Intel P4 vs AMD

@baltekmi,
LOL!!

 

baltekmi
More than likely Sophocles is right about the PC133. Pull a card and get the numbers and track it that way, if you want to be sure. The PC100 and 133 are 168 pin cards with 2 slots in the plugin. The newer 184 pin RAM have only 1 slot. LOL Beats setting and counting pins. I've tracked some components on older systems by googling the numbers. I was able to find BIOS updates for an old Intel board on a P2 and drivers for the cards on the board. I'll probably end up giving that one to the children to learn on. The old Intel platform does okay on DSL. It could use a decent video card to improve the video output. It was an old office server, so there wasn't much emphasis on the video output quality. It would be interesting to have the model numbers off the PC you have so we could tell what you actually have.

 

crowy,

This of course goes for me too! I have 486,100x2 Asus motherboards still running today, everyday! It's not just DFI! It's Abit, Gigabyte, MSI, you name it! ECS and Jetway will be lucky to make it through the warranty! Asus will outlast them all!!!

Yea, there Customer Service kind of sucks but they do make good on whatever your problem is. I sent? a MB of theirs back for replacement under warranty. I got the new one with the same problem. The question mark means I hand delivered that one to Asus and watched every step of the way. I discovered that "AFTER" the MB was tested, they put in the BIOS chip from the old one (short supply). I insisted that they test the MB with my old BIOS in it. Care to take a S.W.A.G. (scientific, wild assed guess) on where the problem was?

My present MB started out to be a cheap "impulsive" buy! It turned out that it had all the necessary "bells and whistles" to make this P4 3.0/800 outperform a stock 3.8! It's turned out to be a great MB! I know that if I take it apart tomorrow and pack the motherboard away, or just keep using it. 10 years from now I'll turn it on or pull it out of it's box, hook it up and it will run! Asus motherboards are truely the sum of their parts. Use the best parts and you get quality. I can tell you from first hand experience, quality comes first! I've tried all different brands of motherboards. Most lasted about 2 years. The only old ones I've got out there are all Asus. Some as old as 12-13 years and used every day! Quality will out!!!

Happy Computering,
theonejrs

 

Granted Asus is a custom favorite, but there are other good boards. Intel is a major chipset and CPU manufacturer and have made some good boards. That old P2 I mentioned before has an Intel board. I pulled it out of storage, updated the OS and flashed the BIOS and it's working fine. Maybe not OC favorites, but Intel made some good work boards. MSI is doing well with the K8N Diamond Plus board and the DFI Lan-Party boards are doing well (custom favorites with good OC capabilities).

For now, my preference goes to Asus. But if a friend was going to build a system with an MSI or one of the other good boards, I wouldn't try to talk him out of it.

 

Edited after theonejrs pointed out his find.

 

scubabud,

I went to Gateways site. Using the model that baltekmi gave us and clicking on "How to Install Memory", they show 144 pin S0DIMM memory with one slot right in the middle for this model.

Sincerely,
theonejrs

 

@theonejrs

Wrong motherboard so my bad.

I edited out my previous post after your post, thanks.

 

@ baltekmi
These AMD K6 CPUs were the first to run 100MHz FSB.
The memory is PC100 (as has been stated) and runs synchronously with FSB. PC133 works great as Sophocles has noted.
K6-2 sucks, as it has no L2 cache. K6-3 were better, with integrated on-chip L2 (your mobo cache then became L3).
The K6-2 has multiplier not locked; easy then to change to 4.5x (=450MHz).
With enough memory it should run WinXP (barely!) similar to a Pentium2 400MHz. A K6-3 is more like a Pentium3 500MHz.
Now, the memory can be tricky - these old Socket7 mobos often recognise maximum 128MB/bank memory. In other words, no single-sided 256MB chips, and no 512MB chips at all.
Double-sided 256MB PC133 are required, giving 512MB maximum total possible with two sticks of 256.
Lemme see here...
"256MB SDRAM Ram Module, PC133 - 16 Chip - This is ram for older computers. ( Soon to be discontinued ) $69.99"
...from my distributor, Canadian $$.
So $150 bucks to make it 512MB - or maybe a pair of 128MB sticks for $29.99 ea? It could be a DOS/Win98 rig with 256MB total, for ~$70 bucks.
Honestly, if it was K6-3 I would put 512MB and run WinXP.
Hey, take buddy up on his kind offer of K6-2 3D @500MHz - but those newest K6 CPUs required latest mobo revision and might not POST on your rig...
Anyway, you can up that thing to 256MB on-the-cheap; but 512MB will cost more than twice again as much (ouch).
Any more questions on old obsolete POS, I am an expert LoL :^)
Regards

 

My what happens in a day on this thread.. I'm going away this weekend, I'll have mountains to read!

Theonejrs@2039(7th): I agree, sadly my builder doesn't feel the same way for economy computing. It's A8N-SLi or nothing.

Crowy@0125(8th): Go Asus! I very much doubt DFI have a great deal to do with the performance, other than they're the expensive top end mobos, so top end gamers choose them, hence the high scores.
I'm not sure DFI boards are a fair price. Asus' top A8N-SLi boards are cheaper and other than the UV reactive paint I see little that separates them from the DFI masterpieces, Asus know what they're doing (as do DFI, I'm not putting them down) so they wouldn't leave anything out in their top line boards.

