest, but for the price.......


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## TRWOV (Nov 26, 2012)

jeffredo said:


> *radeon x850 xt agp*



ygpm


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## nleksan (Nov 26, 2012)

Well if you decide you don't want the X850XT AGP anymore, PM ME!


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## jeepdriver (Dec 26, 2012)

jeepdriver said:


> I run a Athlon MP, OC'd to 2.43 GHz. Infinity NFII ultra board, 2 gig ddr 400, ATI X1950 AGP, 500w psu, modded Tt3 case. XSPC water block, pump/reservoir, corsair fans, and a automotive transmission cooler for a radiator. Ubuntu 12.04. Got under $400 in it and I love it !


Well, 4 days after my post the Infinity board went down. I swapped in a ASRock 880GM, 965BE, 4GB of Kingston HyperX, and a Heatkiller.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Dec 26, 2012)

I ran Ubuntu 11.04 on a Athlon xp, 2gb mem rig for awhile and it ran great. So yes it is still very useful and for everyday stuff like web browsing and office apps it would be just fine. I also have the same mobo in the closet along with some other choice boards and am considering putting together a Socket A 3200+ rig for fun.


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## Jeffredo (Feb 21, 2013)

Well I finally have it up and running!  It was kind of a fun project.  I'm still "polishing the turd" with it and would like to get a couple SATA ports for a hard drive and an optical drive.  There is a cheap PCI SATA controller card I'm considering, but the CPU is so weak I'm concerned about the card and CPU utilization.  Will such a card (in a non-RAID situation) use any CPU resources?  This is the one I'm thinking of.  Also, I have an Audigy 2 PCI sound card in it.  Will having a HD on the PCI Bus mess with its performance?


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## TRWOV (Feb 21, 2013)

Not really, audio cards hardly use any bandwidth. As for the SATA card the only caveats are to make sure you can boot up from it (if it has a Silicon Image controller it should be alright) and that you'd be limited to 133MB/s of throughput.


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## yogurt_21 (Feb 21, 2013)

might need to get an old raid controller with its own resources to avoid the cpu utilization. Not sure if any sata port add in cards have any onboard memory/processing. Its a pity the mobo doesn't have any. Nforce2 ultra chipsets did, but I guess not vanilla.

Although I'm not sure the cpu utilization would matter all that much. Its not like the card is going to add 20% constant utilization or anything like that, 3-5 max.


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## Jeffredo (Feb 21, 2013)

yogurt_21 said:


> might need to get an old raid controller with its own resources to avoid the cpu utilization. Not sure if any sata port add in cards have any onboard memory/processing. Its a pity the mobo doesn't have any. Nforce2 ultra chipsets did, but I guess not vanilla.
> 
> Although I'm not sure the cpu utilization would matter all that much. Its not like the card is going to add 20% constant utilization or anything like that, 3-5 max.



Yeah, I'm really disappointed with myself for not getting one with SATA - this Shuttle mobo is pretty bare bones.   There were a ton of them around at the time, but it was my first PC build and I didn't even know what SATA was back then (or that I might ever want to use it).


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 21, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> Well I finally have it up and running!  It was kind of a fun project.  I'm still "polishing the turd" with it and would like to get a couple SATA ports for a hard drive and an optical drive.  There is a cheap PCI SATA controller card I'm considering, but the CPU is so weak I'm concerned about the card and CPU utilization.  Will such a card (in a non-RAID situation) use any CPU resources?  This is the one I'm thinking of.  Also, I have an Audigy 2 PCI sound card in it.  Will having a HD on the PCI Bus mess with its performance?



Hell I would have left the audigy 2 out. The onboard sound is simply great on that board. Also it's hardware based. One of the only ones that where. Drop in 2 x 1gb memory sticks and run 2gb in dual channel mode and you could have a great little Win xp gaming rig. Also if you want more proc power you could pick up a Barton mobile chip (2400/2500+) and oc it. They oc very well and run cool in the process.


