Is this a worthwhile upgrade?

[Jerky757]

Currently i have a Compaq Presario 5714. It has a Celeron 466, 128mb of SDRAM, Voodoo Banshee PCI, 40x cdrom, zip drive and 12Gb HD.
The warrenty has ran out on it and i want to build its replacement. Here is the current planned replacement:
Abit BP6
128mb SDRAM
Voodoo 3 AGP
DVD
Celeron 500 OCed @ somewhere around 600
15gb HD.
Is the abit a dependable mobo and what is the safest Overclocking speed with a peltier cooler thingy.
Any suggestions?

[Snuffy!]

I don't think going from a 466 -> 500 is a big enough jump, cause without any extra cooling at all, u can already run the
466 @ 583. You'd notice a bit of difference in games with the voodoo3, but not in 2d performance. 12gb -> 15gb isn't a big enough jump. I don't know much about the BP6, But I have the Abit BF6, and I think it KICKS ****!
It is reliable, and I love the features, and SoftMenu III on it.

You'll notice quite a performance boost, but I don't think it's big enough a jump. But hey, thats just my opinion, I"m sure people will dissagree with me.

Snuffy!

[This message has been edited by Snuffy! (edited 07-27-2000).]

[dgardner]

I Reckon u ought to got AMD Ahtlon you seem to get better OC'ing with that also, I would step up the RAM and the HDD, unless you have the other one in there aswell!!

~Dave~

But i'd have to agree its not a big enough jump to justify the upgrade

[ghostface]

if you're sticking w/ intel, why not just get a cel 533a. then you can clock it to 800 easy. higher is you're gettin a peltier.

[Dputiger]

It looks like your trying to get a good upgrade but not spend much money.

If you want to stay with Intel, the Abit BE6 II is supposed to be excellent. I'd also recommend the 533A--its a much better chip than the 'old' Celeron.

Still, I'd recommend you look at AMD. A Celeron 533A+Abit will run you approximately 215 bucks or so. You can get a Duron 700 + KA7 for about $290--and the Duron will OC to 950 and beats the pants off the Celeron.

Unless your 15 gig HDD is much faster than your 12 (ie, your 12 has no AT/66 and is not 7200 RPM) I'd recommend getting a bigger HDD--or just not getting a new one at all.

The Voodoo3 AGP is a fast card but a GeForce SDR is only a little more expensive and would be a lot nicer--and faster.

[Axel]

Careful on those OC quotes -

There is absolutely no guaranty that you will be able to overclock the processor you get. The chances are in your favor, but I'm sick of people specifying how far you can overclock a given chip based on them being able to do it on their one processor.

Basically, a set of processors are etched onto the silicon waffers and tested. Then they are stamped with a rating and the whole batch is clocked down to the lowest common denominator minus a "fudge" factor.

So - most chips you can overclock, but there is abolutely no way to tell how far before-hand.

On another note - ABIT mobo quality seems to be improving, I see less problems here on the board over time, and it does appear to be the OC favorite - I still wouldn't buy one for myself.....

Have you considered going with a slot one board and getting the celeron adapter for it so you might some day move up to a pentium III?

The Athlon consideration is another one to make. It seems to be a friendlier chip for the tinkerer/OCer, but realize that's what it is.... You'd also save some money as AMD typically is 2/3rd the price of an Intel.

Going from 12 to 15 GB drive - why? - will the 3 GB really make that much of a difference in your life? I'd actually stick with 8GB drives if I could still find them. If I'm not using a program at the time, I uninstall it simply to try to keep a clean and stable registry....

For those who advocate bigger & bigger drives - why? - are you going to run CAD or some other space intensive application? - If that's the case, I'd spend money on a RAID array controller and STILL stick with smaller drives - that way you don't have to do back-ups and the speed is way better because you're accessing multiple drives at once....
Drive speed is a factor - the 7200 RPM DOES make a huge difference in performance.... The next generation SCSI is also something to look at as it beats the daylights out of ATA66 access speeds....

You make no mention of the case, power supply, or fans.... Those are important as well. I'd recommend adding a drive fan and a case fan or two. I prefer full tower cases for the room and improved air-flow not to mention most of them come stock with 300 watt power supplies these days. There was a post a few days ago by Drizzle with a link to a case he customized that was a really good design - search for it.

[force=1am]

I own a BP6 and I think bp6 is a great upgrade for you, if you are using an OS that support dual processor. BP6 is a dual s370. I think the best celeron available is the 533.
The backside is that there are a lot of people problem with the voltage flux, but i think the newer one does not have the problem.
Anyway, BP6 is a cheap dual processor board. I hear that PowerLeap is building adaptor, Neo-s370 plus, that allow bp6 to support 2x p3 flipchip.
I hope this help.

[Jerky757]

Thanx for the addvice. It has been very helpfull.
I am looking at the IBM 7200rpm 20.5Gb HD. It looks like it'll be plenty big and pretty fast.It has an Ultra ATA/66 interface. I put keep most my games on my hard drive and collect alot of them from Warez sites so i need a larger hard drive.
I looked into the Cpu speed a little more and found a resonable deal on a Celeron 600Mhz. The site claims it is OC-able up to 910 easily. Hopefully their right, but i'll be happy if i get it around 800.

I found a case for a cheap $26.
Mid Tower ATX Case (848 series).
3 large bays (external)
2 small bays (external)
1 small bays (internal)
Reset, Power Buttons
7 expansion slots
ATX Form Factor
Side Panel Removable
250 watt ATX power supply included
4 power connectors, 2 floppy connectors
Bracket for 1 case fan

[force=1am]

by the way the celeron 600 is a Celeron II,
Celeron two does not support SMP. If you want a Abit BP6, celeron 2 is simply a waist of cash. unless off course you are getting a single cpu mobo.
force=1am