Question about MoBo supported FSB for Upgrade

[BernicusMaximus]

PC Mech Gurus:

I'm going to be building my first PC in the next month, and once it's completed, I plan on swapping it out with my wife's older PC. However it occured to me that since I would already be building one PC, I could perhaps upgrade this one before giving it to my wife. So, I'm going to max out the memory, and am considering popping in a new processor if I can find one cheap enough. Unfotunately, I can't seem to find one with the right specs. It it may be that the board is too old to upgrade (2001) - it's an MSI 6534. The current chip is a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4, but I don't know what core (northwood?). At any rate, the FSB in the BIOS says 100Mhz, but I can't find any 100Mhz FSB upgrades anywhere. Would a faster FSB still work? Below are the specs of CPU and Chipset of the Mobo. I've got the MoBo documentation if more details are needed, but it's too large to attach. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Bernie

CPU
�� Supports Socket478 for Intel® Pentium 4 (FC-PGA2) processor
�� Supports 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz and up to 2.xGHz
Chipset
�� Intel® Brookdale chipset
- AGP 4x/2x universal slot
- Supports 100MHz FSB
- Supports 400MHz Intel NetBurst micro-architecture bus
�� Intel® ICH2 chipset (360 BGA)
- AC’97 Controller Integrated
- 2 full IDE channels, up to ATA100
- Low pin count interface for Winbond SIO

[glc]

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...MS-6534&kind=1

http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=542
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=115
http://www.stalliontek.com/ProductDe...de=CPP4-100900
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=108
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=107

Not worth it in my opinion.

[BernicusMaximus]

Glc,

Thanks alot, that is exactly what I was looking for but was unable to find. Why do you feel it wouldn't be worth it? Do think I wouldn't see enough of a performance lift upgrading to 2.0 Ghz to make it worth the 100 bucks?

Thanks,

Bernie

[glc]

The difference between 1.5 and 2.0 GHz is not as big as it looks. Upgrades are generally only worth it if you double the speed. I doubt you will notice much real world improvement.

If you are going to buy memory anyway, why not replace all 3 items - processor, ram, and motherboard? You can still get decent Socket 478 boards and 3.0 Ghz processors - and DOUBLE the FSB speed - THAT will make a HUGE difference, along with the upgrade from SDRAM to DDR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131515
-OR-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131484

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116171

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145440

If $188 is too steep for a processor, give her a Celeron-D. It's still a 533 FSB, better than your current 400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112186

This will leave you a perfectly good 1.5 GHz motherboard, processor, and ram as a core for a Linux project or something.