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EDB · 04-27-2005, 05:21 AM

Got this cool mystery computer in exchange for a beaded curtain... not quite the bargain that NY was, but I'm happy.

Came loaded with: Toshiba DVD rom, Quantum Bigfoot TS 5.25 series, VGAMpact 2a/8RJ (some agp video card), sound card (ensonio audio pci5000) and 128 MB of PC100 (I think), and a couple other goodies...

At the foundation of all this is a motherboard sporting an AMD K6-2, socket 7. Under the pci cards I found the marking M5ALA, which I think means my mobo is a Biostar M5ALA with the usermanual here ... ftp://ftp.biostar-usa.com/manuals/M5ALA/M5ALAmanual.pdf.

So my questions are... Anyone have experience with this board? negative or positive? OC'ers- How far can I push this computer? Can I OC this computer well? It has all sorts of cool DIP switches and jumpers to play with! It doesn't look like I could go faster than 350 MHz with the current CPU, and I don't know that I can put a faster CPU in... (but I do have that AMD Duron 900, don't think that the pin numbers are equal tho... and too tired to search anymore...)

Oh yeah... almost forgot, the CMOS is password protected... I took the battery out for over night (how long recommended?) and hope that will work... it also looks like I can short J4... suggestions for removing that?

04-27-2005, 05:21 AM	#1
EDB Member (8 bit) Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Oakland, CA Posts: 199	M5ALA (mystery computer potential ?s) Got this cool mystery computer in exchange for a beaded curtain... not quite the bargain that NY was, but I'm happy. Came loaded with: Toshiba DVD rom, Quantum Bigfoot TS 5.25 series, VGAMpact 2a/8RJ (some agp video card), sound card (ensonio audio pci5000) and 128 MB of PC100 (I think), and a couple other goodies... At the foundation of all this is a motherboard sporting an AMD K6-2, socket 7. Under the pci cards I found the marking M5ALA, which I think means my mobo is a Biostar M5ALA with the usermanual here ... ftp://ftp.biostar-usa.com/manuals/M5ALA/M5ALAmanual.pdf. So my questions are... Anyone have experience with this board? negative or positive? OC'ers- How far can I push this computer? Can I OC this computer well? It has all sorts of cool DIP switches and jumpers to play with! It doesn't look like I could go faster than 350 MHz with the current CPU, and I don't know that I can put a faster CPU in... (but I do have that AMD Duron 900, don't think that the pin numbers are equal tho... and too tired to search anymore...) Oh yeah... almost forgot, the CMOS is password protected... I took the battery out for over night (how long recommended?) and hope that will work... it also looks like I can short J4... suggestions for removing that? Last edited by EDB; 04-27-2005 at 05:24 AM. Reason: oh yeah...