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Wednesday, January 13, 1999 10:31 AM Robert Turnbull wrote:

I too have been toying with the idea of upgrading my Pentium 100 bench
built system to a Pentium 200 chipset, so I am very interested in this
discussion. If this would involve more than plugging in a new chip, I will
put off the upgrade until I am prepared to do a total upgrade.

Robert:
I have motherboards with the VX and FX Intel chipsets running classic
Pentium 120mhz and I have decided not to upgrade the cpu.  Prices
for classic single voltage Pentuim 200 cpus is out of whack right now,
and I don't see the performance boost worth the price.  I have never
used a cpu upgrade package with an integrated VRM, again because
of price. I would rather put the extra dollars into a new motherboard,
but then I don't consider motherboard replacing a hassle, either.

If you really are trying to save money and hassle, let me suggest
two alternatives.  Classic Pentium 166mhz cpus are cheap and
plentiful, if you don't mind the slight risk of getting one that has been re-labeled
as a 166 from a 133 or 150.  You can find used working "pulls" from
other people's upgrades, and get some performance boost.  The other
suggestion is to go with a Cyrix P-150, P-166, or P-200/66mhz.  The Cyrix
P-200 also came in a 75mhz bus version which you should probably avoid.
If your willing to forego upgrading the motherboard for SDRAM, AGP,
and MMX, you should seriously consider the old Cyrix's.  They are very
cheap, easy to find, easy to overclock, and offer good performance for
windows applications.

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