Time XP1700 upgrade advice please

I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR RAM.
It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

The cpu is actually 1500MHz, and I know the motherboard is 4xAGP.
(512MB is max installable memory, PC2100 I think)

I was thinking of changing the cpu to a faster one (I've been told it
will take upto around 2.2GHz depending upon the make of motherboard).

Will this force me to re-install XP? Or will windows just boot as
normal?
Will I have to fiddle with the registry/bios?
XP came pre-installed so I don't have a cd.

Is a fan/heatsink upgrade necessary for the new CPU too?

If I do have to re-install XP, will this format my hard disk? Could I
get around this by adding another (faster!) disk and doing the new
install onto that?

Also, if I upgrade my graphics card, do I have to get one that's 4xAGP
or will an 8xAGP card be able to use the 4xAGP? (Presumably at 1/2
data rate?)

Sorry for all the questions, but it's getting a bit slow by todays
standards and it could do with a few upgrades!

Thanks.

(Rich) wrote in message . com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR RAM.
It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

The cpu is actually 1500MHz, and I know the motherboard is 4xAGP.
(512MB is max installable memory, PC2100 I think)

I was thinking of changing the cpu to a faster one (I've been told it
will take upto around 2.2GHz depending upon the make of motherboard).

Will this force me to re-install XP? Or will windows just boot as
normal?

If you keep the same MB, a new CPU (properly installed) will just boot
like nothing has happened.

If you get a new MB, you'll want to do a fresh install of WinXP, to
make sure you get all the new drivers for MB services installed
properly.

If you can't, then you should un-install as many devices as you can
just before you build your system; it'll prompt you for "new hardware"
when you boot the new system, and you'll install the drivers. You'll
then have to phone Microsoft, and convince them that you are allowed
to use your old OS licence on the new system. I've stuck with Win2K
because of product activation, so maybe someone else can tell you what
that procedure is like.

Will I have to fiddle with the registry/bios?

Maybe a bit, while you're trying to get the new CPU, video card, etc.
installed properly. Most modern MBs will automatically set the FSB
speed and CPU multiplier properly but a few f*** up; you should at
least check and make sure.

XP came pre-installed so I don't have a cd.

Typical "cost savings" - I'd like to kill the jerk who first thought
of this. You'll need a WinXP CD to do a fresh install; check with the
manufacturer to see if one is available, usually for a small fee. If
not, you may not be able to re-install from a "restore" CD, if one
came with your system; the ones I used to get checked to be sure they
were being installed on the "right" system.


Is a fan/heatsink upgrade necessary for the new CPU too?

Depends on the CPU.... if you go to an Intel with a new MB, most
likely.


If I do have to re-install XP, will this format my hard disk?

Not necessarily. I'll defer to the more WinXP knowledgable, but you
may be able to do an "upgrade" install (like I can on Win2K); it'll
replace the "Windows" folder, but leave the rest of the drive intact.
That said, I'd still encourage a complete fresh install for stability.

Could I
get around this by adding another (faster!) disk and doing the new
install onto that?

Yep. But you have to understand, you'll then need to re-install ALL of
your programs, becuase they need to be properly "registered" in the
new install's registry. Your data can be just copied across, however.

Also, if I upgrade my graphics card, do I have to get one that's 4xAGP
or will an 8xAGP card be able to use the 4xAGP? (Presumably at 1/2
data rate?)

Check the video board specs; AGP 8X (ie. AGP 3.0 Specification) is
supposed to include backwards compatibility with 4X. Check this
article:

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Video...A-Closer-Look/

And no, AGP 8X isn't necessarily 2X faster; it just means that the
POTENTIAL memory pipeline is twice as big.


Sorry for all the questions, but it's getting a bit slow by todays
standards and it could do with a few upgrades!

My question is, what are you doing with it? The only reason your
system would be too slow is if you're trying to play the very latest
games, or you're processing video files. You might want to maximize
your memory first. You could also wait, save your pennies, and buy a
whole new (even faster!) system after Windows Longhorn is released....


Thanks.

You're welcome! Good Luck!
ECM

Rich wrote:
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR RAM.
It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

Hmm, a couple of years old. If it's a T'bred B and you're resonably close to
NZ I may be interested in buying it from you for a second machine. I
replaced my mobo with an nForce 2 Ultra board and I've got this other board
just sitting there.......
--
~misfit~

(ECM) wrote in message . com...
(Rich) wrote in message . com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR RAM.
It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

The cpu is actually 1500MHz, and I know the motherboard is 4xAGP.
(512MB is max installable memory, PC2100 I think)

I was thinking of changing the cpu to a faster one (I've been told it
will take upto around 2.2GHz depending upon the make of motherboard).

Will this force me to re-install XP? Or will windows just boot as
normal?

If you keep the same MB, a new CPU (properly installed) will just boot
like nothing has happened.


Thanks again for your help.
I downloaded my motherboard (ms-6382) manual last night, it states the
motherboard only takes upto 1500MHz CPUs so I might be stumped there!

