Can I upgrade and keep using PC100/133 ram ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Geneve
  • Start date Start date
G

Geneve

Can I upgrade to a better system and re-use my ram?

I currently dual boot Win98se/win2000 pro.

I need win98se for video work because of my capture card.

I cant afford to plop down 800 bucks this season. If I wait
for another year then maybe.

Thoughts? Questions ?

Machine is a 700mhz P3 and another one is a abit bx133 that has
a one gig p3 intel cpu that for some reason I can not run at that
speed for that board. So wondered if I can upgrade and also avoid
VIA chipsets and not onboard sound, no onboard video, no onboard
nic card. I am not a fan of combo boards I guess I can say.
 
That depends; what is it you wanted to upgrade to? Most current
motherboards require DDR type RAM.
 
Well, you probably don't need to spend $800 to get a new computer these
days. You can get a P4 2.4c 800FSB server from Dell for as low as $380 +
tax earlier this week.

No onboard nic card? Why? I can understand for video and sound, onboard is
usually not as good. But nic? From a user's perspective, I can't
understand why it would matter whether the nic is onboard or not? Most
boards these days come with very good onboard nic, often from 3com or Intel.

- Dave
 
Most boards these days come with onboard lan/sound...you can turn them off
though. The only decent board I can think of that can take newer cpus and
still use sdram is a ECS K7S5A, it has 2 sdr and 2 ddr dimms slots and can
take up to 2700 amd cpus. It's also very cheap.
 
Can I upgrade to a better system and re-use my ram?

I currently dual boot Win98se/win2000 pro.

I need win98se for video work because of my capture card.

I cant afford to plop down 800 bucks this season. If I wait
for another year then maybe.

Thoughts? Questions ?

Machine is a 700mhz P3 and another one is a abit bx133 that has
a one gig p3 intel cpu that for some reason I can not run at that
speed for that board. So wondered if I can upgrade and also avoid
VIA chipsets and not onboard sound, no onboard video, no onboard
nic card. I am not a fan of combo boards I guess I can say.
Click to expand...


BigG:

No.
 
Geneve said:
Can I upgrade to a better system and re-use my ram?
Click to expand...

Generally, no. At least not without considerable performance penalties.
I currently dual boot Win98se/win2000 pro.

I need win98se for video work because of my capture card.
Click to expand...

Video stuff needs plenty of CPU horsepower and - memory bandwidth. SDR
SDRAM just doesn't cut it these days when it comes to these demanding
tasks.
I cant afford to plop down 800 bucks this season. If I wait
for another year then maybe.
Click to expand...

I think upgrading should be possible with less. Let me research some
prices here:

* A7N8X v2.0 Del. - ~100 EUR (similar boards from other manufacturers
can be had for a bit less, and an Albatron board with less onboard
features even for quite a bit less)
* 2x Samsung 256 MiB PC3200 CL3 (dual channel operation!) - ~80 EUR
* Athlon XP 2800+ Barton - ~ 120 EUR
* some cheapish Arctic Cooling CPU cooler - <10 EUR
* good PSU (unless already present - a cheap generic "300W" unit
won't do), say, a Fortron/Sparkle FSP300-60PN - ~40-50 EUR
* case fan - depends, 4-15 EUR

That makes <400 EUR total. Accounting for taxes and the exchange rate,
prices should be roughly similar in US$.
Machine is a 700mhz P3 and another one is a abit bx133 that has
a one gig p3 intel cpu that for some reason I can not run at that
speed for that board.
Click to expand...

The electrolytics maybe? The BX133 was from the period of time when Abit
had considerable capacitor problems.
So wondered if I can upgrade and also avoid
VIA chipsets and not onboard sound, no onboard video, no onboard
nic card. I am not a fan of combo boards I guess I can say.
Click to expand...

The boards mentioned have onboard sound and LAN, but if you wish you can
disable them and stuff in ordinary PCI cards. (Though in case of the LAN
I'd consider this rather pointless, given this usually works. The MCP-T
5.1 audio can also be quite good for onboard sound.)

Stephan
 
The question is not so much can you, but should you. Using SDRAM will
knock off more than 25% of the performance of a modern CPU. You need to
use either DDR or RDRAM (no longer supported in new chipsets, but it's
still an option).

You are letting the tail wag the dog here. A new motherboard, memory
and CPU won't cost anywhere near $800, in fact probably under $400
(obviously it depends what you get), and at the low end, it's possible
to get a new set of motherboard, RAM (DDR) and CPU (Celeron) for under $200.
 
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