Mortgage Calculator | Loans | Loans | Xbox Mod Chip | Credit Card
M5ALA (mystery computer potential ?s) [Archive] - PCMech Forums

PDA

View Full Version : M5ALA (mystery computer potential ?s)


EDB
04-27-2005, 06:21 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?

rjfvillarosa
04-27-2005, 07:53 AM
If you are still uncertain as to the actual make and model of your motherboard this site can help http://www.idhw.com/

EDB
04-27-2005, 09:52 PM
Thanks, I checked it out, but it seemed not to work for me...

Regardless, after a bit of looking around, I think I will add this one to the donation pile, after taking a few key pieces... :) That AMD chip is an oldie, and I have some higher performers in the stable.... But I'm glad to have the dvd rom, memory and HD... not sure what I'll do with the sound and vid cards...