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  • Recommendations on a minor upgrade

    Hello people,

    I thinking that it is time to upgrade my current computer. I am not a gamer or generally a user that needs a very demanding system even though some of the applications I use need horse power (matlab/femlab and other EDA tools) they are not that demanding, at least to the extent I use them.

    Anyway, I am basically considering an upgrade path from:

    PII300@450 Abit BX6 Ver1 Mobo
    512 100Mhz SDR Ram
    Marvel G200

    I would like to just get a boost in raw CPU performance. My MB is getting old and it can only support P2 800Mhz(abit claims that it does not, however your beloved THW has an article with a BX6 running a P2 at 800).
    So basically I just need a new MB that will use my current memory and vid card. I prefer an intel chipset solution for Intel CPUs and AMD chipset for AMD cpus.

    Oh and at least 3 fold increase in speed


    Any Ideas are appreciated

  • #2
    Perhaps a Celeron 1-1.3 GHz with an i815T board? Of course an option is also an AMD with VIA KT133A, but I wouldn't do that. Your SDRAM limits you from other choices I'm afraid....the only other one I can think of is an AMD with SiS 735 (ECS K75SA) that has both SDR and DDR support, so maybe it would be better for the future...
    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

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    • #3
      Get that ECS 735-chipset board, and whatever Duron/Athlon fits your price/performance sweet spot.
      Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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      • #4
        Will my G200 work on AGP v2.0? As far as I can remember V2 has 1.5 v signal level and V1 has 3V. Has anyone tried it?If it works then I could go for a DDR /AMD based solution.

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        • #5
          It will work just fine with the ECS K7S5A....which supports both 3.3v and 1.5v just fine...
          Let us return to the moon, to stay!!!

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          • #6
            If you want an AMD chipset board, you'll have to go with a dual motherboard, which is probably too expensive for you. (Yes, there are single-CPU AMD chipset boards, but to my knowledge they all use VIA southbridges.)

            I don't know much about them, but have a look at the VIA processors as well and see if they are fast enough for you. Cheap, quiet, and won't act as a little space heater on the side.
            Blah blah blah nick blah blah confusion, blah blah blah blah frog.

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            • #7
              Actually there is one AMD-chipset board for socket a with both AMD north and South for single CPU.

              It's an older board with only support for the 200mhz FSB and PC100. Uses 751-756 combo.

              Gigabyte 7IXE4....
              Let us return to the moon, to stay!!!

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              • #8
                Hmm.

                Keeping your current memory is an issue. It rules out the very low-cost-but-high-performance SiS 745 boards entirely. BUT you could still use a SiS 735. Almost as good. Here's what I recommend... prices are from NewEgg http://www.newegg.com

                $54 for an Athlon XP 1600+
                $56 for a SiS 735 (ECS) with DDR and PC100/133 support

                Both have free FedEx Saver shipping from NewEgg. You'd also need a cooler...

                A Volcano9 from NewEgg is $28 + $6 shipping. So your total would be $110 + $28 + $6, which is $144.

                Not half bad, considering the speeds you could get that chip up to, especially if you got a tube of Arctic Silver ($6 +$6 shipping, yeah the really small stuff is a ripoff shipping, huh?).

                - Gurm
                The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                I'm the least you could do
                If only life were as easy as you
                I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                If only life were as easy as you
                I would still get screwed

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                • #9
                  For a little more, you could upgrade that Volcano9 to a Thermalright AX7, which I'd suggest...
                  Let us return to the moon, to stay!!!

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                  • #10
                    I wouldn't. The Volcano 9 not only has a much bigger fan but is quieter, with a manual speed control to reduce noise. I hate noise, but I can get mine almost inaudible at 4000rpm, which cools my chip just fine.

                    - Gurm
                    The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                    I'm the least you could do
                    If only life were as easy as you
                    I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                    If only life were as easy as you
                    I would still get screwed

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                    • #11
                      I second that

                      The Sis 735 board from ECS works very well, even with SDRAM.

                      I just upgraded from a Duron 700 to an Athlon XP 2000 and I used that board to use my SDRAM while I save up for some new DDR-SDRAM.

                      If you have never set up an Athlon XP CPU before, I also recommend you get an AMD boxed retail CPU. It comes with a heatsink and fan that won't crush the cpu core, and a nice colour poster describing how to attach the damned thing properly It also comes with a 3 year warrenty on the CPU/fan combo. It is only a little more expensive than an the OEM Athlon CPU. However, on the down side, the heatsink/fan AMD supplies isn't the quietest or most overclocker friendly.

                      A modern AMD cpu (XP 2000 or so) would be about 4 times as fast as your current setup in CPU bound tasks.
                      80% of people think I should be in a Mental Institute

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                      • #12
                        I have to agree with Gurm and rugger here... that combination would be best suited for your needs
                        "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

                        "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

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                        • #13
                          Thanks for all the replies,

                          The only problem with the above configuration is that the ECS 735 board has only 2 slots for sdr memory. And I have 4 sticks 128mb each. I don't like the though of running with 256 RAM. So that means I would have to buy 2x256MB sticks. So if I have to buy memory why not buy DDR and get a better system overall?
                          My only problem is with my G200. How can I quarantee that it will work with AGP V2. Unless there is someone willing to buy it

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                          • #14
                            i would nitpick the choice of fans tho...

                            my experience with Thermaltake fans is they pretty much perform like crap... plus for a basic rig i woudn't invest in such a large heatsink... arctic silver isn't worth the cost, just stick with generic thermal compound... between those two things you can save $15 - $20 easy... or follow the recommendation of rugger and buy a boxed processor...
                            "And yet, after spending 20+ years trying to evolve the user interface into something better, what's the most powerful improvement Apple was able to make? They finally put a god damned shell back in." -jwz

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                            • #15
                              Then

                              If that is the case,

                              You might as well bite the bullet, and buy some DDR ram along with a Sis 745 board (the Asus A7S-300 is one I think) instead of the ECS 735 board.

                              You won't find any new motherboards sporting 4 SDRAM slots. (I may be wrong, there may be a few P4 boards that have 4 SDRAM slots on them, but you definitely don't want to run one of those)
                              80% of people think I should be in a Mental Institute

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