Doing an upgrade from P4T533-C to P4C800-E

  • Thread starter Thread starter JugHead McGraw
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J

JugHead McGraw

and I have a few questions.

My current setup (P4T533-C)
Monitor - Dell 17" Trinitron

Display Adapter - Radeon 7000 w/64MB DDR

Speakers - Harman Kardon

Case - Lian Li PC-60 Aluminum Mid Tower ATX

CPU - Intel P4 2.26Ghz w/533Mhz FSB

Mobo - Asus P4T533-C ATX w/Audio and Lan

Chipset - i850E

HDD #1 - 80GB Western Digital 7200RPM w/8MB cache

HDD#2 - 80GB Maxtor 5200RPM

FDD - Teach 1.44MB

Memory - 512MB Kingston PC1066 ECC RDRAM

CD/RW - Plextor 40/12/40A

PSU - Enermax 431 Watt ATX 12V



My planned upgrade:

Monitor - Dell 17" Trinitron

Display Adapter - Radeon 7000 w/64MB DDR

Speakers - Harman Kardon

Case - Lian Li PC-60 Aluminum Mid Tower ATX

CPU - Intel Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 800MHz FSB w/ 1MB (BOX)

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe 875P P4 ATX

HDD #1 - 80GB Western Digital 7200RPM w/8MB cache

HDD#2 - 80GB Maxtor 5200RPM

FDD - Teach 1.44MB

CD/RW - Plextor 40/12/40A

PSU - Enermax 431 Watt ATX 12V

Memory - Kingston 256MB DDR400 PC3200 CL2.5 DIMM (x4)



I've already learned I'll probably have to flash the bios to the latest
final release to support the new P4 CPU. My question is that I really don't
have the time to do a clean install by reformatting my hard drive, reloading
the OS, and software. What I think I'll do is uninstall all the Asus
drivers that came with my original P4T533-C, and that should clear the
compatability issues with the onboard devices, which will change. By the
way, I'm running Windows XP Pro.



Another possible issue...I have a 160GB HDD which I now have running on the
P4T533-C with a PCI IDE controller to allow the increased drive size. Can I
simply leave off that PCI card in the new PC. Will the native IDE interface
on the new board support drives over 137GB?



Thanks folks for any help or advice.
 
"JugHead said:
and I have a few questions.

My current setup (P4T533-C)
Monitor - Dell 17" Trinitron

Display Adapter - Radeon 7000 w/64MB DDR

Speakers - Harman Kardon

Case - Lian Li PC-60 Aluminum Mid Tower ATX

CPU - Intel P4 2.26Ghz w/533Mhz FSB

Mobo - Asus P4T533-C ATX w/Audio and Lan

Chipset - i850E

HDD #1 - 80GB Western Digital 7200RPM w/8MB cache

HDD#2 - 80GB Maxtor 5200RPM

FDD - Teach 1.44MB

Memory - 512MB Kingston PC1066 ECC RDRAM

CD/RW - Plextor 40/12/40A

PSU - Enermax 431 Watt ATX 12V



My planned upgrade:

Monitor - Dell 17" Trinitron

Display Adapter - Radeon 7000 w/64MB DDR

Speakers - Harman Kardon

Case - Lian Li PC-60 Aluminum Mid Tower ATX

CPU - Intel Pentium 4 3.20E GHz 800MHz FSB w/ 1MB (BOX)

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe 875P P4 ATX

HDD #1 - 80GB Western Digital 7200RPM w/8MB cache

HDD#2 - 80GB Maxtor 5200RPM

FDD - Teach 1.44MB

CD/RW - Plextor 40/12/40A

PSU - Enermax 431 Watt ATX 12V

Memory - Kingston 256MB DDR400 PC3200 CL2.5 DIMM (x4)



I've already learned I'll probably have to flash the bios to the latest
final release to support the new P4 CPU. My question is that I really don't
have the time to do a clean install by reformatting my hard drive, reloading
the OS, and software. What I think I'll do is uninstall all the Asus
drivers that came with my original P4T533-C, and that should clear the
compatability issues with the onboard devices, which will change. By the
way, I'm running Windows XP Pro.



Another possible issue...I have a 160GB HDD which I now have running on the
P4T533-C with a PCI IDE controller to allow the increased drive size. Can I
simply leave off that PCI card in the new PC. Will the native IDE interface
on the new board support drives over 137GB?



Thanks folks for any help or advice.
Click to expand...

One thing I read about, was switching to a standard Microsoft IDE
driver while still running the old system. Go to Device Manager,
and there might be an Intel driver there now. Do an update and
find whatever options the OS has to offer. Take the Microsoft
driver.

I tried cloning my disk to a new disk, with Partition Magic.
With my copy of Win2K, I got a blue screen and an "Inaccessible
Boot Device" on my new P4C800-E Deluxe. I put the disk back on
the old system, installed the Microsoft IDE driver, and then
on the new system, it booted up fine.

Now, normally, with WinXP, you would want the IDE stuff set
to "Enhanced" mode and the operate mode set to [S-ATA]. But
if you are attempting to just move the disk from old to new
machine, I'd try the "Compatible" setting and select the
operate mode that corresponds to using the two PATA connectors.
This will leave the S-ATA interfaces on the ICH5 inaccessible,
but I don't see SATA in your game plan. There is a better
chance that the Compatible setting might work with the
standard Microsoft driver. You could try the Enhanced mode
and see if it works, but I have a feeling that it will give an
Inaccessible Boot Device error until you try Compatible.

