800 MHZ Socket A Duron Upgrade to something else?

By Chris Lee
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Chris Lee

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I have an old computer currently in use, but the specs are a bit old, and I was hoping to upgrade it to be able to run games more smoother (nothing of the extreme hardware type.) I don't have that much money to upgrade my computer somehow. I currently use a Socket A Duron, 800 MHz, with SDRAM. I'm wondering whether I can switch to a Socket A Sempron, if it would work, and if there would be much of a difference.

Also, if there's other options that I could go with and make the most of my current computer parts in utilization, please suggest.

My computer model is a NetVista, model 2284-49U.

I'm not quite sure of my motherboard is.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Chris Lee
Grand Master

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  Chris Lee said:
There's an IBM screen, then it goes straight to Windows XP loading screen. I don't know, there should be some keys that I press to show the loading specs.

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Try loading bios and see there.

It is essential that you know your motherboard number if you want to upgrade CPU for compatibility reasons and because eventually you will most likely need to flash bios.

Grand Master

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  ev0| said:
It's really not worth spending any money on upgrading. Just put money towards a completely new computer.

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He can get Athlon 1500Mhz (or so) which is a very nice uprade for his PC for around 50$. As he said, he doesn't need much power and doesn't have a lot cash to spend

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ev0|

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  Zhivago said:
He can get Athlon 1500Mhz (or so) which is a very nice uprade for his PC for around 50$. As he said, he doesn't need much power and doesn't have a lot cash to spend

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a 1500 Mhz Athlon ? Think again. He can only support a 1.4 Ghz Tbird, crippled with a SDRAM interface. That's really not much difference over an 800 Mhz chip.

*edit and if he doesn't need much power, the 800 should do him fine, and he should save up for a decent machine, instead of wasting money on out of date parts.

Edited by ev0|
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Hankyone

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  ev0| said:
a 1500 Mhz Athlon ? Think again. He can only support a 1.4 Ghz Tbird, crippled with a SDRAM interface. That's really not much difference over an 800 Mhz chip.

*edit and if he doesn't need much power, the 800 should do him fine, and he should save up for a decent machine, instead of wasting money on out of date parts.

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agree

Experienced

Chris Lee

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I'd like to buy a new computer right before I go into university, and I'm currently saving for tuition and such. I was just hoping that there was something I could do fairly cheaply to upgrade my computer.

I realize that I may have to replace my motherboard. Is it worth buying a Sempron processor from what I already have, or should I continue to wait a few years?

Grand Master

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  ev0| said:
a 1500 Mhz Athlon ? Think again. He can only support a 1.4 Ghz Tbird, crippled with a SDRAM interface. That's really not much difference over an 800 Mhz chip.

*edit and if he doesn't need much power, the 800 should do him fine, and he should save up for a decent machine, instead of wasting money on out of date parts.

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I'm pretty sure he can get Athlon 1.4 Ghz with 200MHz front-side bus. I said: "1500 (or so)" because I didn't remeber for certain.

My job was to recommend him a CPU upgrade since that's what he wanted. Final decision (upgrade now or wait) is up to him. However, I upgaded PII 400 to PII 800 once and then to PIII 1.3Ghz and saw a lot of speed gain both times. Again, it's up to him to decide what's more important.

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ev0|

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  Zhivago said:
I'm pretty sure he can get Athlon 1.4 Ghz with 200MHz front-side bus.

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Again, his FSB would be sitting around 50 percent of the time waiting for the slow ass 100 Mhz SDRAM he has to come around. It's just a waste becasue most of the time the processor will be spinning it's wheels.

The only thing I can really recommend you short of buying a new machine is to just load up on as much ram as you can put in there, if you can get it for cheap. At least that way you can have a large memory and run heavy programs.

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Sensayshun

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  ev0| said:
It's really not worth spending any money on upgrading. Just put money towards a completely new computer.

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Sorry but....I also have to agree.

I don't think you'll notice enough difference to make it worthwhile.

Grand Master

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  ev0| said:
Again, his FSB would be sitting around 50 percent of the time waiting for the slow ass 100 Mhz SDRAM he has to come around. It's just a waste becasue most of the time the processor will be spinning it's wheels.

"The AMD Duron processor features a 200MHz front-side system bus"

Source

He was wasting SDRAM all this time anyway.

Anyway, what exactly are you arguing with me about? I recommended him to uprade (for the reasons I stated in previous posts), you decided its best to save up. Let the guy make up his mind, he is the one using it, not you or me.

Edited by Zhivago
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strekship

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  WhizzKid said:
Connect a 12v line from your power supply into one of the pin connectors in the CPU socket and a 12v ground to another pin connector.  Turn on your computer.  Now you will be relieved of the temptation to waste your money.

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Don't be an ass. He wants help, not sarcasm.

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