Advice to upgrade old Gateway 2000

[Superman9534]

I recently picked up 3 gateway 2000 computers for free. 2 486s (33mhz and 66mhz) and one 120mhz Pentium. Now i'd like to set up the Pentium as a personal FTP server running a no GUI version of Linux. However, i'd like to try to upgrade it. I found a 233mhz Socket7 Pentium processor on ebay that i'm wondering if it will work (its $9 with free shipping). I also found 32MB of FPM RAM (I think is what it uses) for $8. Right now this thing has 16MB RAM, HD (not sure how big yet), Network card (either 1mbps or 10mbps, not sure), sound card and 14.4 modem.

So what you think? Im downloading Mandrake Linux 7.2 now and im going to install with only windowmaker, no KDE or Gnome.

 

[XeonTux]

I think you need to determine what motherboard is in that pentium pc. Either look for identiying marks or look up the bios string (try wimsbios.com)

 

[dakels]

here is gateway's page on CPU upgrades.

I would avoid spending more then $30-40 trying to upgrade it. You can get barebones durons for $90 and used K6 or P3's for $90-120.
Makes a fun little project though.

Good luck.

 

[techfuzz]

Doubtful it would work but until you figure out which motherboard it is you won't know for certain. P120 processors run on a 60 mhz bus while the 233 processors run on a 66 mhz bus. If there is a jumper or switch on the motherboard to switch from 60 to 66 it *might* work. Then again you're going to be moving from a plain vanilla pentium to a pentium w/ mmx. A BIOS update might solve that problem though.

techfuzz

 

[RickH]

Don't do it!!! Play with it, but don't put any $$ into it. The P 233 is a dual voltage CPU, the P120 is not. It will not work. R

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Superman9534
I found a 233mhz Socket7 Pentium processor on ebay... its $9 with free shipping... also found 32MB of FPM RAM... for $8.

Wait a minute, hold your horses. You found deals on ebay?

 

[The Sauce]

The only way to upgrade that would be to turn it upside down and place it in the circular-round file. At least that way you would be upgrading (saving) your desk space.

 

[vegetation]

You'll need something like an evergreen upgrade chip. Unfortunately, these are not cheap, often hovering over $50. Not financially worth it. Also watch out for the bios if you're planning on hooking up a large modern hard drive. Those old bios' could only support so many limited gigs. If there's no modern bios update, then you'll be stuck.