The thing only has 2 DIMM slots on the board too, both full so I'll
have to remove a 256MB DIMM to upgrade the RAM. It's not looking good!
At least I can put a better graphics card in it!

Rich.

(Rich) wrote in message . com...
(ECM) wrote in message . com...
(Rich) wrote in message . com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR RAM.
It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

The cpu is actually 1500MHz, and I know the motherboard is 4xAGP.
(512MB is max installable memory, PC2100 I think)

I was thinking of changing the cpu to a faster one (I've been told it
will take upto around 2.2GHz depending upon the make of motherboard).

Will this force me to re-install XP? Or will windows just boot as
normal?

If you keep the same MB, a new CPU (properly installed) will just boot
like nothing has happened.


Thanks again for your help.
I downloaded my motherboard (ms-6382) manual last night, it states the
motherboard only takes upto 1500MHz CPUs so I might be stumped there!

The thing only has 2 DIMM slots on the board too, both full so I'll
have to remove a 256MB DIMM to upgrade the RAM. It's not looking good!
At least I can put a better graphics card in it!

Rich.

Yeah, you may be stuck. More than 512MB RAM probably wouldn't speed
you up, unless you're doing a lot of video encoding or whatever. A
top-of-the-line graphics card my be limited by your CPU speed - check
some of the reviews/benchmarks at www.anandtech.com and
www.tomshardware.com . Still, a Radeon 9600 Pro or a NVIDIA GeForceFX
5600 Ultra or 5700 would kick up the graphics a bit, for under
$150....

Peace!
ECM

Rich wrote:
(ECM) wrote in message
. com...
(Rich) wrote in message
. com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR
RAM. It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

The cpu is actually 1500MHz, and I know the motherboard is 4xAGP.
(512MB is max installable memory, PC2100 I think)

I was thinking of changing the cpu to a faster one (I've been told
it will take upto around 2.2GHz depending upon the make of
motherboard).

Will this force me to re-install XP? Or will windows just boot as
normal?

If you keep the same MB, a new CPU (properly installed) will just
boot
like nothing has happened.


Thanks again for your help.
I downloaded my motherboard (ms-6382) manual last night, it states the
motherboard only takes upto 1500MHz CPUs so I might be stumped there!

Check the website Rich, specifically BIOS updates. Or maybe do a Google.
Often mobos are capable of running faster CPUs with a BIOS upgrade. Also, at
the time of 'printing' the manual, 1500Mhz may have been as fast as was
available. If your CPU is a Palamino I'll bet dollars to dog-dung that the
board will run the fatest Palamino made (XP2100+?) even without a BIOS
upgrade. With a BIOS upgrade (or, again, maybe even without) it will
probably run any 133Mhz FSB XPxxxx+ CPU, including the Tbred A and B range,
or even the new ones. (Thornton? I'm still on my first coffee).

The thing only has 2 DIMM slots on the board too, both full so I'll
have to remove a 256MB DIMM to upgrade the RAM. It's not looking good!

512MB is fine for most things Rich. I have an XP1800+ overclocked to 2.1Ghz,
running XP Pro, and it's 'only' using 512MB. I network with the missus who
has a Barton XP2500+ running at 2.2Ghz with 1024MB RAM and a similar
graphics card and there seems to be no noticable difference in performance.
I use 'RamPage', purely as a monitoring tool (set to *not* free up RAM) and
it runs in the systray, showing how much free RAM is available. Typically
mine has 300+ MBs free (327MB at the moment) amd hers has 700MB or so free.
This is whilst running things like IE, OE, Word etc. Things may change in
games (where I can't see the readout) but, there again, there is no
noticable difference in game performance. Both machines have a fixed
pagefile of 1024MB.

At least I can put a better graphics card in it!

As long as your AGP slot supports 4x AGP (I just read above that it does)
that would be your best bet, maybe combined with a CPU upgrade. (don't
believe that manual, it's probably lying I tell ya!)

You're not anywhere near New Zealand I suppose? I could use your old GF2,
the one in my second machine has just died and I use it for 'muling'
equipment in some of my games. I can't get it to run the games with the old
S3 8MB AGP card I put in it as a tempory measure. They ran slow with the GF2
but, as I wasn't using it for actually playing the games, that wasn't a
problem.

Good luck.
--
~misfit~

"~misfit~" wrote in message ...
Rich wrote:
(ECM) wrote in message
. com...
(Rich) wrote in message
. com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR
RAM. It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

snip
Check the website Rich, specifically BIOS updates. Or maybe do a Google.
Often mobos are capable of running faster CPUs with a BIOS upgrade. Also, at
the time of 'printing' the manual, 1500Mhz may have been as fast as was
available. If your CPU is a Palamino I'll bet dollars to dog-dung that the
board will run the fatest Palamino made (XP2100+?) even without a BIOS
upgrade. With a BIOS upgrade (or, again, maybe even without) it will
probably run any 133Mhz FSB XPxxxx+ CPU, including the Tbred A and B range,
or even the new ones. (Thornton? I'm still on my first coffee).


I got the latest bios update the other night, from the manufacturers
site. Flashed it no problem but their latest update was 2001!
I was looking on the AMD site and the fastest cpu with 266MHz FSB same
as mine is an XP2600+. That would be better!