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## yogurt_21 (Feb 21, 2013)

every 2500 barton (1.83GHZ) I had would hit 3200 (2.2GHZ) speeds without issue. They share the same multiplier so all you had to doo was up the fsb from 166 to 200 and up the voltage a bit. You just need to make sure your bios is full and not an "oem special."

Should be plenty. I have an old 2600m that will hit 2.7GHZ on water but its not necessary and certainly not a comfortable 24/7 voltage/temp setting.  

at 2.2 with a slight bump in voltage the 2500 should be plenty stable for 24/7 use.


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## Jeffredo (Feb 21, 2013)

I have the FSB at 200 right now (3200+) but I left the voltage at 1.65.  I haven't gamed with it yet - may try some old games like Divine Divinity and Sacred today to see if it crashes at that voltage.  What voltage did you need to be stable yogurt?


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## _Zod_ (Feb 21, 2013)

I've got a pull from an old compaq, a Barton XP 3200+ with an ASUS micro board that has 2 SATA ports on-board and an AGP ATI x700 Pro all sitting in a box. I used to use it as a media playback rig/file server but it wouldn't handle 720p mkv's. I replaced it with a s754 3700+ that does a bit better and has PCIe.

The Athlon XP's can still be used for general computing and lite server duty, if you have need for such things. Sadly there are much more efficient alternatives for low cost.


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## thebluebumblebee (Feb 21, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> I have the FSB at 200 right now (3200+) but I left the voltage at 1.65.  I haven't gamed with it yet - may try some old games like Divine Divinity and Sacred today to see if it crashes at that voltage.  What voltage did you need to be stable yogurt?



Never had to bump the voltage on mine.  Never heard of bumping the voltage on the 2500+ FSB'd to 3200+ until this thread.


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## Krazy Owl (Feb 21, 2013)

Guys just asking. What could make a 3200+ to show at 1.1 gig in the bios and in windows when its locked and no setting can be changed?


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## Peter1986C (Feb 22, 2013)

What do you mean with "gig" in this case?


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## Jeffredo (Feb 22, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> What do you mean with "gig" in this case?



I'm sure he meant Ghz.  Mine was 1100 Mhz before I hit "load optimized defaults" in the BIOS.  Been sitting for years - wasn't surprised it went to fail safe.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 22, 2013)

Krazy Owl said:


> Guys just asking. What could make a 3200+ to show at 1.1 gig in the bios and in windows when its locked and no setting can be changed?



Check the fsb setting. It is probably set at 100 mhz instead of 200 mhz.


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## Krazy Owl (Feb 22, 2013)

Yes it is but no dip switch and nothing in bios to change the fsb


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 22, 2013)

I replied a couple times in your thread for this. It's in there just hidden. Probaly under advance cpu options or something. it's going to be in a weird place.


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## Jeffredo (Feb 22, 2013)

Do you have Award BIOS (most nForce mobos do)?  If so, its under "Advanced Chipset Features"/"FSB Frequency".  Again, if you hit "Load Optimized Defaults" in the BIOS that will set it to stock values (unless something is seriously wrong - overheating, etc...).


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## Krazy Owl (Feb 22, 2013)

No need its ok I found that nothing can be done with this board. I will give it to a kid instead. Thank you anyway.


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## Mussels (Feb 22, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> Well I finally have it up and running!  It was kind of a fun project.  I'm still "polishing the turd" with it and would like to get a couple SATA ports for a hard drive and an optical drive.  There is a cheap PCI SATA controller card I'm considering, but the CPU is so weak I'm concerned about the card and CPU utilization.  Will such a card (in a non-RAID situation) use any CPU resources?  This is the one I'm thinking of.  Also, I have an Audigy 2 PCI sound card in it.  Will having a HD on the PCI Bus mess with its performance?



