upgrade questions

[Guest]

I've got a couple questions about upgrading a PII 350. First off, Do you think a PIII 700 would be possible? On my mother board the dip switches go up to 500 mhz. What would happen if I put the 700 mhz in? Would it run at 500 mhz instead of 700 mhz? Also, the power supply is somewhat small, 145 watts. The computer manufacturer says a 200 was the highest they tested but I would like to install a 300 watt. Could this fry the motherboard? I have a geforce2 gts and the smallest power supply they recomend is a 250. Would it be ok to install the 250? My system specs are as follows: PII 350, 256 megg pc100 ram, 2 10 gig hardrives, mx300 sound card, and a Elsa Gladiac Geforce2 gts w/ 32 megg of ddr ram. Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Guest]

1. Your cpu upgrade potential depends totally on your motherboard. There are voltage differences and you would most likely need a BIOS upgrade. If you list all the specifics of your motherboard, maybe someone has one and could help. The best course is to get the info from the manufacturer, if possible.

2. As long as you put in the correct type of power supply, the extra power will not hurt the motherboard. It's just there if you need it, it doesn't "blast it all out."

Mike

 

[Guest]

Mike, thanks for responding. I am almost ashamed to say it's a Compaq. I talked with Compaq and they said a PIII 500 was as far as I could go. I just didn't know if they were telling me this in the hopes that I would buy another computer. I also downloaded the latest drivers. The mother board I have has the 440bx chipset if that helps. So what would happen if I installed a 700 mhz chip? I looked on the Intel site and found out that the PII 350 actually requires more voltage than the PIII 700. Could there be the possibility of frying the 700 if I installed it? Thanks for the help!

 

[Guest]

BINGO!

I really don't think you would fry it (always a possability but the cpu would probably shut off before it got fried), but it wouldn't boot. The motherboard you have can not supply the lower voltage required for the Cumine cores more than likely. Somebody else has a similar situation with an Intel SE440BX. He is going to try a Powerleap solution. The make an adapter PL-iP3. Some people on the boards at www.powerleap.com are having success with it, and for 60$ for the adapter and you can add any FC-PGA 100 fsb PIII you want. It's not bad if it works. So you can go over there and maybe post a question in their forum with your comp model .. be better if you had a model # etc for the mb.

 

[Guest]

If the adapter is 60$ you could swap the motherboard out and with that and the cost of the 700 get a good amd motherboard/cpu. The concerns at that point get to be if you're upgrading mbd, proc, video and ps, you're upgrading half the system. Also, you're putting it in a case that might not be able to handle the heat. Might want to look at barebones systems or barebones kits as a decent upgrade path instead of trying to rig a system to handle more than it was designed for (at half+ the cost of just putting it in a new case).

Another point of view to enlighten or confuse.

"The answer is not in your hair."
"I'd rather jump in the lava than be fragged by you."

 

[Guest]

just buy a new mobo + cpu and put that geforce2 to work
because is seems totally out of place in a 350 system

I want a tbird