upgrading a P II system to fastest possible budget processor while retaining current mob and ram

[dcdomain]

My friend's on AOL (god forbid) so he asked me to post this question for him. What is the difference btwn fcpga and ppga and are these chips of one type compatible with the other. He's currently running a 400mhz pii I think.

 

[Outfits]

Its just Intels way of saying socket, after switching to slot type cpu's. ppga is the packaging for celerons up to 533 or so, fcpga is the coppermine PIII and CII packaging. Your mb bios will determine how fast you can go, check the latest release for details. I'm running a
PIII @ 800 on a BH6 useing a fcpga slocket.

 

[MadRat]

The fastest "100fsb" clock speed attainable would be with the Celeron 1.1GHz processor. You would be best served to use a P!!!E-1GHz (versus the P!!!EB-1GHz) because of its larger L2 cache. Either one is a huge boost to performance.

Obviously you will need a slocket for either one, unless you come across one of those ultra-rare slot-1 OEM versions of the P!!!E-1GHz processor.

 

[Athlon4all]

If he's got a PII, then it's slot one. As for FCPGA/PPGA, well using a slocket, you could on that system if it supports Coppermine's, throw a Celeron 800-1GHz into a Slocket and then the Slocket into his computer. But, if u get PIII's don't get 133fsb. His mobo no doubt won't support 133fsb (offically), only 100.

 

[Kootenai]

 

[Kootenai]

If your friend wishes to retain his original motherboard, than the primary thing to find out is what bios upgrade is available for that particular brand of MB and ascertain what multiplier and voltage stepping is supported. Many OEM boards, such as the Intel Seattle which was used in thousands of Dell, Micron, and Gateway systems, only support an upgrade to a multiplier of 4.5. Which would limit your friend to a PIII-450. Another matter is Vcore voltage. You must make sure you can step down to 1.7 volts for a coppermine.

There are a lot of issues effecting the speed of his system. He may gain better performance for his dollar by upgrading his video card. Going from a 4 MB Riva128 or the like to a GeForce2 MX or equivelant will almost double his frame rates in most games, even with a PII-400 driving it.

Uh sorry for the newbie blank spot above...+)

 

[oldfart]

Those Intel boards used in Dells and such can be upgraded to PIII 1 Gigs. It's been done countless times.

 

[Kootenai]

True if you have one that hasn't had the bios muffed by the manufacturer of the system.