Anybody heard of PowerLeap for CPU upgrades?

[GabbaGabbaHey]

i have an old 1Ghz Pentium III machine and have a need to upgrade it to get at least 1.2 Ghz processor speed (the minimum requirement for HL2). i have been looking into upgrading the motherboard and cpu, but that also involves getting new memory and likely OS...all of that was adding up fast. i also found this company called PowerLeap that sells PIII upgrade cpu's ("tualatin" PIII chips) - they have a 1.2 Ghz for $109 or a 1.4 Ghz for $198. both come with new heatsink and cooling fans. this seems like a decent temporary solution. anybody know anything about this company or these chips? good or bad?

i realize an upgrade like this is similar to banging your head against the wall but i simply can't afford a new machine right now (kid in college, just bought i9300 laptop, need new cars, etc). i'm really only interested in being able to play HL2/Source games. should i go with my first plan of upgrading the mobo, cpu, memory, etc., or the second plan of just upgrading the PIII chip?

ha, the PIII chip was all the shizzle when i bought it...and you could never hope to fill up a 40G harddrive either. pfft.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Powerleap has been around a long time, and the adapter socket devices were pioneered by Intel originally, back in the 386/486 era. There is almost always a catch with these things, as the older system bus is slower, which restricts the cpu, and there are other, similar limitations. Using a "Slotket" in a Slot1 cpu socket was less affected by such problems, I believe.

Tualatins were the final P-III's, and were excellent items, great for OC, etc. I believe that the future generation of Intel cpu's will be a descendent of the Tualatin (which I believe is in the geneology of the Mobile Pentium that they went back to for future development).

That's a huge price jump (close to 100%) for an additional 200 MHz of speed. I would think that it ought to be possible to scout your local white box assembly shops for a trade-in PC in the 1.5 MHz range they ought to be selling for not much more than $100.


:frown:

 

[peleejosh]

The other thing is you dont want to play HL2, a cpu intensive game with a 1.2 ghz proc. and pc100 or pc133 ram. It will be a slide show and choppy as crap.

 

[peleejosh]

You should be able to find a pretty nice sytsem in the fs forum for 200 bucks.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

okay...i shall hold off on the PowerLeap upgrade for now. it seemed to me like that was asking for trouble anyway. i'll check my local shops and/or the fs forums for an alternative used machine. thanks for the info kiwi and peleejosh...

 

[Zap]

If your budget is $400, you can get a nice upgrade for that price. BTW, you haven't mentioned what video card you have. If your video card is good enough to keep, then you can get 1GB RAM, new PSU, socket 939 CPU and ASRock motherboard, plus have money left over.

If you need to be on a super budget, get one of the Fry's Electronics socket 754 Sempron combos for under $100 (I just picked up a 2600 with motherboard for $70) and 512MB RAM for about $40-50. These socket 754 Semprons should handily outperform a P3 1.4GHz because they have as high IPC, higher bus speeds, faster RAM speeds, integrated memory controller, etc. Plus, you get "new" motherboard features such as SATA and USB 2.0. You can also sell your old stuff and set the money aside as a video card fund.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I configured something. Reuse monitor, keyboard, mouse, and HD. $256 shipped.
The 6100 chip should be enough to play HL2. My GeForce 4 MX 420 can play it all low settings at 800x 600 at 45fps.

APEX PC-336 Mid Tower with 350 watt PSU $30

BIOSTAR GeForce 6100-M7 MOBO $60

AMD Sempron 64 2600+ $64

Corsair Value Select 512MB PC3200 memory $37

NEC ND-3550A DVD Burner $40

You could even remove the DVD burner if you wanted bring it to a little over $200.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

both good ideas as well...i obviously have much more research to do. my current video card is a GeForce FX 5900 SE (128MB with AGP 8x/4x). i was planning on using it for the near future, but possibly upgrading it if i can put together a budget saving set-up. thanks for the suggestions.

 

[dexvx]

If you were to get powerleap, I wouldn't pay retail prices for them. Probably be much cheaper second hand (eBay, FS/T, CL, etc).

But I fail to see why you'd want to upgrade your main computer, seeing as how you have an Inspiron 9300 laptop. They should be upgradeable to GeForce 6800 Go's and with any Pentium-M 7x0 processor, it'd make for a good gaming desktop replacement.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: GabbaGabbaHey
my current video card is a GeForce FX 5900 SE (128MB with AGP 8x/4x). i was planning on using it for the near future

That card works fine for all the new games unless you like standing around admiring your pretty graphics while you get fragged. My gaming rig currently uses a 5900XT (AFAIK the same chip as yours). As I mentioned earlier, for a $400 budget get that ASRock board with a socket 939 CPU to give you future PCIe upgradability. Throw in 1GB dual channel RAM and a new PSU and you'll come in at around $350 after shipping. If that's too rich for you, get a Fry's socket 754 Sempron deal with a 1GB single module of RAM for under $200, though you lose the upgradability to PCIe.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

i think my 5900SE may be some sort of stripped down version of your 5900XT, but not really sure. i got from eVGA. i am looking into what you suggested...that i just bite the bullet and raise the budget a little bit to keep that PCIe upgradability feature.

and the i9300 i bought for my son to take to school...i'm wanting to upgrade my home rig so i can game with him. yeah, i know, he sounds spoiled but he's a great kid and the only one we have...i did get him the 6800 card too (for gaming purposes). it's a sweet set-up.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

i have a question about a socket 939 board...they don't appear to support AGP video cards, so would i also be in for the PCIe video card upgrade at that point too?

i'm kind of leaning toward a socket 754, getting maybe a sempron/athlon 2800 or 3000 processor. maybe i'll get PCIe in the next upgrade down the road. just not sure yet.

