Upgrade of AMD K6-2

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philo

Robert said:
What other processor can I use in my vintage Gateway AMD K-2 450?

I would like to see if I can just do a CPU only upgrade without
spending a lot a money for the time being until I save what I need
later on.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...



The best you could do...and that's only if your motherboard has the
appropriate jumpers for clock speed and multiplier...
would be an amd-550.

It really would not be worth it to change cpu's.

What's your OS and amount of RAM?

Just for example: If your are using windows 98 with 64-128 megs of ram...
you could gain some performance by going to 256 megs.

If you have an older 5400rpm harddrive...
a newer 7200rpm harddrive may also help
(though the bios in that machine would prob. not support a terribly
large drive)
 
What other processor can I use in my vintage Gateway AMD K-2 450?

I would like to see if I can just do a CPU only upgrade without
spending a lot a money for the time being until I save what I need
later on.

Thanks

Rob
 
Wow:

What a quick response.

I have Win98 with 96MB. I am upgrading the RAM to the max of 256, I
have two banks according to the Gateway website. I want to upgrade to
XP but not sure if that is not the way to go. I was going to get a
new machine but my roof leak is taking precedence.

Does XP iron out any instability issues?

Thanks
 
Robert N. said:
Wow:

What a quick response.

I have Win98 with 96MB. I am upgrading the RAM to the max of 256, I
have two banks according to the Gateway website. I want to upgrade to
XP but not sure if that is not the way to go. I was going to get a
new machine but my roof leak is taking precedence.

Does XP iron out any instability issues?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Ok...I have run XP on an amd-450 with 256 megs of ram...
and it will work...
but it is best to perform a clean install.

If it is impossible to back up your data...
the next best thing to do would be to dual boot...
but XP should be installed on a 2nd partition.

If you install it on the same partition as win98 you can run into
problems...
but if you never use win98 again...you might be able to get by ok.

If your win98 installtion is unsable...upgrading your installed win98 to XP
may also result in instabilites.
But in general, XP is far more stable that win98...and should rarely (if
ever) crash.

As soon as you get XP installed you should immediately go into the control
panel

then go to system advanced performance

then opt for : adjust for best performance

this will get rid of all the resource hogging "eye candy"

and allow XP to function pretty well...

it won't be fast but it should be quite satisfactory
 
Wow!!! thanks for the quick reply..

I have Win98 and would like to upgrade to XP, I do have some
instability issues and have not done any upgrading to this unit since
I had it in 1999.

Here is what I have. AMD K6-2, 450 with 96MB. I plan on upgrading
the RAM to the max of 256 according to the Gateway website, 2 banks.
I have about 10 gig HDD but do not know what speed.

I was going to get a new machine this year, but my roof leak it taking
precedence :0.
 
I believe the highest speed K-2 you would find would be a 550 mhz, and
then it would possibly be usable only if your bios would see it I would
check the mb manual before any investing for a cpu. Running XP on your
system is possible but your system would be hard pressed for most
applications other than word processing or browsing. Probably the best thing
you could do is to up the RAM, as you have already mentioned and then wait
for some more money to invest in a better system.


These are requirements for XP PRO
Minimum:
233 MHz CPU *
64 MB of RAM (may limit performance and some features) *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Maximum:
4 GB of RAM
2 Physical CPUs (With Hyper-threading 4 Virtual CPUs)

Recommended:
300 MHz CPU *
128 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB
of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the
applications and features you choose to install. Additional available hard
disk space may be required if you are installing over a network.
 
What other processor can I use in my vintage Gateway AMD K-2 450?

I would like to see if I can just do a CPU only upgrade without
spending a lot a money for the time being until I save what I need
later on.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

If you can find a K6-3/500, AND if your motherboard supports
it (search for support of *any* K6-3, and it should be ok),
that is about as good as it'll get. Maybe 15% improvement,
though significantly more in select apps that make good use
of the L2 cache. Overall for general purpose use (since a
system that old isn't really suitable for anything
demanding), it's not worthwhile.

Upping the memory to 256MB is useful for Win98. 256MB still
isn't much for WinXP though and considering the overall
higher memory requirements of XP, XP would best be avoided
on your system.

