Price Guides November 2004: CPU and Motherboards

AMD Processors - Athlon XP

Two factors often ring true of enthusiasts and system builders. They like technologies that have been around for a while and are proven, and they like to get the most that they can get out of existing hardware. The Athlon XP still serves both of these purposes very well, whether you are building a new system from scratch or you just want to upgrade your existing Socket A chip. With the introduction of Athlon 64 and Sempron products from AMD, Athlon XP prices are only going to get lower and lower.

Since prices are low, and because the Athlon XP doesn't have an infinite amount of time left to live, we have raised the standards a bit for this week's recommendation. The Athlon XP 2800+, available for less than $100, is a chip that can provide a noticeable bump in gaming and high-end performance for a lot of users who are running older non-Barton processors. The price to performance ratio on this chip is also one worth checking out if you don't really want to deal with upgrading to a new socket, motherboard and processor all at once. Picking out a lower processor, such as a 2500+ or even 2000+ is a great way to build a basic system as well.