Lots of help with my AMD

[yhlee]

I recently purchased a used AMD650. I am new to PCs. Basically, this is all of the info I have been able to find with research (I got absolutely no documentation with it):
purchased around 10/99

athlon 650 w/gigabyte motherboard
ATI Rage 128 (Fury?)
ATI TV card (TV wonder??)
4x4x24x HP CDrw 8250i
12x Pioneer DVD-Rom
256 SDRAM Chip
13 GB hard drive
rockwell chipset modem
19" Philips 109b

Basically, here are my questions:
I get around 30 fps in unreal tournament, which new graphics card should I buy? I dont want to dish out 300 bucks for a voodoo5 or the geforce2, but i've heard good things about the GeForce2 MX. This leads to my next question, I have been checking out Gigabyte's website. I cant for the life of me figure out which motherboard I have. When I checked the website yesterday, there were 3 gigabyte motherboards for SlotA.. Now I only see 2. Main issue though is, how do i figure out which it is, and also, I think I remember reading that AGP is "1x, supports 2x mode". Does this mean that my motherboard is too out of date for 4x agp or even 2x agp cards(the "supports 2x mode implies that it is somehow emulating while running at 1x)?

Secondly, I am not sure if my hard drive is 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm (and it doesnt say on the HD). So how would i find out which it is? How do I also find out whether it is ata33/66/DMA (and no I dont know the difference) and whether or not my motherboard supports it.

Also, win98se autodetects my 4x4x24x HP CDwriter plus. But it sees it as a generic drive.. I went to HP's site but they dont have any "drivers" so to speak for this model.

My fan is also really really loud. It sounds like the airport (seriously). Despite this fact, when I feel the back of the computer (where the fan is) it feels like a heater. I am worried that things are overheating in there (is this a valid fear?). I checked the bios config and it seems to think that the temperatures are all within parameters (i'm around 60 degrees c). I have a fan on the CPU and on the power supply, would it be beneficial to get a new fan? Maybe i'm asking too much but i want a quieter but more powerful fan.

Finally, I was wondering if my monitor, Philips 19" 109b was a good monitor. It seems a little fuzzy on the top left corner and whole left side but I can probably send it in since it's less than a year old (right)?

I paid $975 for the whole setup, which I thought at the time was a good price. Anyway, I have a few hundred bucks to spend so ANY help whether it be by referring web sites (the only tech site iknow is this one) or any specific answers I would appreciate it greatly!!!

Thanks!!

-young

 

[yhlee]

Quick addendum (man nobody is gonna respond to this thing!!)

Chipset:
AMD 751 north bridge
AMD 756 South bridge

does this mean that I should have "drivers" for both? Or is it one or the other?

I downloaded something from AMD's site recently that patches something about system memory not being used properly in interacting with the video card.. It modified my amd chipset drivers.

 

[Rich]

Looks like it is either the GA7IX or GA7IXE. Lots of physical differences, the most glaring being that the 7IX has the battery right next to the ISA slots.

Rich

 

[Bakwetu]

You mobo should be able to run at agp 2x, but not 4x (not a big issue).
HD- you should be able to check brand and model no, then check it at the manufacturer's homepage. If it is connected to a blue socket on the mobo and use a 80 pin cable it is ata66 otherwise its ata33. If you want to understand it check out: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1237 http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=905
CDRW-if you use w98 there is no need for special drivers, but you should of course install the burning software.
Fans-60 deg.C is high, you should at least put an additional fan at the lower front drawing air in (you might have to make new hole in the case if there isn't any-usually there is and also a fan holder which is convenient). If you think the fans is too loud you could replace it, but as it seems it is the only fan sucking air out of the case; getting a silent one (with low output) could lower the cooling even more.