Unless you are hitting one of the inherant flaws in Win98
such as lack of resources (a LOT of things open
simultaneously, multitasking), more often stability issues
are due to either:

Old buggy applications (replace them)

Poor device drivers (update them)

General hardware instability (try newer bios but system may
be aged and now inable to remain stable because of potential
issues like motherboard capacitors degraded or power supply
failing or dust/residue accumulation in the sockets or other
general age-related degradations, even general dust buildup
in air passageways might be making it run hotter.

IMO WinXP is not a good choice for that system. If all else
fails consider Win2K, it will be faster and more useful with
a 256MB max memory cap. By disabling unnecessary services
you can get it to run with significantly less memory leaving
as much as possible available for the applications.

As other poster mentioned, a new hard drive can be among the
best improvements beyond the memory and at least it would be
reusable in the next system if you later decide to replace
the whole thing. Expect the bios to limit the HDD capacity
it can support, you might find you need an add-on IDE
controller card for best results beyond 32GB.
 
Bunch of crap

If you can find a K6-3/500, AND if your motherboard supports
it (search for support of *any* K6-3, and it should be ok),
that is about as good as it'll get. Maybe 15% improvement,
though significantly more in select apps that make good use
of the L2 cache. Overall for general purpose use (since a
system that old isn't really suitable for anything
demanding), it's not worthwhile.

Upping the memory to 256MB is useful for Win98. 256MB still
isn't much for WinXP though and considering the overall
higher memory requirements of XP, XP would best be avoided
on your system.

Unless you are hitting one of the inherant flaws in Win98
such as lack of resources (a LOT of things open
simultaneously, multitasking), more often stability issues
are due to either:

Old buggy applications (replace them)

Poor device drivers (update them)

General hardware instability (try newer bios but system may
be aged and now inable to remain stable because of potential
issues like motherboard capacitors degraded or power supply
failing or dust/residue accumulation in the sockets or other
general age-related degradations, even general dust buildup
in air passageways might be making it run hotter.

IMO WinXP is not a good choice for that system. If all else
fails consider Win2K, it will be faster and more useful with
a 256MB max memory cap. By disabling unnecessary services
you can get it to run with significantly less memory leaving
as much as possible available for the applications.

As other poster mentioned, a new hard drive can be among the
best improvements beyond the memory and at least it would be
reusable in the next system if you later decide to replace
the whole thing. Expect the bios to limit the HDD capacity
it can support, you might find you need an add-on IDE
controller card for best results beyond 32GB.
Click to expand...
 
Robert said:
I have Win98 and would like to upgrade to XP, I do have some
instability issues and have not done any upgrading to this unit since
I had it in 1999.
Click to expand...
Here is what I have. AMD K6-2, 450 with 96MB. I plan on upgrading
the RAM to the max of 256 according to the Gateway website, 2 banks.
I have about 10 gig HDD but do not know what speed.
Click to expand...

An upgrade to Windows 98SE can be useful for USB devices because many
have no Windows 98 drivers available for them.

Don't increase the amount of memory beyond the motherboard's L2 cache
limit, typically 64M (most have 256K of cache), 256M (512K cache), or
512M (1M cache - rare), or your computer will slow to a crawl. The
exception is when you also replace the processor with a K6-2+, K6-3+,
or K6-III, each which has its own L2 cache However K6-2+ and K6-3+
processors appear to be rare, at least at good prices, and some BIOSes
won't boot with them. The K6-III draws roughly twice the power of a
K6-2 and can damage any motherboard that uses a linear regulator for
the processor core voltage rather than a switching regulator. If you
see at least 1 approximately 1/2" diameter ring with 3-8 turns of thick
wire wrapped around it, then your board has a switching regulator and
can safely power a K6-III.

Use only PC100-compatible memory. Some PC133 memory is
PC100-compatible, but not all is, and you can't tell simply by the chip
count because there are 256M/16-chip and 128M/8-chip PC133 modules
built with 32Mx4 chips that will show only half their capacities with
your motherboard.
 
Thanks folks for the recommendations. Like I said, I was going to get
a new desktiop, but my roof needs attention....

Again I have the AMD K2-450 with 96MB installed, I am going to put the
max I can and hold off on XP. Maybe in a few months I will get that
desktop. I have a few applications that seem heavy (eBay when closing
other eBay windows and SpyWare Dr).

By the way, I have not posted to a UseNet discussion board in years,
but I have barraged by Nigerian Scams. Since two days ago I must have
received 30 of them. But funny thing, they are going go another email
address, not the one shown here in the discussion groups.

Best regards!!!

Rob
 
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