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Help me keep this old gal alive!

E

eggrock

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
4,102
[edit - apologies for being so longwinded... that's the way I am]

Unfortunately I can't upgrade as often as I'd like--my wife likes jewelry too much. (;) joke, sort of.) I'd been planning on buying a new computer but there's too much new stuff coming out and I'd like to be ahead on an upgrade path for one, eg BTX, PCI Express, Athlon 939 pin CPU or Intel-whatever, new memory architecture and so on... Lots of new goodness coming out soon.

And that's the fault of [H] and Ars for providing (and linking to) such good information--for which I am eternally grateful to all hosts and participants.

What I have:

Asus A7V (PC133) 200MHz FSB
Athlon (Tbird) 900
512 Mb PC133 SDRAM (just added 256Mb)
Radeon 9600 (just upgraded from ATI AIW 128 Pro)
20 GB WD HDD 7200RPM, 2Mb cache
80 GB WD HDD 7200RPM, 8Mb cache (new)
CDRW w/8Mb cache (New, the Samsung recommended by the [H] system building guide except this doesn't have DVD ROM capability... BIG performance difference)
XP Home (just upgraded from 98SE)

Probably already spent too much on this but most of it was gift certificates anyways and I'll use most of it on the new system when I get it.

Digression aside, I'd like to kick it up another notch or two with a faster CPU, either by OC'ing it or upgrading the CPU. There are some caveats though:

OC'ing:

  • I'm a complete virgin (is there any other kind?) when it comes to overclocking.
  • If I fry anything I'm SOL until mid-March.
  • The case is crap, came with NO fans other than stock HSF and 1 fan on the PSU (ran that way until just recently, averaged 55C temps on the CPU :eek: Just adding a PSU with 2 fans dropped temps by 5C.) I am willing to chop holes in it though. I may use explosives instead. ;)
  • I can drop the case/CPU temps another 10-15C by adding another fan but it's some ungodly (cheapo) 6,000 RPM vacuum cleaner sounding thing. Pumps out 87 cfm and cools the whole room down, heh.
  • The new HSF is loud as well (but fortunately has a ? rheobus ? control so I can lower the speeds/noise level).
  • Two mismatched (brands) of SDRAM, low quality.

On the plus side of OC'ing the BIOS should allow me to tweak well enough and a successful and stable OC would be a nice initiation and confidence/knowledge boost. Plus I think the waters have been tested with OC'ing these. Finally, free performance is fun. ;)

Upgrading the CPU:

  • An Athlon T-bird 200MHz FSB is damn hard to find.
  • For whatever reason (see the point above) the bidding on ebay for these is somewhat heavy when they're available.
  • Don't want to spend > $50 for a new CPU
  • 55% (paper) increase over a 900MHz CPU
  • Already have a 900MHz CPU which should be OC'able to 1400 speeds, with care.

On the plus side of that, I guess I could probably OC the 1400 to something even more respectible and I'd have a fallback with the CPU (but nothing else) if I fry it.

I know it's a humble system.. I don't play MP games and I don't play a ton of SP games--really, SP gaming is all I need the performance for. I can wait to play any game except HL2 (I have a good idea for a mod I want to make so I'll get that as soon as it comes out.) Doom3 and DX:IW can wait, along with any CRPGs that come out between now and the big upgrade.

Thoughts?
 
it might be a gamble, but I would look at a thorton processor, it runs @ 133-266 fsb, and from what the reports are around the net, it seems to be able to drop into older hardware without much difficulty. Its a 'try at your own risk" for 70 bucks at newegg.

This would be dependant on the K7V being a socket A MB. I know the tbird 900's came both ways.
 
Yep, it's a socket A mobo (A7V though, not K7V).

So I'd have to bump up the FSB on the Mobo to match the CPU? If I could double the CPU speed I'd be set.
 
If it is socket A, check out the Applebred processors at Newegg - under 50bux for a chip that would get you considerably more performance than what you have.
 
I doubt any CPU newer than a Paly will work in it. I had the same issues with a IWILL KK266-R. Anything newer just won't post. It's not a FSB or Voltage issue. Check and see wether or not your board will work with a new CPU.
 
Asus' official word is the T-bird 1400 with BIOS of 1108 (I think) or better. But I didn't think 'official specs' were ever mentioned at [H]. :cool:

[edit] I shouldn't be lazy, here's the official word from Asus which may or may not mean anything at all:

A7V doesn't support Athlon XP. Please refer to the following URL: http://www.asus.com.tw/inside/Techref/athlonxp.htm 2. A7V can support up to Athlon 1.4G (200MHz FSB) with latest BIOS. Please note it doesn't support 266MHz FSB Athlon. The BIOS can be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/mb/socka/kt133/a7v/a7v1011.zip 3. A7V can support up to Duron 1.3G since PCB version 1.05. (with trailing dot!) with BIOS version 1008 or later. Please check the PCB version of your A7V. The PCB version is often printed beside the model name on the motherboard. You can refer to the URL below for detailed: http://www.asus.com.tw/inside/Techref/duron.htm
Click to expand...
 
At this point in time, I would not spend any more money for a new CPU for the system unless you can pick it up for maybe $20-$30. Anything more than that is not worth it.

As a previous poster already showed, you cannot use anything but a 100mhz (200 DDR) FSB processor in the board. It's the original A7V with the KT133 chipset. If you were lucky, you could get them up to 113 FSB.

From my experience and others I have heard of, you will not get much of an overclock out of that T-Bird 900. For the most part you will not be able to overclock except by raising the multiplier. My T-Bird 900 I was able to get up to around 1.2 ghz but that was with an A7V133. That would probably be about the best overclock you could get out of that CPU and it's not guaranteed. For some reason the T-Bird 900s just didn't overclock that well.

To raise the multiplier, you will probably need to connect the bridges on the CPU. Luckily, since it's a T-Bird, you can just use a graphite pencil to do this. I think it was the L1 bridges but it's been a while since I've had to mess with it so somebody please clarify which bridges need to be modified.

In conclusion, your options are limited do to many factors. It's not really worth spending any more money on the system for parts that won't be moved to your next one. The upgrade path for a CPU is very limited since you are stuck with 100 FSB processors. Other than that, you have done about everything else you can to speed the system up.
 
I agree it's not worth doing to much for this system, but the longer I can keep this one the cheaper that Radeon BFG2K video card will be. Plus any little bit will help when HL2 comes out, until I can get something that will REALLY run it. I don't want to spend much money on it though. I guess if I look around I can probably find a cheap mobo/CPU combo that will accept the memory I have and go with that. Haven't checked that out in the FS/FT forum or anywhere else, wanted that as a last option.
 
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