Upgrading clevo/via p4m266 board... grave doubts.

[Charlie Wilkes]

I bought this as a barebones system not quite 2 years ago because I
wanted something that could do a better job of image processing, cd
burning, etc. than my assortment of late-90s machiness. The great
selling point was price. The machine has been fine, used as intended.

Now, however, I want to add a DVD burner and a graphics card (ati "all
in wonder" 128mb). I also want to add ram (from 380mb to 1gb) and go
from 98se to 2k. I want to be able to edit video and burn DVDs, and
also get a little better performance for games that aren't exactly the
latest games but balky with the current configuration.

I spent $70 for a 2.6ghz celeron to replace the 1.7ghz celeron that
came with the box. I might be able to adjust the FSB frequency and
get a little extra performance. But I am looking at a minimum of $90
for a 1gb stick of value ram. That brings me to $160 to upgrade a
cheesy board. Thus, I am having buyer's remorse over the processor
and buyer hesitation over the pc2100 ram. I wonder if I'd be better
off exchanging the cpu for an athlon xp and buying a good socket A
board. But, that would add add to my cost, and I would still need the
ram.

What does everyone think? What socket A board/processor combo would
be cheap and good ($200 or less). Or, can I expect to get decent
performance from what I've got if I tweak it right?

Thanks.

Charlie

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

What does everyone think? What socket A board/processor combo would
be cheap and good ($200 or less). Or, can I expect to get decent
performance from what I've got if I tweak it right?

I should mention that the combo I have been looking at is asus a7n8x-x
board and athlon xp 2500+ 1.8ghz. The board is about $80 and the chip
$120. Would this combo be a little better than the celeron on a
400mhz board, or a lot better? Is there a better combo for the same
$$$?

Charlie

 

[Ian D.]

I should mention that the combo I have been looking at is asus a7n8x-x
board and athlon xp 2500+ 1.8ghz. The board is about $80 and the chip
$120. Would this combo be a little better than the celeron on a
400mhz board, or a lot better? Is there a better combo for the same
$$$?

Charlie

That's old tech at pretty high prices. Since you've already bought the
Celeron 2.6, well.... I believe you can use faster ram at the PC2100
settings. PC3200 don't cost more and could be more useful in the
future, or at least easier to sell.
Well, my suggestion is to just get the better ram and see if you can
live with the 2.6 Celeron. Will your PSU be enough for that hungry
Celeron, AIW, 1GB ram and DVD-RW?

But why didn't you consider socket 754 from the start?
A Sempron64 2800+ cost about 75$.
Despite lower clock and less cache, It should compare well with the
XP2500+ under most circumstances. But the neat thing is that it
supports SSE2 and SSE3 which will make a good difference for many
video applications.( Socket A CPUs don't have SSE2/3.)
It also runs cooler. (It also supports x64, which means you may have a
chance to run vista64 on this in the future if need be)

But if you're prepared to spend $120, there are plenty of stronger
CPUs available for s754. What sticks out in my eye is the $125
Athlon64 3000+ with "Venice" core ( == ADA3000BXBOX ). That's a little
beauty, quite underrated at "3000+". Per clock, it runs 30% faster
than the Barton core AthlonXP (and it has a 2GHz clock). And it
supports SSE2/3, and 64-bit. And use less power.

Would your desired AIW card be AGP?
You should be able to get a good s754 MB for about $50. For AGP
boards, the nForce3-250 chipset is highly regarded. But I believe VIA
K8T800 is also quite ok.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

That's old tech at pretty high prices.
Since you've already bought the
Celeron 2.6, well.... I believe you can use faster ram at the PC2100
settings. PC3200 don't cost more and could be more useful in the
future, or at least easier to sell.
Well, my suggestion is to just get the better ram and see if you can
live with the 2.6 Celeron. Will your PSU be enough for that hungry
Celeron, AIW, 1GB ram and DVD-RW?

Aha! You just delivered the answer my wallet and I wanted to hear.
Thank you from both of us.

Good to know about the RAM. I thought that might be the case. I will
get pc3200 and hope I don't start yet another fire.

As for the power supply, yes, I need a better one and have since my
barebones cheapy was new. This group has been helpful, because now I
know to get a 20+4.

But why didn't you consider socket 754 from the start?
A Sempron64 2800+ cost about 75$.

My thought was to go with components that got a lot of good reviews
when they were new but are now discounted.

Despite lower clock and less cache, It should compare well with the
XP2500+ under most circumstances. But the neat thing is that it
supports SSE2 and SSE3 which will make a good difference for many
video applications.( Socket A CPUs don't have SSE2/3.)
It also runs cooler. (It also supports x64, which means you may have a
chance to run vista64 on this in the future if need be)

But if you're prepared to spend $120, there are plenty of stronger
CPUs available for s754. What sticks out in my eye is the $125
Athlon64 3000+ with "Venice" core ( == ADA3000BXBOX ). That's a little
beauty, quite underrated at "3000+". Per clock, it runs 30% faster
than the Barton core AthlonXP (and it has a 2GHz clock). And it
supports SSE2/3, and 64-bit. And use less power.

Would your desired AIW card be AGP?

Yes. I bought a pull from mwave.com for $100.

You should be able to get a good s754 MB for about $50. For AGP
boards, the nForce3-250 chipset is highly regarded. But I believe VIA
K8T800 is also quite ok.

VIA is ok, nVidia is better... that seems to be the refrain of the
marketplace.

I think I will stick with what I'm doing and see how the result pans
out. Then I can slowly plan a better upgrade strategy.

Thanks for your help.

Charlie