How upgrade old AMD socket-A system?

[peter wilson]

I want to get a faster cpu but not one that is very hot or which must
have a bigger PSU. I once thought of getting an AMD Athlon . I'm in the
Uk.

I think a Throroughbred B (AXDA2600DKV3C) has a 266 MHz FSB and will drop
into my mobo maybe without a PSU upgrade or more cooling.


------------

MOBO : Syntax 266a = Socket-A AMD with a Via SV133A chipset.


CPU: AMD Duron 1800 MHz with large heatsink & fan


MEMORY: one 500 MB and one 250MB SD-RAM


PSU: Rated at 250 W. Will support 6+ hard drives

 

[Chris Whelan]

I want to get a faster cpu but not one that is very hot or which must
have a bigger PSU. I once thought of getting an AMD Athlon . I'm in the
Uk.

I think a Throroughbred B (AXDA2600DKV3C) has a 266 MHz FSB and will
drop into my mobo maybe without a PSU upgrade or more cooling.


------------

MOBO : Syntax 266a = Socket-A AMD with a Via SV133A chipset.


CPU: AMD Duron 1800 MHz with large heatsink & fan


MEMORY: one 500 MB and one 250MB SD-RAM


PSU: Rated at 250 W. Will support 6+ hard drives

------------

Where can I get an Athlon XP 2600+ cpu for my old system (preferably not
ebay)? Is there some other processor for my system which is better
value

The difference in perceived performance between those two CPU's will be
small to the extent that it is not really worth doing.

Your system is several generations behind today's technology. There is no
possibility of an Athlon other than second hand.

Tell us what you are doing with the machine that needs a speed increase,
and we might be able to advise whether or not it's worth doing. Odds are,
it's not...

Chris

 

[Bernard Peek]

I want to get a faster cpu but not one that is very hot or which must
have a bigger PSU. I once thought of getting an AMD Athlon . I'm in the
Uk.

I think a Throroughbred B (AXDA2600DKV3C) has a 266 MHz FSB and will drop
into my mobo maybe without a PSU upgrade or more cooling.


------------

MOBO : Syntax 266a = Socket-A AMD with a Via SV133A chipset.


CPU: AMD Duron 1800 MHz with large heatsink & fan

My old rule of thumb was that I should upgrade when I could build a new
machine with twice the clock-speed.

To get a significant improvement on the perceived speed you would need
to upgrade to a processor at about the 3GHz mark. That certainly isn't
going to fit in your current motherboard.

You should probably plan on replacing substantially the entire system.
Right now the sweet spot for you would be a system with one of the
mid-range Core 2 Duo processors. Two 1.7GHz cores plus the move to newer
processor and memory technologies should give you a reasonable speed
boost for a sensible price.

You don't say what you use the system for. I suspect that if it's a
gaming machine then upgrading the graphics card might give you a cheap
performance boost but it would only be postponing the inevitable.

 

[Peter Wilson]

The difference in perceived performance between those two CPU's will
be small to the extent that it is not really worth doing.

Your system is several generations behind today's technology. There
is no possibility of an Athlon other than second hand.

Tell us what you are doing with the machine that needs a speed
increase, and we might be able to advise whether or not it's worth
doing. Odds are, it's not...

Chris

I was housekeeping the AMD Duron PC and was pleased how acceptable the
response times were. I intend to keep it as a backup when I've bought a
new one.

My PCs are used for home office.

I figured I may as well upgrade whatever gives the best value improvement
(while any parts are available). Wouldn't a cpu upgrade be worth it?
Maybe memory?

 

[Peter Wilson]

My old rule of thumb was that I should upgrade when I could build a
new machine with twice the clock-speed.

To get a significant improvement on the perceived speed you would
need to upgrade to a processor at about the 3GHz mark. That
certainly isn't going to fit in your current motherboard.

You should probably plan on replacing substantially the entire
system. Right now the sweet spot for you would be a system with one
of the mid-range Core 2 Duo processors. Two 1.7GHz cores plus the
move to newer processor and memory technologies should give you a
reasonable speed boost for a sensible price.

You don't say what you use the system for. I suspect that if it's a
gaming machine then upgrading the graphics card might give you a
cheap performance boost but it would only be postponing the
inevitable.