 

[cheetoden]

Here's a link to newegg that I searched and found 939 boards with AGP

Newegg Motherboards

 

[gwag]

another thought huntdown Hybrid socket A board that uses SDRAM or DDR and an Athlon XP. could get you in the 2hz range for about $100 (less than a powerleap), and make the jump to DDR later.
or get a celeron 1.1 or 1.2 ($40) break the pin that forces it to run 133FSB and cross your fingers.
http://www.bloodyfist.net/computer/fsbpinmod.html#370

 

[pnosker]

Get the ASRock 939Dual-SATAII for $71.99, Athlon 64 3000+ for $130 and ram from chiefvalue.com for $70 for 1gb and you're set with your videocard. Great overclocker too!

 

[Zap]

GabbaGabbaHey, the ASRock board pnosker mentioned has both a true AGP 8X slot as well as PCIe 16x. It is perhaps the only board in retail existence that has both. There are other boards with both physical slots, but in all cases the AGP slot is not a "true" slot, thus hindering performance and compatibility. The ASRock board lets you keep your card for now and upgrade to PCIe in the future.

Alternately, a cheap socket 754 Sempron deal with some RAM would not displease you, just that your future video card upgrades would be limited - but it is so cheap that in the future just buy another CPU/mobo.

Your choice depending ultimately on your budget.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

yeah, i found the 939 mobos with agp support shortly after i posted my question... i think i looked at that ASRock board too. that may be the best bet for me as far as future upgrades are concerned.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: GabbaGabbaHey
yeah, i found the 939 mobos with agp support shortly after i posted my question... i think i looked at that ASRock board too. that may be the best bet for me as far as future upgrades are concerned.

The Asrock is the only board that performs as it should when running AGP 8x. All the other hybrid boards basically take a regular PCI slot and mask it as an AGP slot, so they run dog slow. If you're going to get a hybrid AGP/PCI-e board, your only good choice is the Asrock.

 

[GabbaGabbaHey]

okay, i'm getting this narrowed down a bit. i think i'm going to get the ASRock 939 Dual mobo ($68), Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1.8Ghz ($140) or 3200+ Venice 2Ghz ($154), and start with 1 stick of 1GB memory ($85-ish). that puts me at about $295-$310 depending on which processor. i'm thinking that i also need a new power supply (i think my current psu is 275 but may be 300 - i'm not at home so i can't check just now). how big a power supply will i need with the above set-up...i used the suggestions from a guide somewhere and calculated that i would need about 300 but may need more when i add more memory sticks. are there any features i should be looking for in a psu other than the wattage? would it be smarter to just look for a new case with a decent psu already in it? or should i just get a new psu and use my old Dell case, which at that point, will have absolutely nothing that Dell put into it!

my other option of going with a 754 socket mobo and Athlon 64 2800+ came up to about $260 (with new case/psu/mobo combo, processor, and memory), so i'm springing for the extra $50 to have the PCIe upgradability with the 939 system above.

 

[lifeguard1999]

I upgraded my slot-1 board from a Celery 300A to a P3 750 (o/c to 1 GHZ) to a Tualatin 1.1 GHz (o/c to 1.4 GHz) using an adapter. Not too bad for one motherboard. That being said, I would not go the PowerLeap route today (though at the time it made sense). Instead, what you are planning to do (ASRock 939 Dual mobo, 3000+, 1GB RAM, etc) makes more sense and is the same path I took in June of this year (except I went with a DFI board because I like to o/c).

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I calculated that the most you would EVER need is 350 watts (328 to be exact). That includes the probability of overclocking to 2.7Ghz (Extremely unlikely on the E6 Venices).

Id reccommend this Seasonic PSU

I'd reccommend this Fortron PSU if you're on an extremely tight budget.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
I calculated that the most you would EVER need is 350 watts (328 to be exact). That includes the probability of overclocking to 2.7Ghz (Extremely unlikely on the E6 Venices).

Id reccommend this Seasonic PSU

I'd reccommend this Fortron PSU if you're on an extremely tight budget.

Does this take into account power supply inefficiency?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yippers. I calculate via <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp
">eXtreme PSU Calculator</a> It accounts for overclocks and everything. Plus it is constantly updated with the new video cards and CPU's (like the X1800XL and Opterons). Very handy tool.