Motherboard

[Guest]

Hi,

Can anyone please help; I have been given the following task for a project at work and would appreciate any help and advice, I need to demonstrate Windows XP Professional and Office XP Professional on a couple of PC’s, and the only PC’s I have are: (And I can't purchase new)

The first PC has the following specification and motherboard:

· ATX case
· ATX Motherboard
· Pentium 200Mhz processor
· 16 MB RAM
· 4GB HDD
· 32x CD-ROM drive
· 8MB ATI Xpert 98 Graphics Card

The specification of the first PC’s motherboard is:

MANUFACTURER
Asus
MANUFACTURER PART#
P5A
PLATFORM
Socket 7
PROCESSOR TYPE
Pentium(r), Pentium(r) MMX(tm), K5(r), K6(r), 6x86, 6x86MX,
CHIPSET
ALi M1541/43
FRONTSIDE BUS
66, 75, 83, 100MHz
FORM FACTOR
ATX
BOARD SIZE
21.2cm x 30.5cm (8.3" x 12")
L2 CACHE
512KB
AGP SLOTS
1 x AGP 2X
ISA SLOTS
2
PCI SLOTS
5
MAX RAM
384MB
DIMM SOCKETS
3
BIOS
AWARD
ON BOARD AUDIO
High Performance ESS Solo-1TM PCI Audio Controller
Sound Blaster 16 and Microsoft Sound System Compatible
Up to 16-bit Stereo 44KHz Sampling Rate, Full Duplex
Microsoft(r) PC97/PC98 Compliant
Software WaveTable Bundled
3D Audio Effects and ESFMTM Music Synthesizer
ON BOARD I/O
1 Floppy Port (up to 2.88MB, 3 Mode )
2 Serial Ports
1 Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
FIR TX/RX Header
ON BOARD IDE
2 x PCI Bus Master IDE ports (Support up to 4 IDE devices) Support:
PIO Mode 3 & 4 : 17MB/Sec. DMD Mode 2 : 17MB/Sec.
(Max.; The Actual Transfer Speed Depends On HD)
ATAPI IDE CD-ROM and LS-120 Supported
Ultra DMA/33 : 33MB/Sec.(Synchronous DMA Mode

The second PC’s specification and motherboard is:

· * Baby AT case
· * Baby AT motherboard
· * 486DX4-100 Processor
· * 16 MB RAM
· * 2 GB HDD
· * 8x CD-ROM drive
· * 2MB S3 PCI graphics card

The specification of the second PC’s motherboard is:

FIC 486-PIO-3


MANUFACTURER
FIC
MANUFACTURER PART#
486-PIO-3
PROCESSOR TYPE
486DX, DX2, DX4, 5x86,
CHIPSET
VIA Pluto
FORM FACTOR
Baby AT
L2 CACHE
1MB
ISA SLOTS
4
PCI SLOTS
3
MAX RAM
64MB
SIMM SOCKETS
2
ON BOARD I/O
WB 787F/787IF + DS14185 Multi-I/O chipset; 2 serial ports with 16550 UART; 1 parallel port with ECP/EPP; PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse
ON BOARD IDE
Built-in IDE and FDC interface


And for each of the computers, I have to identify what upgrades would be required to ensure the software will run adequately, and also Identify any problems that I may encounter in upgrading the computer systems.

I do realise this is a lot to ask; however any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Jon

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Wow! You can't do anything with WinXP and Office XP on either machines!
First thing, at least 128mb of Ram (256mb would be better) and a PII 400 cpu or better.

With your first PC, you might be able to get away with your current motherboard and upgrade the CPU to an AMD K6-2 450mhz. Definitely add more RAM. That should be sufficient.

For the second PC, you can savage everything but the PowerSupply, Motherboard, and CPU. For a cheap solution, I would get the $50 ECS k7s5a motherboard and a $30 Duron processor. Get a new (AMD Certified) 300+ watt powersuplly and case, and add a stick of 256mb of RAM--you're all set.


See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Guest]

Hi thanks for the information, so you are saying for the first PC with the Asus motherboard I can leave the current motherboard in and upgrade the CPU to an AMD K6-2 450mhz, and of course add more RAM, what type of RAM would that be? (would you envisage any problems with the upgrade?)

And for the second PC there is nothing I can really do with it?

Regards,

Jon

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Read the private message I sent you.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Ncogneto]

Sell the Asus and throw the 486 in the trash right after you salvage the floppy and maybe cd-rom. Yes the p5a can be upgraded to run windows xp but it is hardly worth the cost. Sticky is either missing or doesn't know about an issue with the p5a coupled with a k6-2 cpu ( or any pentium socket 7 cpu for that matter. You see with a k6-2 it can only cache 128 meg of ram, and this will me a bare minimum for running xp. Now, you could upgrade it with a k6-3 or k6-3+ and that would allow it to cache up to 2 meg, but these processors are getting scarce and expensive. It really is time for your office to invest in some real computers.

Another Cookie? Who is going to pay my dentist bill?

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Actually, it depends.
If he has one of the newer boards with revision 1.04 or higher, then it would have the Ali Aladdin V revision 'F' chipset that can cache up to 512mb of ram.
If he has an older version with the Ali Aladdin V revision 'E' chipset, then you're right--128mb would really be on the boarder of XP's minimum. Then again, I thought the guy only needs it to demonstrate WinXP and OfficeXP to his employers, not actually use it with everyday apps--though, im not sure.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Ncogneto]

p5a (PCB Rev. 1.06 and over) uses Ali Alladin V Revision G/H. These two revisions have larger cacheable area, but have compatibility issues with all the K6 CPUs made after March 2000 -- the performance is seriously affected (very slow). so here you have to be carefull of the manufactor date of the cpu, but you are indeed correct.

The older ( and better ) boards have the cache limitation. However, they are the only versions that will run the + series of CPU's. Disabling the l2 onboard and running a k6-3 series allows you to cache up to 2 gigs.

I am thinking that do to the fact he has a p5a with a pentium 200 chances are he has an older version of the board. But you are indeed correct, I just did not want to get in to that much detail because I wasn't sure he would understand.

At any rate, I think that he will fail to impress upon his employer the usefullness of winxp and office xp on this system. It will be slow, not to mention that the two combined will occupy over 2gigs of his 4 gig hard drive.

Another Cookie? Who is going to pay my dentist bill?