Baltekmi@0137: DOs'd be fine, so would cartoon network assuming it'll run flash/shockwave OK. I doubt BSODs are attributable to CPUs tbh, but who knows, I saw plenty of em with my P3 450, and far fewer with my XP 3000+.

Baltekmi@0139: Go asus!
Crowy@0203: Lol indeed, let's stop all this! well you did ages ago, but you know.
I assume none of you lot live on the US East coast or you're up late!

Theonejrs@0233: Lol agree with ECS and Jetway, though the MSI board in my old 450 was running ok as of last november, so that's 5 1/2 years at least. Haven't had opportunity to use it since. Lol @SWAG not heard that one before. BIOS chips are the weak part of Asus boards (I presume they aren't made by Asus) and that's where a fault with a friend's A7V880 was. Other than that, it was fine for the short life it had before sale on ebay, he now uses an A8N-SLi Premium.

Out of interest, my school has about 150 Asus Terminator MicroATX systems, all using Asus mobos and cases, and as of the three years since the fleet started appearing, only two have ever failed. That's quality.

Brobear@0334: Absolutely, as my case proves.


Sorry about all that, but you lot talk too much!


Edit after recent post: A different friend I noticed recently had an old K6-2 550 still in use with 192MB SDRAM. Ran XP Pro fine.

 

Yes 256MB okay for WinXP - but barely.
It is @ very critical memory point for WinXP: the difference between 192MB and 384MB is like night & day.
The old rigs become MUCH more stable with lots of RAM (but not too much faster LoL :^)
L8R

 

Well you say that, a big influence is Integrated graphics. 256MB with dedicated GPU, even if slow like a Radeon X300 (as long as its not Hypermemory) will be alright. 256 with intel integrated graphics means 192MB, and ouch.

 

Yes, ouch!
Integrated graphics used 2MB, 4MB or (gasp!) 8MB back in Socket Super7 days though, LoL :^)
Nobody ever imagined putting more than 256MB into those systems, back when they were new.
Even today the old 16-chip 256MB PC133 sticks seem like an okay price, if you're looking with 1990's eyes - memory cost SO much more back then; that's a good price for 512MB RAM.
We are so spoiled today with very inexpensive PC3200 etc. (we love it ;^)

 

Inexpensive it may be, but I think memory is the weak link in the advances in technology. I've seen RAM prices decrease very little in the past year or so. I bought my Elixir (ugh yeah I know) memory back in Summer 2005, and it cost £23/stick. It's now £20/stick for the same stuff. That's not a great increase considering back then you could buy an Athlon64 3500+ for nearing £200, versus £130 now.

 

What's amazing is that anything goes down or even stays near the same in todays' marketplace.

 

I just wanted to thank you guys for the info on Asus mobos, very useful. I do believe I'll go with a Asus mobo for my next rig.

 

baltekmi,

I dug out all my K-6-2 CPUs and I have the following:
5oo Mhz w/100Mhz fsb
433 Mhz w/66Mhz fsb
400 Mhz w/66Mhz fsb
380 Mhz w/66Mhz fsb
350 Mhz w/66Mhz fsb

According to the press release for the 500 (dated 1999), it has 128k L2 cache and 3D now technology and was the first AMD CPU to run a 100Mhz fsb. Later revisions had the 3D now stamped on the CPU. If you are able to set your fsb to 100, please accept my offer of the 500. I hate to throw good things away and I would definatly prefer to give it to someone who can use it. Had it up and running a few weeks ago and it ran fine with XP Pro SP2!

By the by, I had to call Gateway today in regards to a computer I'm working on, so I asked about the memory chips for the 400 AMDs. They are 144 pin SODIMs and you can install 2x256 for a total of 512Mb, which is all the cpu can address. I also asked about the availability of a 100fsb on your computer and they tell me that all can use the 500 but not all of them have the jumper for the 100fsb. You can however, raise the multiplier as the CPU is not locked. They also made the 400 series with Celerons as well but they were more of a budget thing as they can only address 128Mb of ram.

Happy Computering,
theonejrs

 

Hey theonejrs

Sorry had to go back and read your post. Been busy trying to set up a trip to vegas. Damn hotels are expensive out there but besides that. Yea Definitely agree don't get my 6600 GT Card. It blows.

BTW I did OC my vid card. Here are the settings.

Core Clock: 570 Mhz
Memory Clock: 1.14 Ghz.

No idea what those mean or do and can't tell if there are performance enhancements but they are what they are.

 

theonejrs
the jumpers i am looking for should be south of middle am i correct?

 

theonejrs according to cpuz, it is allready at 100 fsb.

 

baltekmi,

Guess who missed your post telling us it's a desktop, not a laptop! It should have SDRam in it. Here's a link for memory at really good prices.
http://pcwonderinc.com/sdrampcmemmo.html
Get ya 2 256s, or better yet get one of these.
http://pcwonderinc.com/51pc64sdramh1.html
512x1 for $45, you can't beat it and you don't need fancy memory for this machine. The 500 should be a drop in and run at 400 until you figure out the jumper settings. Where they are, I'm not sure. I haven't seen one of those motherboards in a long while

Try and get something in the way of a manual from Gateway. Hey, it never hurts to ask. That's how I got my Dell Precision 420 Workstation manual and the manual for My Dell C610. I'll keep looking around for some info for you and let you know what I find.

Happy Computering,
theonejrs