Not for gaming but home office.

I'm starting to deal with audio recordings of meetings and will need to
get another PC with RAID. (I can't afford to lose recordings if a disk
fails).

I can't keep up with such fast moving PC technology. Do you happen to
know if there's a Dell office system (just as a reference point) with the
sort of cpu you mention and which supports RAID?

ISTR at one time, a custom PC was almost twice the price of an off-the-
shelf PC such as a Dell.

 

[Bernard Peek]

In message <[email protected]>, Peter

Not for gaming but home office.

I'm starting to deal with audio recordings of meetings and will need to
get another PC with RAID. (I can't afford to lose recordings if a disk
fails).

If the recordings are that important then you need to consider all of
the data security options. A system with RAID is possibly part of the
solution but not necessarily. A regular backup to some form of removable
media that can be kept off site would be my starting point. You need to
assess the relative probability of various threats and devise a business
continuity plan that's tailored to the risks.

I can't keep up with such fast moving PC technology. Do you happen to
know if there's a Dell office system (just as a reference point) with the
sort of cpu you mention and which supports RAID?

RAID is an option usually chosen for server systems rather than desktop
machines. If your current desktop machine is adequate then you may want
to buy a server system rather than a faster desktop machine.

 

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

The difference in perceived performance between those two CPU's will be
small to the extent that it is not really worth doing.

I do not necessarily agree there, I updated my backup system from an
XP1800 to an XP 2200 and while not revolutionary it was noticeably
faster, this gent is talking about going from a Duron with a limited
cache to an XP with a much larger cache, that is a generation newer as
well as with a much higher multiplier, while not as good as replacing a
motherboard with something modern it should be noted that these go for
only 5 to 10 pounds and thus make a cheap and quick upgrade.

 

[philo]

I want to get a faster cpu but not one that is very hot or which must
have a bigger PSU. I once thought of getting an AMD Athlon . I'm in the
Uk.

I think a Throroughbred B (AXDA2600DKV3C) has a 266 MHz FSB and will drop
into my mobo maybe without a PSU upgrade or more cooling.


------------

MOBO : Syntax 266a = Socket-A AMD with a Via SV133A chipset.


CPU: AMD Duron 1800 MHz with large heatsink & fan


MEMORY: one 500 MB and one 250MB SD-RAM


PSU: Rated at 250 W. Will support 6+ hard drives

I'd not bother fooling with a new CPU...
for a very low price you could put in 2 -3 gigs of RAM

 

[Rob Morley]

I figured I may as well upgrade whatever gives the best value
improvement (while any parts are available). Wouldn't a cpu upgrade
be worth it? Maybe memory?

Put it this way - DDR RAM is so expensive relative to DDR2 that you
could buy 2GB of DDR for £50 or a Celeron E1400, motherboard and 2GB
DDR2 for £81 (eBuyer prices). So you can eke out your old system as
long as possible, or effectively upgrade to dual core 64 bit for £31
(assuming you were going to upgrade the RAM in the old system anyway).

 

[Chris Whelan]

I'd not bother fooling with a new CPU... for a very low price you could
put in 2 -3 gigs of RAM

The OP's motherboard only has two RAM slots,and uses SDRAM.

The type of RAM he would need is virtually unavailable in 1GB modules.

512MB of PC133 SDRAM now cost over 40UKP each.

The sweet spot for XP memory is 1GB; for pretty much every use, including
editing large graphics files, more than that shows only minuscule
improvement.

To be blunt, the OP would be best advised to use this system as-is until
he needs/can afford something better.

Chris

 

[Clint Sharp]

I'm starting to deal with audio recordings of meetings and will need to
get another PC with RAID. (I can't afford to lose recordings if a disk
fails).

*Sigh*. RAID is *NOT* a backup solution, it's entirely possible to lose
a complete RAID set with all data, I've seen it again this weekend on a
customer's site (they do have full tape backups though). You'd be far
better to make regular backups to external or removable media that you
store off site.

 

[Peter Wilson]

I do not necessarily agree there, I updated my backup system from an
XP1800 to an XP 2200 and while not revolutionary it was noticeably
faster, this gent is talking about going from a Duron with a limited
cache to an XP with a much larger cache, that is a generation newer
as well as with a much higher multiplier, while not as good as
replacing a motherboard with something modern it should be noted
that these go for only 5 to 10 pounds and thus make a cheap and
quick upgrade.

