On 5 Jun 99, at 0:35, Robert Shane wrote:
> I'm looking to upgrade my processor on my motherboard and I have a couple
> of options in overdrives. Don't really want to upgrade the motherboard
> because of the limited number of expansion slots on most of the newer
> boards. I have a total of 9 with them all filled.
This is almost certainly a symptom of "technology creep". There have been
several occasions, over the last 20 years, when I've seen two machines with
similar specifications but 1-2 years difference in age of components. And
the most obvious difference has been that the newer machine has about three
more empty slots than the older one....
With limited numbers of available IRQs and DMA channels, getting nine slots
worth of peripherals to happily coexist can be a challenge. If money were no
object (but somehow that's never true...), I'd suggest it's time to migrate
the stuff you really use a lot into a new generation of machine.
Nine slots is more than I've seen in any generic case of motherboard, so
I'm guessing that yours is some proprietary configuration where you cannot
upgrade either of these components separately.
> I have found that I have available an overdrive that is a 233MMX or I can
> get one that is 333MHZ.
>....
> My question deals with whether the faster processor would be better or
> would one with the MMX technology perform better.
I know of only two 333MHz chips: The Intel Celeron-333, which (depending on
which version) requires either Slot 1 or Socket 370 (in either case, it's not
likely to be an upgrade option) and the AMD K6-2/333, which requires a 95 MHz
FSB to run at that speed (which your board isn't likely to support). [There
may also be a Cyrix MII-PR333; I believe this will actually run at 266 MHz.]
All of these CPUs include MMX. It is hard to find any x86 CPUs any more
which don't; and I don't know of any non-MMX CPUs that were ever rated over
200 MHz.
The key thing with an "overdrive" is that it includes, besides the CPU,
circuitry to provide for speed and/or voltage settings required by the CPU
that may not be provided by older motherboards. An overdrive CPU has a very
good chance of working with your existing equipment -- you haven't provided
enough detail for us to be absolutely certain.
A modern, but non-overdrive, CPU may require features of a modern
motherboard to deliver its rated performance -- or even to operate at all
without damage to the chip! If you don't want to upgrade the motherboard, an
overdrive may be your only option.
> I don't do any games or graphics intensive programs. Most of the computor
> use is word processing, data entry, I use Office 97 Pro, financial and some
> number crunching. I do spend anywhere between 25-30 hours a week actively
> on the internet. I also don't do alot of multitasking.
If we knew what you already have, we could better advise whether a faster
CPU is going to make much difference with this usage pattern. I'd estimate
that if you already have a Pentium 166MHz or better, you probably won't
notice any difference.
David G
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