Upgrading a P3 500Mhz

[Raczyk]

I'm lost, heh, I have an older system, its a Asus P2-99 MB with a P3 500Mhz CPU and 256MB of ram. I was thinking of upgrading the CPU to the highest one I can get and putting an additional 256MB of ram. How do I know how big of a CPU my MB supports? And will will 512MB of ram make a big performance difference? Do you guys think its worth upgrading an older system? I just use it for music, movies and web browsing.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by raczyk on 12/07/03 07:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[SJJM]

You have the highest cpu for your mb. So you need to upgrade you mb to be able to upgrade your cpu.

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[Raczyk]

Are you sure about that the Specifications say it supports Intel Pentium III (450MHz and faster) processors. I also overclocked this CPU to 666Mhz before and it worked fine..

The Bus Frequncy Selection ranges from 66.8MHz to 150.0MHz although it says "Frequencies above 100MHz exceed specifications for the on-board Intel Chipset and are not guaranteed to be stable."

CPU Core: BUS Frequency Multiple are 2x up to 8x.

So I was thinking overclacking my MB to 133Mhz BUS speed and then using the 8x multiplier = 1064MHz. Would this CPU speed work on this Asus p2-99 MB?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by raczyk on 12/07/03 08:00 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[silverpig]

The P3 500 is a slot 1 processor. In order to get anything substantially higher you're looking at FC-PGA, so you'll need a slotket. I'm pretty sure the P3 700 was a 100 MHz FSB processor. There may have been a 750/800/850, I can't remember, but once you start getting up there, then they move to 133 MHz fsb. In order to ensure that it'll work you'll need a 100 MHz fsb proc, as with 133 you're running the AGP out of spec. You say you've overclocked this proc up a bit, so that shouldn't be a problem then.

Maybe with a BIOS flash you could get a tualatin in there, but most certainly a coppermine (up to 1.0 GHz IIRC).

Your board also takes SDRAM which is pretty much obsolete by todays standards. I see it selling for more than DDR ram nowadays too.

I'd suggest you just stick it out as is for as long as you can stand it, then get a new system when you can. You don't have to break the bank, but a 2500 barton, 512 DDR, all in one mobo, and the components from your current system will give you a great upgrade and for cheap.

If you really can't stand it for now, then see if you can find another 256 SDRAM for cheap some place and put that in. It'll give you a nice boost for a while and will tide you over.

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

 

[Crashman]

As far as I know the P2-99 was replaced by the P2B series. The first P2B boards came with VRM 8.2 voltage regulation, which only goes as low as 1.80v. So I'm fairly certain the P2-99 also has VRM 8.2.

I've helped people install Coppermine processors in such boards. Doing this in a VRM 8.2 board requires modifying the processor's voltage detection pin connections. You can do that physically to the CPU, but it's far easier to use a Slotket with adjustable voltage detection. Basically, if the board doesn't configure any CPU with a detected voltage below 1.80v, you have to force your CPU to be detected at 1.80v or more. And Coppermines handle that easily.

But these older slotkets are out of production and hard to find. You could get the Upgradeware Slot-T adapter and use it with a Coppermine, since those are adjustable. But they are also expensive. And even though these are made for Tualatin processors, running one at 1.80v would be suicide.

Another thing, the multiplier on all PIII CPUs is locked. Changing the setting in BIOS doesn't change anything at all.

Your board should be able to support the PIII 600 Katmai. That's the early version similar to yours, with 512kb of slow cache.

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[Crashman]

Doubt it supports Coppermine natively, due to it's early voltage regulator.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[silverpig]

Yeah. Problems... that's why I'm going with the "get an extra 256 of SDRAM for now until you can't stand it anymore, then get a new system" advice

Some day I'll be rich and famous for inventing a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet.

 

[Crashman]

I forgot to mention that a lot of Asus boards had a 10x multiplier limit and can't even run the Powerleap tualatin upgrades.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[baldurga]

The only thing that probably slows your computer is watching movies.
Playing MP3 or internet browsing shouldn't be a problem for your computer (I am writing this reply and listen a CD on a K6-2 400 with 256Mb).

My short experience and based also on other replies, you are better on sticking with your computer as long as you can and buy a new one when necessary. Upgrade is going to cost you quite amount of bucks and headaches.

Bear in mind that you can use most of your old components, as CD, Hard Disc, graphic card, etc. The cost would be the CPU, mobo and DDR ram. Not too much and, if you ever need it, you can upgrade your old components.

Hope this helps!


Still looking for a <b>good online retailer</b> in Spain :frown:

 

[shadus]

Another thing that may give you a pretty significant speed increase if you haven't done it in a long time is formating and reinstalling the operating system on the computer. Alot of cruft builds up overtime and can be cleared out that way if you know what you're doing. Might want to consider a low cost axp solution and use all the components you have except mobo/cpu/ram. Could easily do an nforce2 mobo with a 2500+ processor, onboard video/sound, for < 200$

Shadus