PCI bus can only do 133MB/s total between all devices. so yes, it could impact performance on modern drives.

CPU usage wont be a problem.

edit: was beaten to it. oh well.


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## yogurt_21 (Feb 22, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> I have the FSB at 200 right now (3200+) but I left the voltage at 1.65.  I haven't gamed with it yet - may try some old games like Divine Divinity and Sacred today to see if it crashes at that voltage.  What voltage did you need to be stable yogurt?





thebluebumblebee said:


> Never had to bump the voltage on mine.  Never heard of bumping the voltage on the 2500+ FSB'd to 3200+ until this thread.



tbh I don't remember now it wasn't more than 1 or 2 selections up from stock. I had 3 on different boards (one Nforce 2 Ultra chip, one KT600, one KT880) and each would fail prime95 at ~4 hours when going from 2500 to 3200 on stock voltage. (it should be noted that at the time I had my own shop and these were all out of the same batch). Going up a touch was prime95 stable for 24hours+.

If you're not experiencing any issues I'd leave it be at stock. Just keep it in mind if you do hit the odd error.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 22, 2013)

My second ever pc I build back in 2005 was a 2500+ Athlon in an abit kv7 kt600 motherboard and it needed a little extra voltage to get to 2.2ghz (3200+ speeds) and could go all the way to 2.34ghz untill I ran out of fsb on the via chipset due to havin no agp/pci locks

i used to play UT2003 and ut2004 @ 1600x1200 with my FX5200 on my old 21" CRT ah those were the days


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## fritoking (Feb 22, 2013)

Geofrancis said:


> My second ever pc I build back in 2005 was a 2500+ Athlon in an abit kv7 kt600 motherboard and it needed a little extra voltage to get to 2.2ghz (3200+ speeds) and could go all the way to 2.34ghz untill I ran out of fsb on the via chipset due to havin no agp/pci locks
> 
> i used to play UT2003 and ut2004 @ 1600x1200 with my FX5200 on my old 21" CRT ah those were the days
> 
> http://geofrancis.ndo.co.uk/comp/side 7.JPG



yeah the barton 2500 and the shuttle board was the first pc  i built..it should oc easily to a 3200.


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## Geofrancis (Feb 24, 2013)

Unlock it http://www.technobabble.com.au/technobabble/html/april/amdbarton.htm


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## Jeffredo (Mar 7, 2013)

Installed HWMonitor and the CPU temps are taking wild swings - 32-35C at idle and up to 59C while gaming.  Does that make sense (or sound right)?


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## Geofrancis (Mar 7, 2013)

Yes that's fine. Your processor will use more power when gaming so it will heat up more. as long as it stays under 65c your ok


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## Mussels (Mar 7, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> Installed HWMonitor and the CPU temps are taking wild swings - 32-35C at idle and up to 59C while gaming.  Does that make sense (or sound right)?



sounds about right. also worth noting is that hardware monitoring wasnt as accurate back then, and that they dont really do thermal throttling (it will just crash when its too hot)


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## Jeffredo (Mar 7, 2013)

Yeah, the sensor on the motherboard must be jacked up - its reading 50C at idle now!  Just out of the blue jumped 17 degrees!


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## Batou1986 (Mar 7, 2013)

TLDR  
Athlon XP 2500+ good for anything anymore?
keychain


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## qubit (Mar 7, 2013)

That Athlon made for quite a good gaming machine in its day.


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## Geofrancis (Mar 7, 2013)

i think you should use this as a test board for some crazy overclocking. get some silver conductive paint and unlock it. once t1hats working get a giant TEC and hook it up to a car  battery then see how fast it will go at -20c!


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## Mussels (Mar 8, 2013)

Jeffredo said:


> Yeah, the sensor on the motherboard must be jacked up - its reading 50C at idle now!  Just out of the blue jumped 17 degrees!



check it by hand. see if its hot near the base of the cooler with your finger. it could have bad thermal paste/contact.


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