CPU Upgrade from PII to ???

[jakeman007]

I am sure this question has been asked and answered before so any help would be greatly apreciated.

I currently have the following specs (taken from my invoice):

WIN 440BX, ATX/AGP, Single Motherboard
Intel PII 350MHZ chip
(2) 64MB 8MBx64/440BX DIMM Module
Maxtor 11.9GB Ultra/DMA33 Hard Drive
Matrox Millenium G200 8MB AGP Video card
Trident 4D-Wave DX, PCI Wavetable Soundcard

I would like to upgrade to a PIII (I think). I have found 2 pages worth of PIII chips from Computershopper.
I have no idea which one to get or which one is the best bang for the buck. I requested when I purchased my machine 2 years ago that it be upgradeable to the PIII. Let me know your thoughts and or any suggestions you have.

Thanks in advance,
Jake

 

[jbird]

You need to locate information on the make and model of your motherboard. If you purchased the system from a big name vendor, start searching on their site. If you put the system together yourself, log on to the motherboard makers site and look for tech specs and info there.

Given the age of your sytem (2 yr), you will most likely need to update the BIOS to the latest version (back to the vendor's web site). The voltage supplied by your motherboard to the CPU may not be correct (PII's require 2.0 volts and PIII's made with .025 traces use 2.0 volts, but the newer coppermine .018 CPU's operate at a lower 1.6 to 1.7 volts (depending upon the speed). Most likely you are using a slot 1 connection. You will most likely need a slot 1 to flip chip converter card.

I'm in the process of studying up on this type of update. There is a lot of homework involved in making sure you pick the correct CPU to upgrade. Good luck. jbird.