Upgrading an old Athlon 600MHZ

[gf4200isdabest]

Hey guys...I think I'm gonna upgrade my dad's computer. It's specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 600MHZ
FIC SDRAM Mobo
ATI Radeon 8500 64MB
Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM HD
128MB SDRAM (pc100, not sure if that's the right term but its 100 as opposed to 133)
Already have PCI sound, LAN, modem
17'' Sony Trinitron

My dad doesn't play any games on it except for the times that he uses Chessmaster 8000. He mainly wants it to open applications such as Word, Access, Excel, and Outlook as quickly as possible.

I checked some prices and this is what I figured I'd upgrade

Gigabyte SDRAM Mobo (KT133A I believe...) 59
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 63
256MB pc133 SDRAM (I have this RAM lying around my room, not being used for anything...)

$.99 Shipping

Total: 122.99

You guys agree or would you do something differently?

 

[Jayczar]

The system he has looks to be fine for what he is using
it for. I would just add some memory. But if you are going
to upgrade I would look for a better mobo which can be
had for about the same price if not a little more for
that XP proc.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

He gets annoyed when things like IE take a few seconds to load. Also, when he has large Excel files they are really slow. He compared it to my 2.26GHZ Northwood and was really amazed at the speed difference. Now he wants me to handle upgrading it for him (go figure ). He won't be willing to spend a lot of money on it. Probably 200 bucks max...

I figure that upgrading those 3 things would let him have performance "close to" what he got on my computer as long as he sticks to basic M$ apps...

 

[hbkh]

I would get DDR ram and a slightly bettter DDR capable motherboard which would still keep you under the $200 mark and would give much better performance.

 

[OverVolt]

That upgrade sounds perfect! I wouldn't advise Giga-Byte mobo's though. I'm running one right now and it's a load of headache's to flash the BIOS and update the thing. there hard to work with. I'd get an Asus. Make sure you have a powerful enough powersupply. While those parts are faster they consume more power.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

Upgrading to DDR would push me close to the budget max...256MB of pc2100 DDR would cost about 66 dollars...I know that DDR is faster, but will it make a difference in everyday apps (remember, he doesn't do anything special on it like gaming, video editing, etc)

 

[FishTankX]

I would get a K7S5A, giving you much much better upgrade options. Goes up to 2200+, is cheaper than that gigabyte board, and takes 1stick of SDRAM stably or 2 sticks of DDRSDRAM stably. It's a really nice board, if you can get it working problem free. These boards have a bit of an unsavory history, but if you get a good working one (80% chance, I would say) it's both rock solid, dirt cheap, and upgradable.

As for upgrades, I would say that more memory and a new harddrive would do much more good than CPU upgrade. And i'm sure with 384 megs of RAM and a WD800JB it'd do much more good than a better processor. Ditch the Maxtor, get 256 extra PC133 and put it in, then get a WD800JB and put it in. That'll do *MUCH* more good than a simple mobo/processor upgrade. 128 megs of RAM is the *biggest* problem with his machine. Why not stuff that PC133 in his box for now and see how he likes the improvement? He'll probably think you changed the CPU already!

 

[Budman]

He gets annoyed when things like IE take a few seconds to load. Also, when he has large Excel files they are really slow

What kind of hd does he have right now?

A fast 7200 rpm drive would help a lot.

If he's got a older 5400rpm drive the new faster cpu will still be waiting around for the hd to load up files.


EDIT: nevermind I see he's got a Maxtor 7200 rpm,I need to read more closely.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

The problem is that his current motherboard does not support the pc133 RAM. It only supports pc100. That means I have to change his mobo one way or another. That's why I figured that if I'm already gonna get a new mobo, a better CPU will help more than the 8MB cache HD...

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
The problem is that his current motherboard does not support the pc133 RAM. It only supports pc100. That means I have to change his mobo one way or another. That's why I figured that if I'm already gonna get a new mobo, a better CPU will help more than the 8MB cache HD...

have you tried that stick in the mobo..? if not technically pc133 SDRAM is backwards compatible..just remember whichever slot the 128 is in is where you want the bigger stick to go
and what model is that FIC mobo anyway..? most support faster Athlon/Duron cpus..

 

[DieHardware]

You could always flash the FIC with the latest BIOS and stick in a 1GHz or higher Duron or Athlon(200 FSB). Saves you from buying new RAM and MB.