The AMD Duron 1800 runs at 1800 MHz.
The AMD Athlon XP 1800+ runs at 1533 MHz.

However, the Athlon has larger L2 cache (256KB versus 64KB)

 

[Peter Wilson]

In message <[email protected]>, Peter


If the recordings are that important then you need to consider all
of the data security options. A system with RAID is possibly part of
the solution but not necessarily. A regular backup to some form of
removable media that can be kept off site would be my starting
point. You need to assess the relative probability of various
threats and devise a business continuity plan that's tailored to the
risks.


RAID is an option usually chosen for server systems rather than
desktop machines. If your current desktop machine is adequate then
you may want to buy a server system rather than a faster desktop
machine.

The server systems I saw at Dell are a lot more expensive.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a basic machine and add a PCI RAID card?

 

[Rob Morley]

The OP's motherboard only has two RAM slots,and uses SDRAM.

I was thinking DDR, but of course the earlier socket A boards were
SDRAM.

The type of RAM he would need is virtually unavailable in 1GB modules.

512MB of PC133 SDRAM now cost over 40UKP each.

The sweet spot for XP memory is 1GB; for pretty much every use,
including editing large graphics files, more than that shows only
minuscule improvement.

To be blunt, the OP would be best advised to use this system as-is
until he needs/can afford something better.

It's not such a bad spec for basic office/internet work. Of course it
might work better with Linux rather than Windows.

 

[Chris Whelan]

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:15:17 +0100, Rob Morley wrote:

[...]

It's not such a bad spec for basic office/internet work. Of course it
might work better with Linux rather than Windows.

Only if KDE4 was avoided...

Chris

 

[Rob Morley]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a basic machine and add a PCI RAID card?

You can skip the PCI card and run software RAID - but RAID won't
protect you from data loss other than that caused by the failure of one
of your disks. If the PSU dies it can take both disks with it, if the
mobo dies it can corrupt both disks, if you make a mistake or get a
virus then data can be lost. And your office might burn or flood ...

 

[Rob Morley]

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:15:17 +0100, Rob Morley wrote:

[...]

It's not such a bad spec for basic office/internet work. Of course
it might work better with Linux rather than Windows.

Only if KDE4 was avoided...

I wouldn't know about that, I'm a Gnome person but Xubuntu might be a
better choice for this sort of spec.

 

[Chris Whelan]

On Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:15:17 +0100, Rob Morley wrote:

[...]

It's not such a bad spec for basic office/internet work. Of course
it might work better with Linux rather than Windows.

Only if KDE4 was avoided...

I wouldn't know about that, I'm a Gnome person but Xubuntu might be a
better choice for this sort of spec.

Nah, Mepis...wait! Don't let's go there ;-)

Chris

 

[DerekW]

I want to get a faster cpu but not one that is very hot or which must
have a bigger PSU. I once thought of getting an AMD Athlon . I'm in the
Uk.

I think a Throroughbred B (AXDA2600DKV3C) has a 266 MHz FSB and will drop
into my mobo maybe without a PSU upgrade or more cooling.


------------

MOBO : Syntax 266a = Socket-A AMD with a Via SV133A chipset.


CPU: AMD Duron 1800 MHz with large heatsink & fan


MEMORY: one 500 MB and one 250MB SD-RAM


PSU: Rated at 250 W. Will support 6+ hard drives

Try uk.adverts.computer there is a steady throughput of older hardware you
may even get a deal on a better (i.e. faster fsb) board with processor.
DerekW

 

[Bernard Peek]

The server systems I saw at Dell are a lot more expensive.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a basic machine and add a PCI RAID card?

Yes but if you are aiming for a high reliability system then a RAID card
and a bog-standard desktop machine is not the way to go. You need to
upgrade all of the hardware, which is one reason why server systems are
more expensive. Cheap RAID cards don't add much reliability to the
system and a genuine RAID card will cost as much as the rest of your PC
and then you need four or five drives to go with it.

There are other solutions that you should look at long before you
consider using RAID.