In my case, I got my system booted, but I ended up with a less
than optimal setup. My previous installed didn't have the ACPI
HAL, and that is not something you can add later. (I understand
you can go from ACPI to Standard HAL, but not vice versa.)

It is unclear to me, whether a Repair Install will work if the
drivers on the system volume don't correspond to the hardware
you are running. Maybe you could try it, and tell me how it
works out :-) I may want to try that too.

For your "large drive question", see this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q303013

HTH,
Paul
 
My planned upgrade:

Monitor - Dell 17" Trinitron

Display Adapter - Radeon 7000 w/64MB DDR
Click to expand...

I'm curious, what do you plan on using your computer for, that requires
this sort of "upgrade"? Is it just going to be sitting crunching seti/etc
type applications? Or is it for gaming purposes?

The P4T533-C with 1066 RDRAM is quite powerful, pretty much on par with
the 800MHz PC3200 setups. From what I understand, you're planning to swap
the CPU/mobo/memory, and that's pretty much it.

I'd recommend a better video card - it is an obvious bottleneck on your
current system. And, it seems to me you'd get the same performance if you
were to simply forego the new mobo, and purchase a 3.06GHz P4 w/HT (and
512MB RDRAM) instead. Certainly a lot less headache that way, and
basically the same price (or cheaper)...

--
We HAVE been at war with Iraq for 14 years now, bombing their
country on at least a weekly basis.
"U.S.-led sanctions have killed over a million Iraqi citizens,
according to UN studies" - James Jennings
3,000+ innocent Iraqi civilian casualties can't be "wrong"...
 
I'm curious, what do you plan on using your computer for, that requires
this sort of "upgrade"? Is it just going to be sitting crunching seti/etc
type applications? Or is it for gaming purposes?
Click to expand...

Well, I use it as a server. It'll run PHP, MYSql, webserver software, etc.
It will also run a POP mail server, will be a VPN node, and more. I have a
112MB database serving genealogy pages through MYSql. I routinely process
server logs to the tune of 400MB. My website has about 20,000 files, and
FrontPage is kind of slow when doing batch edits. I only get about 16,000
hits a day right now so i really don't want to get a dedicated server. I
also do word processing, graphics design (Photoshop, etc), and manage three
other websites. I also use it with my TIVO for video editing (forgot to
mention I added a DVD burner) Eventually I plan to use the SATA and Raid
options.

I also work with large genealogy files called GEDCOM's. And if they have
over 50,000 individuals like mine, it's very memory intensive to process
those files. It takes about 15 minutes right now to do relationship
calculations.

The P4T533-C with 1066 RDRAM is quite powerful, pretty much on par with
the 800MHz PC3200 setups. From what I understand, you're planning to swap
the CPU/mobo/memory, and that's pretty much it.
Click to expand...

From the reviews I've read, there is a significant memory bandwidth increase
with the PC3200 setup. Right now according to Sandra...
SiSoftware Sandra

Int Buffered iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 3178MB/s
Scaling : 3169MB/s
Addition : 3341MB/s
Triad : 3353MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 76% (estimated)

Float Buffered iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 3173MB/s
Scaling : 3174MB/s
Addition : 3349MB/s
Triad : 3357MB/s
Data Item Size : 16-bytes
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 76% (estimated)

PC3200 DDR puts this more in the range of 5GB+
I'd recommend a better video card - it is an obvious bottleneck on your
current system. And, it seems to me you'd get the same performance if you
were to simply forego the new mobo, and purchase a 3.06GHz P4 w/HT (and
512MB RDRAM) instead. Certainly a lot less headache that way, and
basically the same price (or cheaper)...
Click to expand...

I agree, the video card is a definate slow, and I'll upgrade that at some
point. But it's sufficient right now (since I'm not using 3D Studio
Max....yet). As for the price, 512MB of the RDRAM costs about the same as
1GB of the DDR400. The RAID, SATA capability of the new motherboard will be
used soon, and that's a big plus. I'm one of those people who is bound to
find a way to bog down a computer.
 
You may experience far more problems with changing the motherboard and
not reinstalling the OS than you expect. Or it may work. Let us know.

By the way, there was no need to use a PCI controller on the P4T533
(either -C or not). All of those motherboards natively supported large
hard drives (over 137 gigs).
 
The ONLY reason for switching from a P4T533 (or a P4T533-C) is because
you need MORE memory. In terms of performance, with a 3.02 GHz CPU,
these older systems are still pretty much "top drawer", they are so
close to current "top of the line" that an upgrade isn't worth it.
While the FSB is lower (and the CPU speed slightly lower if you go with
a top-speed P4), the memory bandwidth is substantially higher. The
bottom line is that their overall performance is so close to that of an
800 MHz 3GHz system that an upgrade won't do much. However, it's
prohibitively expensive to put more than 512 megs of RAM into a system
with a P4T533 motherboard.
 
You really won't gain anything performance-wise from the upgrade that
you are planning, compared to a 3.02GHz CPU in the P4T533-C.
 
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