 

[chansen]

I'm still trying to figure out wht's wrong with an Athlon 600 for Office and Chessmaster 45,000 (or whatever inflated number they've reached now is). If it ain't broke, why fix it? Throw in 256MB of PC100, PC133, whatever, doesn't matter. As long as it's stable, anything else is overkill. Don't bother with the KT133a upgrade, not worth the hassle for the limited improvement. At least try the RAM only upgrade before throwing any money at it.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

Kingston's website specifically says pc133 is not compatible with a system designed for pc100 (read: pc100 mobo's don't take pc133).

I used his computer and although its fine sometimes, its unbearably slow in others. For example, you shouldn't have to wait a few seconds for task manager to come up....that's ridiculous

 

[CraigRT]

i wouldn't hesitate to put pc133 in a pc100 mobo.. i've done pc133 in pc66 mobos with original P1's and i've used PC2700 in PC2100 computers too.. the memory doesn't really care.
i am betting the mobo is an FIC SD11 but i could be wrong.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Kingston's website specifically says pc133 is not compatible with a system designed for pc100 (read: pc100 mobo's don't take pc133).

I used his computer and although its fine sometimes, its unbearably slow in others. For example, you shouldn't have to wait a few seconds for task manager to come up....that's ridiculous

But if you believe this, should you be upgrading anyone's computer? There is no reason that PC133 wouldn't work in a PC100 motherboard.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Hey guys...I think I'm gonna upgrade my dad's computer. It's specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 600MHZ
FIC SDRAM Mobo
ATI Radeon 8500 64MB
Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM HD
128MB SDRAM (pc100, not sure if that's the right term but its 100 as opposed to 133)
Already have PCI sound, LAN, modem
17'' Sony Trinitron

My dad doesn't play any games on it except for the times that he uses Chessmaster 8000. He mainly wants it to open applications such as Word, Access, Excel, and Outlook as quickly as possible.

I checked some prices and this is what I figured I'd upgrade

Gigabyte SDRAM Mobo (KT133A I believe...) 59


AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 63
256MB pc133 SDRAM (I have this RAM lying around my room, not being used for anything...)

$.99 Shipping

Total: 122.99

You guys agree or would you do something differently?

What OS is he using?
Will he need a video or audio card?

Edit:
With the upgrade I would:
1. Install a minimum of 512 meg RAM.
2. Format the hard drive and install of Win 98, Win 2000 or Win XP.

 

[RanDum72]

Well first of all, nobody bothered to ask if its a Slot A or Socket A motherboard. If its a Slot A, then CPU upgrades are limited. If its Socket A, a simple BIOS flash would probably enable suport for up to 1.3ghz Duron. But I think the number one upgrade right now should be RAM. Your dad may experience slowdowns when opening Excel files because of of the harddrive thrashing around with the swap file. I just got a 256mb PC133 stick from Circuit City for free after rebates. It should go for $19.00 after rebates in most stores including CompUSA. Don't worry about the 'compatibility' issue, PC133 will work with PC100 motherboards. It was only back in the days of the original Pentium MMX where the chipsets used (TX and VX) seem to have problems (they are the first boards to support SDRAM; they seem to adjust their speeds according to SPD only, so when you plug in a PC100 SDRAM on a PC66 SDRAM slot, it burns everything up). Another potential incompatibility is memory density. Just to be on the safe side, buy PC133 sticks with memory chips on both sides of the PCB to eliminate problems.

Your dad's system upgraded to 384mb of RAM should be adequate for the things he does right now.

 

[dszd0g]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Kingston's website specifically says pc133 is not compatible with a system designed for pc100 (read: pc100 mobo's don't take pc133).

I used his computer and although its fine sometimes, its unbearably slow in others. For example, you shouldn't have to wait a few seconds for task manager to come up....that's ridiculous

But if you believe this, should you be upgrading anyone's computer? There is no reason that PC133 wouldn't work in a PC100 motherboard.

Agreed. PC133 works fine at 100MHz (PC100) or 66MHz. PC3200 memory works fine at 166MHz*2 (333) and 133MHz*2 (266). All one is doing is running the memory slower than it is capable.

Now sometimes DIMMs won't get along in some motherboards, but that has nothing to do with speed. And registered memory doesn't work combined with unbuffered.