Upgrading... sort of... Intel P2 266 to AMD Duron 700

T

TC

I have a Dell Dimension XP 266 with a P2. I have been presented with a
BIOSTAR M7VKB mobo with an AMD Duron 700Mhz.

How much more powerful is this? Is it worth swapping mobos?

Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new board?
That is, will the board and processor support it?

The board, processor (with fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being
offered to me for $50. I need to replace the fan on the graphics card.
Is this worth it?

Thanks!
 
W

Wes Newell

I have a Dell Dimension XP 266 with a P2. I have been presented with a
BIOSTAR M7VKB mobo with an AMD Duron 700Mhz.

How much more powerful is this?

About 3 times.
Is it worth swapping mobos?

It would be to me. I changed my old 400MHz MII to a Duron 600 and was
amazed at the difference.
Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new board?
That is, will the board and processor support it?
Should support up to AGP 4X.
The board, processor (with fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being
offered to me for $50. I need to replace the fan on the graphics card.
Is this worth it?
The Ti 4200 is worth more than that. If it's just the MB and CPU, then $50
seems high, maybe $40. You will need PC100 ram minimum, but PC133 would be
better.
 
C

Cuzman

" Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new board?
That is, will the board and processor support it? The board, processor (with
fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being offered to me for $50. I need
to replace the fan on the graphics card. Is this worth it? "


The M7VKB supports AGP4x, which is fine for the Ti4200. It also supports up
to 768MB PC133 SDRAM from 3 DIMM slots, and can support 200FSB AMD Athlons /
Durons up to the Athlon Thunderbird 'B' 1400+ . You can download the
manual, drivers and BIOS updates from here:
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=m7vkb

The Duron 700 will be fine to start off with this board. I'm not sure what
RAM you already have, but 128MB or 256MB PC133 would be recommended, the
amount depending on your operating system and what you use your PC for.

As for the Ti4200's fan, you can get a Thermaltake A1349 for $7.94 ($2.99 +
$4.95 s/h) from this ebay seller: http://snipurl.com/5vpp . You will also
need Nvidia's Detonator drivers for the Ti4200 from
http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/ . I would recommend version 45.32 for
stability with the Ti4200.

Problems usually arise when you come to upgrade and install it all. If you
don't have a manual for the motherboard, then you should print the PDF
manual from the link I gave above. I'm not sure how Dell supplied your
operating system, but if you aren't running XP, then you will most likely
need to do a full re-installation of Windows from an original CD with
license key (which means you'll need to back-up stuff you need). You should
also make a boot-disk floppy from http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm
in order to do all of this. I'd also recommend putting all of the
aforementioned drivers on a CD if you have a CDRW (along with stuff you wish
to keep).

If your hard drive has an OEM version of Windows without a CD then you could
have major problems, as the conflicts between your old and new motherboard
drivers won't like each other. You may have a *restore* CD to set the
system back to factory settings, but this would just have the original
motherboard drivers on also.

If you do have a full version of Windows, then the following steps should
sort you out:

1) Create the boot-disk
2) Burn the relevant motherboard / graphics card drivers to CD
3) Back-up stuff you wish to keep
4) Make notes of internet connection settings
5) Install all of the hardware
6) Load *Fail-Safe Defaults" from main menu in the BIOS
7) Format the hard drive from the boot-disk
8) Install Windows (with original CD and license key)
9) Install motherboard chipset and audio drivers
10) Install Nvidia Detonator drivers
 
T

TC

Cuzman said:
" Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new
board? That is, will the board and processor support it? The board,
processor (with fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being offered
to me for $50. I need to replace the fan on the graphics card. Is
this worth it? "


The M7VKB supports AGP4x, which is fine for the Ti4200. It also
supports up to 768MB PC133 SDRAM from 3 DIMM slots, and can support
200FSB AMD Athlons / Durons up to the Athlon Thunderbird 'B' 1400+ .
You can download the manual, drivers and BIOS updates from here:
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=m7vkb

The Duron 700 will be fine to start off with this board. I'm not
sure what RAM you already have, but 128MB or 256MB PC133 would be
recommended, the amount depending on your operating system and what
you use your PC for.

As for the Ti4200's fan, you can get a Thermaltake A1349 for $7.94
($2.99 + $4.95 s/h) from this ebay seller: http://snipurl.com/5vpp .
You will also need Nvidia's Detonator drivers for the Ti4200 from
http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/ . I would recommend version
45.32 for stability with the Ti4200.

Problems usually arise when you come to upgrade and install it all.
If you don't have a manual for the motherboard, then you should print
the PDF manual from the link I gave above. I'm not sure how Dell
supplied your operating system, but if you aren't running XP, then
you will most likely need to do a full re-installation of Windows
from an original CD with license key (which means you'll need to
back-up stuff you need). You should also make a boot-disk floppy
from http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm in order to do all of
this. I'd also recommend putting all of the aforementioned drivers
on a CD if you have a CDRW (along with stuff you wish to keep).

If your hard drive has an OEM version of Windows without a CD then
you could have major problems, as the conflicts between your old and
new motherboard drivers won't like each other. You may have a
restore CD to set the system back to factory settings, but this would
just have the original motherboard drivers on also.

If you do have a full version of Windows, then the following steps
should sort you out:

1) Create the boot-disk
2) Burn the relevant motherboard / graphics card drivers to CD
3) Back-up stuff you wish to keep
4) Make notes of internet connection settings
5) Install all of the hardware
6) Load *Fail-Safe Defaults" from main menu in the BIOS
7) Format the hard drive from the boot-disk
8) Install Windows (with original CD and license key)
9) Install motherboard chipset and audio drivers
10) Install Nvidia Detonator drivers

Wow! Thanks for all the details!
 
S

sooky grumper

TC said:
I have a Dell Dimension XP 266 with a P2. I have been presented with a
BIOSTAR M7VKB mobo with an AMD Duron 700Mhz.

How much more powerful is this? Is it worth swapping mobos?

Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new board?
That is, will the board and processor support it?

The board, processor (with fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being
offered to me for $50. I need to replace the fan on the graphics card.
Is this worth it?

Thanks!

I'm not sure if the others mentioned this, but you probably won't be
able to use the new motherboard with the dell power supply. Dell used to
wire their power supplies differently than ATX standard. This is
assuming you can even fit the new motherboard in Dell's case, which may
also be proprietary. My advice? Seeing as you seem to be getting a
pretty sweat deal on the components for your upgrade, buy a new case and
a new PSU (preferable quality rather than generic, I prefer Antec).
Also, there're plenty of places that sell heat sinks or heat pumps
(Zalman make this IIRC) that you *might* be able to use on that nice
video card so it won't need a fan.
 

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