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Help me out with this SS7 system please!

S

spazntwich1

Banned
Ok, I'm a relatively young hardware enthusiast, so my knowledge of hardware and stuff only really goes back as far as the slot1/slotA days of computing. I know very little about things in the socket7 days. It just so happens that my brother just got a socket7 system, for very cheap (197$), and I was wondering if some knowledgeable peoples could fill me in on some info.

The computer's specs are as follows: K6-2 CPU @ 500mhz. 160 megs of ram (32meg SIMM, 128meg DIMM). 4 gig seagate HD. Soyo 5EHM Mobo. Diamond S3 stealth 764 vid card, and some generic sound card.

My questions:

1) What kind of pentium2 is a 500mhz k6-2 comparable to? What kind of processor would a K6-3+ running at 600mhz be comparable to? This is important, as I'm trying to figure out if upgrading to a k6-3+ and running it at 500-600mhz would provide a significant performance boost over the regular k6-2.

2) Will we need to install Via 4in1 drivers for the motherboard? It's an eteq chipset, which is apparently a re-labeled Via MVP chipset.

3) If we add another 128 meg DIMM, should we just take out the SIMM? The mainboard can only cache 256 megs of ram, and I figure having DIMM slots AND SIMM slots would only hamper system performance further.

4) I want to upgrade the video card. Should we go with a voodoo3 2000, or would a GF2 MX be better? I can't help but think that any gf2 (even a mx200) would be cpu limited, but I think having the hardware T&L and 32 bit color support would be nice.
If anyone can answer any questions, I'd be much obliged.
 
1) the k6-2's were not that good (not nearly as good as a k6-3) so a k6-2 500 would probably be lke a p2 400, except for gaming where the k6's in general were very weak (poor fpu). a k6-3 would run basicaly clock for clock with a p3, again except for gaming. however, a k6-3 500-600 and a decent video card should play most games at 800x600 with medium detail. the k6-3+ is the same performance as a regular k6-3 but they run at a lower voltage (because they are mobile cpu's), but you have to make sure the mobo supports the "+" versions. basically, the difference between the k6-2 and k6-3 is cache...and it goes like this:
k6-2 64k L1 on-die
512k-2meg L2 on mobo accessed by the fsb
k6-2+ 64k L1 on-die
128k L2 on-die full speed
512k-2meg on mobo
k6-3/+ 64k L1 on-die
256k L2 on-die full speed
512k-2meg L3 on mobo

since your mobo can cache 256megs of ram, i assume you have 1meg chche on the mobo (512k cache can cache 128megs of ram). the k6-3+ is very expensive...you might want to get a k6-2+ and overclock it to the 500-600mhz range instead (again, if the mobo supports it)

2) i'm not sure about the "eteq" chipset??? but, if it functions the same as the via chipset it will probably need the same drivers, which would be the 4in1's. check the manufacturers website (if it still exists) and see what drivers are needed

3) i doubt you can use simm and dimm at the same time...it's probably either one or the other. in any case, the simms will be MUCH slower so only use dimms. 128megs will probably work fine but if you do anything memory intensive then 256 would probably be better. only thing is i don't think you can use high density ram...but i'm not sure.

4) i think a geforce2 mx would be better than a voodoo3 2000, but don't get the mx 200, get a 32meg mx 400 (but not a ddr version). the voodoo might only help in pure glide games...i think the hardware t&l would be more usefull
 
I had a K6-2 400 that ran CS like crap ... then i got a PII 450 which ran it pretty damn good ... good enough that I stuck with it for a year.

WIth that type of CHIP ... you won't see a hole hell of a difference with a GF2 .... If your gonna spend the money on a GF2 ... spend it on a new CPU/Mobo
 


<< I had a K6-2 400 that ran CS like crap ... then i got a PII 450 which ran it pretty damn good ... good enough that I stuck with it for a year.

WIth that type of CHIP ... you won't see a hole hell of a difference with a GF2 .... If your gonna spend the money on a GF2 ... spend it on a new CPU/Mobo >>



Problem is, the only upgrades we can do to this thing will have to be cheap ones. New mobo/CPU is kind of out of the question. Another thing that is rather disappointing is the fact that I think the motherboard can't support the + line of CPU's from AMD. I was thinking a k6-2+ 550 would be perfect.

Anyone wanna prove me wrong? Please say the Soyo 5EHM can support k6-2+'s and k6-3+'s!
 
I believe it can only support the K6-2 and below.

The K6-2 are far from being a gaming CPU ... that is the time when Intel's CPUs out-did AMD's in gaming.
 
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