On  8 Oct 98 at 18:35, sandra crosas wrote:

> I have a NEC Ready 9701SE (Intel 82371SB-Pentium 166mhz) and I
> would like to speed it up by adding an OverDrive Processor.  I was
> told to change the complete motherboard for one Pentium II with a
> higher speed.  I am not an expert, but it seems to me that I would
> have to do a lot of changes in the CMOS and in the configuration.
> Would someone advice me on the better choice?

  An OverDrive processor will fit in your existing board, and provide
a bit of a performance boost.  Its good side is that it will go right
on working with your existing components.
  It has two bad sides, though:  (1) It's expensive, and (2) I think
it will only go to 200 or 233 MHz, so you may only see an improvement
of 20% or so.
  [PowerLeap makes an interface layer that will allow newer
(non-OverDrive) CPUs to be used with older motherboards.  Evergreen,
and one or two others, package such an interface with a CPU as a
less-expensive solution to provide the same effect as an OverDrive
CPU.]

  Replacing your CPU and motherboard to go Celeron or PII is kind of
major system surgery.  It's not really *hard*, but it will involve
disassembling and reassembling the machine.  A good PII motherboard
may not accept your current RAM, so you may have to replace that,
too.  The cost will be less than buying a complete assembled PII and
passing your current machine along to a sibling or offspring or
deserving charity, but only by a few hundred dollars.  And, last time
I looked at Intel OverDrive prices, it would offer a bigger
performance boost for not much more money.

  Bottom line is that there *are* processor-upgrade solutions for
your current system.  I'd call them "overpriced", but they're pretty
simple to buy and install.
  Replacing the system with a PII machine will provide more boost,
but cost even more.
  Replacing the motherboard/CPU/RAM(?) can be an effective middle
path, but there are a fair number of things to watch out for along
that way.  Although you can find lots of people here who can help you
with that, it doesn't sound like you're very comfortable with that
approach.  Which is fine -- how are you going to ask for help when
your machine is in pieces?

David G

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