Can someone cast an eye over this idea... plz!

jollyjeffers

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Jul 23, 2002
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hi,

I'm pretty sure the following plan is a fairly safe-bet, but I respect the members of this community - so was hoping that someone could just share their 2 cents (or whatever currency you chose ;) ) as to any potential problems:

Current setup:
AMD Athlon 700mhz Thunderbird (200mhz FSB)
288mb PC100 generic RAM (2x 128mb + 1x 32mb)
Gigabyte GA-7ZM KT133 motherboard*
250w standard PSU (came with the case!)

*details on mobo available here:
<A HREF="http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/7zm.htm" target="_new">http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/7zm.htm</A>

the proposed plan:
1.4ghz Athlon Thunderbird, 266mhz FSB (not in the XP range)
256mb PC133 RAM (change of RAM to match the new processor)

the two important questions:
<b>1.</b> quote from the above motherboard page: <i>"Supports 500MHz ~ 1GHz and faster"</i>, I cant find any concrete documentation regarding what multipliers are available (10x on a 133mhz FSB will just about do!)... Is it likely that my current MOBO will handle the 1.4ghz Athlon?

<b>2.</b> PSU - I have a 250w PSU, I run a USB cd writer occasionally and 2 HDD's; nothing else particularly power-hungry. will the 250w be okay with the 1.4ghz processor?

any comments are greatly appreciated!!
regards,
Jack;
 

Quetzacoatl

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Jan 30, 2002
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It's not going to work. The kt133 chipset only supports a FSB of 100, not 133. You'd need to buy an AthlonB, with the 100mhz (200mhz DDR) FSB. In that same regard, you could get by using Pc100 Sdram, although you're performance won't be as good as the 133fsb Athlon with Pc133 Sdr. I kinda doubt that a 1.4Ghz Athlon Thunderbird, 100Mhz or 133Mhz FSB will work with anything less than 300watts.

Soon enough, Intel will make the i845s...imagine dual channel Sdram...*shudder*
 

Spitfire_x86

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Jun 26, 2002
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Don't buy Athlon 1400. They are notorious for their heat issues. Athlon 1400 comsumes record 74 watt, more than any AMD cpus ever. Get Athlon XP. If you want to save money, buy XP 1600+

Replacing PC100 with with PC133 is very bad idea. PC133 will kill Athlon's performance much and very little better than PC100. For combination of value and performance, get Kingston PC2100 CL2.5 DDR RAM.

You will need a new mobo for supporting DDR RAM. If you are very tight on your budget, get MSI 745 Ultra. Otherwise get MSI KT3 Ultra. Both are ultra stable and good performing SiS 745 and VIA KT333 board. Also inexpensive.

350W psu is highly recommended. 300W may suffice, but 350W is always highly recommended over 300W.
 

tersagun

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Jul 18, 2001
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250W would be enough, but like Quetzacoatl said, you can't do it. Better sell your old PC and buy a new one..

<b>Before getting angry to the (d)evil, just think about who CREATED it!</b> :mad:
 

MeTaLrOcKeR

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May 2, 2001
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Ok...now to clarify everything......PROPERLY.......

you CAN do it unlike everyone else here has said......

a 'C' Type T-Bird with 133Mhz FSB will work on a 100Mhz FSB Based board/chipset (KT133)...only thign is you have to Pencil in your L1 bridges assuming there not already connected....and set your multiplier to 14X and ur FSB at 100MHz....that equals 1.4GHz......

As for getting an XP processor...u cannot do that on ur current motherboard......motherboards with 100MHz FSB Support will NOT support any XP Processors...no bios updates would be available for those....as for this whole adventure for u buying a T-Bird 1.4 and PC-133 SDRAM.....

ur MUCH better off buying a good but cheap board like a MSI 745 board or ASUS A7S333....good CHEAP boards.....and some PC2100 SDRAM...and a cheap ass XP Processor....XP 1600+.......that'll eb MUCH more worth ur while thna what ur propossing to do.....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>