How do I find out what model the current cpu is exactly?
(I have some analysis software that tells me some stuff but I don't
trust it, it tells me the max installable memory is 512MB, but the
motherboard manual says 2GB)

I suspect you're right and it'll take faster (Than 1500MHz) CPUs but
I'm having big trouble finding out what I can put in it! The
motherboard manual is useless.
And what I'll have to do to install it (new heatsink/fan/bios
upgrade). I just don't want to give up and take it down the local pc
shop, or not do the upgrade at all!

I might well upgrade the graphics card and leave the RAM alone either
way though.

Oh, and UK to NZ is a fair old trek! Sorry!

R.

Rich wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
Rich wrote:
(ECM) wrote in message
. com...
(Rich) wrote in message
. com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR
RAM. It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.

snip
Check the website Rich, specifically BIOS updates. Or maybe do a
Google. Often mobos are capable of running faster CPUs with a BIOS
upgrade. Also, at the time of 'printing' the manual, 1500Mhz may
have been as fast as was available. If your CPU is a Palamino I'll
bet dollars to dog-dung that the board will run the fatest Palamino
made (XP2100+?) even without a BIOS upgrade. With a BIOS upgrade
(or, again, maybe even without) it will probably run any 133Mhz FSB
XPxxxx+ CPU, including the Tbred A and B range, or even the new
ones. (Thornton? I'm still on my first coffee).


I got the latest bios update the other night, from the manufacturers
site. Flashed it no problem but their latest update was 2001!
I was looking on the AMD site and the fastest cpu with 266MHz FSB same
as mine is an XP2600+. That would be better!

Yep.

How do I find out what model the current cpu is exactly?
(I have some analysis software that tells me some stuff but I don't
trust it, it tells me the max installable memory is 512MB, but the
motherboard manual says 2GB)

Try CPU-Z or Aida32 Enterprise System Imformation (excellent proggy). Either
should tell you if it's a Palomino (probably) or a Tbred.

I suspect you're right and it'll take faster (Than 1500MHz) CPUs but
I'm having big trouble finding out what I can put in it! The
motherboard manual is useless.
And what I'll have to do to install it (new heatsink/fan/bios
upgrade). I just don't want to give up and take it down the local pc
shop, or not do the upgrade at all!

I would certainly consider that option. I'm fairly sure it'll work fine.

I might well upgrade the graphics card and leave the RAM alone either
way though.

Oh, and UK to NZ is a fair old trek! Sorry!

Oh well, doen't hurt to ask. :-) I have a Gigabyte 7DXE sitting on the
shelf. (Not a great mobo but adequate for non-overclocked 133Mhz CPUs) Might
have to drop a new Duron 1600 or 1800 in it.

Good luck, you can always come back here for advice. The only problem I can
think of off-hand is that if the board/BIOS doesn't support Tbred CPUs it
might give the CPU a little more voltage than needed.

What is the exact make, model and revision of your mobo? I might do some
searching for you or ask in the overclockers group, they know the
limitations of most mobos and I'm a reg there so should get away with a
non-overclocking question without too much flaming. g.
--
~misfit~

"~misfit~" wrote in message ...
Rich wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
Rich wrote:
(ECM) wrote in message
. com...
(Rich) wrote in message
. com...
I have a (Time) AMD XP1700 pc, with home edition and 512MB of DDR
RAM. It has a GeForce2 MX400 64MB DDR graphics card.
It's a couple of years old.


snip

What is the exact make, model and revision of your mobo? I might do some
searching for you or ask in the overclockers group, they know the
limitations of most mobos and I'm a reg there so should get away with a
non-overclocking question without too much flaming. g.

Thanks, I like cpu-z.
The chip is a Palomino I think, 1.75V core gives it away.
I reckon I can put another 1.75V Palomino straight in, the XP2100+ is
the fastest palomino (gotta be careful to get a palomino though not a
XP2100+ Tbred.) I would think that putting non-palomino (non 1.75V)
chips in would cause power supply problems.

The motherboard is (extremely difficult to find info about!):

Micro-star international
MS-6382 revision 0.
VIA KT266/333 chipset

Thanks again,
Rich.

Rich wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
What is the exact make, model and revision of your mobo? I might do
some searching for you or ask in the overclockers group, they know
the limitations of most mobos and I'm a reg there so should get away
with a non-overclocking question without too much flaming. g.

Thanks, I like cpu-z.
The chip is a Palomino I think, 1.75V core gives it away.
I reckon I can put another 1.75V Palomino straight in, the XP2100+ is
the fastest palomino (gotta be careful to get a palomino though not a
XP2100+ Tbred.) I would think that putting non-palomino (non 1.75V)
chips in would cause power supply problems.

The motherboard is (extremely difficult to find info about!):

Micro-star international
MS-6382 revision 0.
VIA KT266/333 chipset

Thanks again,

No problems Rich, I'll have a nosey around and see what I can find out.
Won't be today though, it's my b'day today so I'm gonna party soon.

Cheers,
--
~misfit~