AMD upgrade advice needed

[eddy05]

A bit of advice needed

I've been planning to upgrade my Pentium II 400mhz System. I've been on a very tight budget S$400 (around US$200). These are wad i've thought I may want to upgrade:

Pentium II 400mhz -> Duron 1ghz
Intel Slot-1 Fan -> Not yet decided
PII Motherboard (SiS 530 chipset) -> ECS K7S5A
192mb PC100 will be recycled.

I originally wanted to choose the cheapest PC133 motherboard, but it seems that K7S5A with DDR266's even cheaper than most PC133 motherboards in my price guide. The only cheaper motherboard is the Gigabyte GA-7IXEH/KT133. Any reviews or comments? This'll be my VERY first attempt in upgrading my computer, so figured I needed help.

Oh yah, can the K7S5A support PCI 3D card? I'm thinking of recycling my 3D card too...

 

[Didou]

With the ECS K7S5A, you can use SDRam as well as DDRam. You can use your SDRAm ( allthough only at 100 mhz ) & upgrade to DDRam later on. There won't be any problem either with the PCI 3D card.

Your system won't be running at its full potential but it will be much faster then what you have right now.

 

[Rick]

Sounds like a good plan. I'm going to warn you though - You might need a new power supply - Because that Duron is going to suck some extra juice from your system and if your power supply is as old as it suggests, it may be anywhere from 135 watts to 250 watts. If you are in the 250 range, you'll probably be fine, but if you are sub 200 watts, you might experience problems.

I say you upgrade, and if you get any random reboots or PSU (power supply unit) related problems, then you can buy a new PSU for less than 30 dollars thta will handle the load.

If you get good prices on the components, it will be very possible to upgrade to a Duron 900-1000Mhz and that ECS board for less than 120 dollars (minus shipping of course). I typically shop online from www.newegg.com (Great prices!) and www.directron.com offers free shipping for first time buyers and they prices are already pretty low.

If you have a place locally that sells this stuff cheap, that's always an option too. For 400 dollars you could literally rehash that computer into a lean, mean modern gaming rig (no joke), but I suspect you'd like to have has much cash left over as possible.

If you are willing to spend a little more than 130 dollars, then I suggest you get a new video card (if you play games).. Something cheap a like an Geforce2 or 3 MX-based card. You can find one for under 60 dollars definitely because your PCI vidoe card is probably really, really slow. If you don't do any 3D gaming, then you really don't need a new video card though.

Nextly, I would get more memory. 192 is decent, but the more the merrier. Personally, my sweet spot lies around 384mb. 256 is acceptable, but I wouldn't have a computer with less memory than that.

Another thing is there are two ECSK7 boards in the value-range.. The other has the VIA266a chipset, which I've heard this board is more stable and you're less likely to get a lemon with it. It is about 10-15 dollars higher than the SiS 735 board that you mentioned though. So your call.

 

[eddy05]

Oh YAH! I'll need a new casing too I forgot to mention! My Current System is an AT system, so I'll need to buy a new ATX casing too! I guess that solves the PSU problem eh?

The only ECS motherboards that my local price list have is:
K7S5A
K7S6A
K7SEM

You are probably talking about the K7VTA3 Motherboard... which isn't present on my price list...

Budget S$400.
Duron 1ghz -> S$1
K7S5A -> S$129
ATX Casing -> roughly S$50
SocketA Fan -> No Clue at all!

GeForce 3 Ti200 -> S$259
Yah I wanted to buy GeForce 3 Ti200, install on my P4 computer, then install the GeForce 2 MX200 on the Duron Computer... Not buying until I found a temporal job and get the wage... I'm only a 17 yr old dude...