Rookie Question on Low cost CPU upgrade...

[CLTEK]

Hey All!!!

Quick question... I have an old Compaq Presario 5020 with a Celly 300 in it. My wife and I are in the process of designing our own system and plan on giving the Presario to the kids. But I have one question... Seeing as how I can pick up a Celeron 700-733 for a hundred bucks or so, is it possible to just take out the 300 and replace it with the700? Same socket. Same speeds. Core voltages the same?

It would be a cool thing for the kids to have their own computer that would be able to handle a couple of games. And it would inexpensive. New cpu $100. Another stick of RAM... $40.

Any comments, questions or criticisms would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully, Cory

 

[Guest]

If you have <64 megs of RAM, then upgrading the RAM is the most cost effective way of improving performance. Once you rach ~128MB windows will be able to do lost of caching and allow a 5-10% increase in performance. Upgrading your CPU could be difficult depending on your Mobo.

Fat Chucky

 

[Sojourn]

It would depend on what multipliers your motherboard supports. Check the manual. Since its Compaq there probably isnt anything in there, so peek at your motherboard. Somewhere you should find some jumpers with white silkscreen next to it showing you how to set the clock multiplier. The front side bus will be running at 66MHz, so you'd need to be able to support a clock multiplier that will bring that up to whatever CPU speed you want to buy. I'm not sure how the voltage specs have changed, either, so you'll need to look that up as well. I think those were Slot1 CPUs, too, and faster Celerons come in Flip Chip Pin Grid Array (FCPGA) so you'll need to buy a slotkit adapter. Lots of things to consider, and Compaq PCs never make such things easy. Upgrading the memory would probably be the simplest route. Otherwise you could always haul it down to Best Buy or the local PC shop and have them do it for you, for a small extra fee.

 

[CLTEK]

Hey Guys... It seems as though NOTHING is easy with these older Compaqs! Nothing! Commence research-EX!

Cory

 

[CLTEK]

Man! I just got swallowed alive on the Compaq site! Anyone know where I can find the spec pages for the MB they used to use. Just trying to figure out if they used the same board on the machines with faster CPUs that were released at the same time.

BTW, the CPU is already mounted on a SLOT adapter. The ship is a Celeron 300A. Atleast I've got that little bit going for me. Hah!

Respectfully, Cory

 

[Crashman]

I would use a PPGA 533 (not the FC-PGA version), as the newer FC-PGA might not be supported.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[FUGGER]

My guess is you have LX chipset mobo

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/consumerdocs/Consumer QRG/presario5000.pdf

You would need this product to get higher that 500Mhz

http://208.55.249.79/PL-iP3/index.html

 

[Guest]

Two places that can probably help:

http://www.evergreennow.com/
http://www.powerleap.com/

 

[Crashman]

Or Evergreens factory website www.evertec.com carries upgrade processors as well.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Arrow]

You might want to call Compaq Technical support and give it a try asking them. I know I'm getting a funny look from everybody, but hey, it's worth a try.

Rob
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