computer upgrade Help

[nokiafan05]

Ok I wan't to upgrade my ASUS P3B-F with 160 mb of SD pc100 ram and PII400 with a 512 cache total.

I would rather NOT change mobo.. I like Amd cuz there are fast but I would have to change my mobo. I would do this if I could do it cheap. I found this one site but there prices are insane and seem to good to be true.

http://comp-recycle.com/bindex.htm

Like a AMD Athlon Socket 1300mhz for $15 Usd Is crazy cheap.

$20 for a Intel PIII 600 slot 1..

Anyway anyone know how much my Board will go up to. Like If I got a SLot 1 card.

[Stryker]

Hi nokiafan05, and welcome to PC Mech!!

If it seems to good to be true... guess what. ;) It probably is and I wouldn't risk giving them my money. It's always a good idea to check out vendors at www.resellerratings.com, and from what I can see, these guys don't even show up. :eek:

Try www.ncix.com as I can see you are a fellow "Ontarian". Great prices, lots of selection, I've used them several times now and they have been great. Plus they are based in Vancouver so we don't pay GST!! :D

Do you have a limit you want to spend? What will you be using the system for? (i.e. light gaming, heavy 3d gaming, just surfing/e-mail, etc...).

[nokiafan05]

I don't need ton's of power . I had amd 2400 xp @ one time b4 it got stolen. and My buddy told me it was a waste of power for what I use the computer for.

Which is watching dvd movies with my dvd drive,playing music,Web browsing,chating on Trillian and downloading and uploading alot.

The sytem I have is bearable but I would like a little more speed then what I have now.

Also I don't want to spend more then $150 CDN MAX

[Stryker]

$$ Budget?
Depending on your budget, you could go up to an AMD Sempron CPU, new board and RAM. It would give you a very smooth running system and wouldn't be too much $$, again depending on your budget. Semprons are pretty similar to Athlon XPs, but Semprons have half the cache as the XPs do (did :()

... and by the way, talking about shady stuff like downloading movies is a really good way to get your thread closed. I realize we're in Canada and it isn't as taboo as in the U.S., but be careful what you type. ;) By no means am I a moderator, but just letting you know that we have pretty strict rules here, and that's the way we like it.


EDIT: I see you edited your budget in... Thanks. :)

[nokiafan05]

Ok I took it out.

[Stryker]

$150.00 CDN is going to be a tight budget to work with (if even possible) for the upgrades you are talking about. You may have to stay with your current board and squeeze what you can out of it, but I'm far from an expert when it comes to anything Intel. Going to a new board for a Sempron or Athlon would also mean new RAM, and possibly even a new power supply to keep everything juiced up. Depends what you have now.

If you would like, post up all your current specs. for your system and hopefully one of the Intel folks can give you a hand with upgrading what you have. Otherwise, you are going to need more than $150.00, unfortunately.

[nokiafan05]

Well the computer is quick enough for me as it is. It has alot of guts for a Intel PII 400 with a L2 cache of 512

ASUS P3B-F MOBO ( 4 SLOT'S FOR RAM)
INTEL PII 400 512K CACHE FSB 100
1x 32mb pc100 , 2x 64mb pc100 = 160mb ram
32mb NIVIDA GeForse2 GTS/Geforse2 pro
Sound card
Net card
16x sony dvd rom
20 gig hd
10 gig hd
300 watt Power supply

[glc]

The P3B-F will take any 100 FSB Katmai or Coppermine slot P3 made with the latest bios, and it will run 133 FSB processors if your AGP card can handle the bus overclock. It will take any low density PC100 or PC133 ram made up to 256mb per module. It should be able to take socket processors with a converter card. Very versatile motherboard.

[nokiafan05]

How would I know if my AGP card would take it ? Also where do I get the lasest bios update ?
p.s It seems u know alot about computers.!!

[glc]

You don't know if the AGP card can take it until you try it. If you use a 133 FSB processor, you must use PC133 ram.

You get the bios update from the Asus support website.

http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P3B-F&Type=All&SLanguage=en-us

[nokiafan05]

So with this update I should be able to use pc133 cpu's and Ram. Also I don't wan't to try it and not work. Like buy a cpu I can't use.

[glc]

As I said, running a BX chipset board at 133 is overclocking. That board can be set to run the PCI bus at a 1/4 divider, which will make the PCI bus run at 33, which is design spec. However, the AGP is locked at a 2/3 divider, so at 133, it will run at 89 - and 66 is design spec. The motherboard doesn't care, but your AGP card might.

The SAFEST thing to do is find a high multiplier 100 FSB slot P3 - something like a 800. That's what I'm running in my P2B-F (previous model to yours). One of those will run no matter what bios revision you have and you will have no issues with your PC100 ram or your video card. The other option is buy a Powerleap kit with a 1.3 GHz Celeron but this may bust your budget - they are $100 US which won't leave you any left over for more ram.

[nokiafan05]

It says I have to do this from dos? How do i do this in a simple way of telling it. I got win xp pro.

2nd. Do I even need this ? I 'm getting a 850 PIII fsb100 and pc100 256 ram..

[glc]

You shouldn't have to update the bios with that processor. If you do, XP can make a DOS boot disk, it's in the format options. Make sure that the 256mb ram module you are getting is LOW density, try it BEFORE you put the new processor in to make sure it's compatible. You may have to rearrange your modules in the slots to get them all working together.

[mb26]

ok if u are 100% resigned to the above choice then fine.. but i thought i'd make another suggestion;

"I would rather NOT change mobo.. I like Amd cuz there are fast but I would have to change my mobo. I would do this if I could do it cheap. I found this one site but there prices are insane and seem to good to be true."
if u dont mind using ebay..
then i'd suggest getting a socket A board and a low althon XP (1700+/1800+) or a Duron (1400/1600/1800), and either 256/512mb of DDR ram..
this really isn't much more expensive than the above option (way under $150 CDN i think).. and you will get easily double, perhaps 3x the performance (yes a pIII 800 would just about see u by right now but as time goes on it will struggle even more so.. if u are using XP and/or running P2P programs and playing Div-X videos and the like simultaneously, a PIII 800 is going to be struggling). i see no point in investing money into an even older tech and PC100 ram, when my suggested option is so similar in price.

not sure what the conversion rates are for $CDN but (in USD) motheboard and athlon XP would be around $50-60 for both.. look for HSF with cpu, onboard VGA, sound and LAN. and u can get 512mb of DDR *new* for about $35usd.
u will also get many new features by having a new motheboard; better sound (5.1 surround), graphics (still not very good but work for internet games (i'm talking about the more advanced 3D ones of course) and old games and such), onboard LAN.. 8x\4x AGP, USB 2.0

[nokiafan05]

I don't need to do that. I play divx movies now and my cpu doesnt even max out.

Sure it be nice to do both but if i'm watching a movie i can aways shut it down or watch the movie later no big deal.

For the most part it's going to be fast enough for what I generally use the computer for.

[nokiafan05]

I have the 850 cpu and i have to go get a slot one card, will this work ? like all i have to do is pop in the cpu and that's it ?

ASUS P3B-F

[glc]

If you have a socket 850, you will need a slot converter card that is compatible with that processor. They are not too easy to find any more. I would really suggest you find a slot processor or buy a Powerleap kit with processor.