i810+Cel 600. Help needed...

[NorwegianBlue]

Hello!

This is my first post here. Please be kind....

I have a MOBO i810 (Gigabyte GA-6WMM7) and a Celeron 600. And I love games (stop snikkering...). I want to keep this machine 1-2 more years, then get a brand new one.

Anyway, I want more performance from my rig (have 384 MB RAM+V5 5500 PCI). Thought of getting a VIA 900, but scrapped that after reading about it's dismal gaming performance.

Therefore: what limitations are there to the type / strength of CPU I can use on my motherboard? Any reccomendations?

If no:

Is the a way to boost the performance of the Celeron 600?

Thank you very much in advance!!!

 

[NorwegianBlue]

Thanks... that really helped.

Anybody else, please???

 

[WhiteMouse]

I overclocked my Celeron 600 to 850.

 

[mrzed]

You should be able to overclock using that mainboard. Check you manual carefully. You will have to use jumpers to change the FSB settings. Look in your manual to see if you have voltage adjustment as well. With your celeron, you should be safe up to 1.75v with stock cooling. With very good cooling people go up to 1.9.

Either way, try increasing your settings. If you are lucky, you may be able to reach 100FSB/900Mhz with little voltage increase. Even just going to 83fsb will give you a bit of a jump.

As far as sticking with it for another 1-2 years, no problem. Just don't expect to play the latest games at anything beyond the most basic settings. The way I upgrade, it's not when a better thing becomes available, but when I have a need for that thing. How long you can keep your system depends on what games you want to play, and how good you want them to look.

 

[NorwegianBlue]

Thank you for the replies!

But should I take this as a "no" as far as the possibility of getting another CPU for my motherboard? The Celeron 600 ain't a powerhouse. I would be happy with something in the range of 1 - 1.2 gig. The question is whether anything is available in the market for the i810 socket 370 mobo. VIA 933 133 Mhz looked PERFECT, until I read about it's poor gaming performance.

THX again!

 

[NorwegianBlue]

BUMP!

 

[mrzed]

You *should* be able to use just about any comppermine celeron or PIII in that board. However, if you are looking to increase gaming performance, you are really talking about wasting your money IMO.

A new celeron 850-900 might give you enough of an overclock to notice a real difference. A 100Mhz FSB PIII overclocked would be likely the best possible chip for that board, but those are not cheap.

Thing is though, you would be better off just overclocking what you have, not putting any more money into it, and holding out until you can replace it altogether. You should really be looking at your manual to see what voltage options you have and see where your 600 can take you. You are not going to find a PCI video card that gives you a huge performance increase over what you have. If you upgrade your system right now, there is absolutely no possible upgrade path beyond that, so anything you spend would not be able to be used in the future.