Upgrade ? from a simpleton

[Guest]

Hi guys, I am ready to upgrade my CPU/MB and had a couple of questions. I am currently using an AMD K62-400 on an Asus P5A, with one 128mb stick of (I think) 100mhz SDRAM. I want to use an Athlon CPU, probably 900mhz. I will probably stick with an Asus MB because I have been pleased with this one. I know I would require a new MB, but do the new MBs for this processor require different RAM than what I'm using? Will my ATX case and power supply still work with this new setup? I plan to do no other upgrades right now other than ditching my PCI video card for an AGP card.
Thanks in advance...

 

[Guest]

Actually, that's nearly the same question I was about to post... It seems to me that PC100 RAM would work perfectly fine, since the Athlon boards' system bus runs at 100MHz (although PC133's lower latency would increase performance). Perhaps someone who's more sure about it than I am could confirm this?

<A HREF="http://www.outlan.org" target="_new">outLAN</A> - Gaming the way it was meant to be

 

[BrianL]

There are many things to consider when preparing to upgrade, especially if you are going to change the mobo. It depends on you present needs and future plans. If you want to keep your immediate cost down for the present but want to upgrade further in a few years as your needs change, then you have to be aware of the new technologies that are emerging so that your board will be still be upgradeable later.

What comes to mind is memory type. Present SDRAM is giving way to DDR SDRAM which is supposed to do to SDRAM what SDRAM did to SIMMs. So if you chose a mobo like the A7V (very popular at the moment)you wouldn't be able to take advantage of DDR in a few years. You might be better to invest in a slower (and cheaper) processor like a Duron 600 Mhz model that you can upgrade later to a 1.2 G Thunderbird when the price comes down to something more affordable. You could use the savings to buy the next mobo after the A7V the A7M266.

You just have to decide what your needs and priorities are. Just try to keep you future options open as you will be doing this again in about 2 years or less.

To answer your question, boards are available with your ATX form factor and power supply. Make sure there is lots of case room for a big fan above the CPU Socket and an extra case fan. Your power supply is probably OK for now but you might want to upgrade it later to a 300W depending on options.

Video card slot protocol is changing as well going from AGP/4 to AGP/5 shortly.

It is definitely not a simple question