cpu speeds

[Mattk]

i have an amd athlon 2400+(2.0ghz) cpu and it would appear that the furthest this range goes is 3200+(2.2ghz).the half life 2 expansion 'lost coast' is aimed at high end pc's with a min spec of 2.2 ghz so i am wondering where do i go next in terms of speed as i dont want to pay for a measly 0.2ghz leap ?!

am i right in assuming that if i do want to go significantly faster then my motherboard will also need changing as i can find no faster 'socket a' cpu's out there ?and if so,can someone point me in the right direction as there appears to be loads of socket types that are all lost on me ! i assume one type is the best but which one ?

any help appreciated thx

[yellowjohn]

your athlon will be ok to run the game.the 2.2ghz quoted is a standard set for pentium cpu's.although your amd is an 2.0ghz it is equal to a 2.4ghz pentium which is why it is called a 2400+ as they process data faster than a pentium.a 3200+ is therefore equal to a 3.2 ghz pentium.

i hope someone confirms this but i am quite sure i am right.

[redmug100]

In terms of speed, buy some more ram and/or upgrade your video card. Upgrading your processor will show no noticable difference.

[Aquariel]

Mattk - if you want a significant increase in speed you might want to check out the socket 939 motherboards and the AMD 64 X2 dual-core processors, such as these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/AMD_64_X2.html

For game-playing you will of course also need a fast graphics card (don't know what you have), and plenty of RAM, as redmug says.

[bobjim1705]

Socket 939 is the way to go for AMD processors, but I just thought I'd add that AMD's FX line of processors are faster for gaming applications - the X2 line is faster elsewhere. (Atlhough both are pricey.)

[fo3nix]

your CPU will be fine. to get maximum enjoyment out of the game, make sure you have 1GiB+ RAM, and a good graphics card (256MiB GeForce, something like that).

[Mattk]

thanks guys