need Socket A advice

[jmwpom3]

I have a friend who's got an FIC AU31 mobo. The specs on the thing are:
FSB 100-166 Mhz
Bus Speeds 100 - 250MHz
So here's my question:
He has very little cash. He's running an Athlon 900 mhz now. What would be a good low cost option to upgrade for a temporary performance boost? Can you put an Athlon XP with a higher bus speed on? Or, if you can lower the bus speed, will that nullify the performance gain?
Any other suggestions welcome. He's looking to spend less than $100 if possible; I told you, short term,low cost fix.
Thanx

PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.

 

[endyen]

Are you sure it's an au31? The au31 uses the nforce2 chipset. It supports chips up to the 166/333 fsb xp3000+.
Generally, if the user is willing to OC, I recommend the xp-m (mobile) chips. The xp-m2500 runs fairly well at 2.4ghz, on air, and has been known to get to 2.6 and higher.

 

[jmwpom3]

im just giving you the specs right from the website. They could be wrong i suppose. I haven't even seen the thing at all. But that is the right board # and as far as i know, the board doesn't cater to oc very much. It's an oem board, and like i said, its an old Athlon 900. So, much may have changed with bios upgrade and the like. I'm kinda passing messages here just trying to find a cheap boost for him.
BTW, im going by the specs at this http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/FIC/AU31/
this could be out of date


PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state. <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jmwpom3 on 03/05/05 09:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

AU31 is it's alpha numeric, here is the board <A HREF="http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/amd/k7m-nf18g.aspx" target="_new">http://www.fic.com.tw/product/motherboard/amd/k7m-nf18g.aspx</A>
Note, you can put a 200/400mhz fsb chip (xp3000+ or xp3200+) in this board, if you install a seperate graphics card.

 

[jmwpom3]

thanks alot boss, that's mainly what i wanted to know. Now I just need to find a cheap ($60 or so)cpu for him.




PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.

 

[endyen]

I'm guessing he's using the onboard graphics, so one of these <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-209&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-209&depa=0</A> should do fine. It will give him a lot more power, and latter, he can get a higher end xp, for a bit more of a boost.

 

[Crashman]

The thing supports all Athlon XP processors with 133MHz and 166MHz busses, including the cheaper Sempron versions.

<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>

 

[dhlucke]

What exactly is he finding slow? How much ram does he have? What kind of hard drive? There might be better ways to spend $100 than a new CPU. Personally I find the CPU performance increase to be negligable compared to the increase I get from more and faster memory, a faster hard drive, and a better graphics card.

<i><b><font color=red>"I think I'd rather let the monkey have its way with me" - Ksoth</font color=red></b></i>

 

[endyen]

Uh, he's running a 900mhz athlon, on a DDR400 mobo. He may be able to get a slight boost from a newer chip.

 

[dhlucke]

No doubt if he needs a faster CPU. What's he doing that requires something faster than 900Mhz? If he's running 128MB of PC1600 then I guarantee memory would be a much better buy

<i><b><font color=red>"I think I'd rather let the monkey have its way with me" - Ksoth</font color=red></b></i>