Athlon Upgrade??

[ricos0]

I have a Gateway desktop with an Athlon K7 Thunderbird 800 Socket A and I'd like to upgrade to a 1.3 or 1.4 gig. Can I just remove the existing and replace it with a new boxed CPU using the existing heat-sink/fan? Or is there more involved than this. Would I be better off getting a new motherboard/CPU combo and installing it in the old box? Where can I go to find out specifics?

 

[smah]

The new athlons are made to the 'Socket A' form factor. This will not fit in a 'Slot A' motherboard. I think the fastest Slot A Athlon was a 950 and you'd probably have to get that used on eBay.

 

[ricos0]

I have a socket A package on the current Thunderbird.

Here is my existing system which I would like to upgrade:

CPU INFORMATION
================
Number of CPU ------------------ 1
Manufacturer ------------------- AuthenticAMD
Processor ---------------------- AMD Athlon (Thunderbird)
Code Name ---------------------- Thunderbird
Package ------------------------ Socket A
Family ------------------------- 6
Model -------------------------- 4
Stepping ----------------------- 2
Core Revision ------------------ A4
Extended Family/Model ---------- 7/4
Technology --------------------- 0.18µ
Specification ------------------ AMD Athlon(tm) Processor
Instructions ------------------- MMX, Extended MMX, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!
CPU Speed ---------------------- 798.5MHz
Clock Multiplier --------------- 8.0x
Front Side Bus ----------------- 99.8MHz
Bus Speed ---------------------- 199.6MHz
L1 Data cache ------------------ 64Kb
L1 Code cache ------------------ 64Kb
L2 cache ----------------------- 256Kb

MAINBOARD INFORMATION
======================
Manufacturer ------------------- Gateway
Model (revision) --------------- OAASNP05 ( )
Chipset (revision)-------------- AMD AMD-751 (375)
Southbridge -------------------- AMD AMD-756
BIOS Brand --------------------- American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version ------------------- 0AASNP06
BIOS Date ---------------------- 07/23/1999
AGP Revision ------------------- 1.0
AGP Transfer Rate -------------- 2x
AGP Aperture Size -------------- 64Mb
AGP Side Band Addressing ------- disabled
Display adapter Manufacturer --- nVidia
Model (revision) --------------- VANTA (NV5) (15)

MEMORY INFORMATION
===================
Type --------------------------- SDRAM
Size --------------------------- 512Mb
Frequency ---------------------- 99.8MHz
CAS# Latency ------------------- 2 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay ------------- 2 clocks
RAS# Precharge Time ------------ 2 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) -------------- 5 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) ---------- 8 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer ---------------- 8 clocks

SYSTEM INFORMATION
===================
Operating System --------------- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
System Brand ------------------- Gateway
System Model ------------------- select 800

 

[CitrixEngineer]

You may need a BIOS upgrade to handle faster processors - check your motherboard manufacturer's website for the software.

Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[paparazi]

smah, the poster did say socket and not slot "A"
Yes as simple as swopping over the processor but you will almost definately need a new heatsink and fan as the 1.4's produce alot of heat and take some cooling, it is doughtful that your current heatsink/cooler will be up to the job.
Over rate the heatsink, get a unit capable of cooling at least an Athlon 2.1, copper bottomed prefered.
As Citrix Engineer said you may need to flash the bios to enable the motherboard to recognise the faster CPU speed, this is because the bios information can only be as current as the fastest processor that was out at the time of manufacture.
One last point, you will need to purchase the 200fsb version of the 1.2 or 1.4 Athlon to be sure of compatibility with your motherboard (not the 266 variety)
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[smah]

Yeah, somehow I didn't read that right . I guess I saw K7 and assumed it was a slot A. Sorry. Ditto what the others said about cooling, bios, & fsb.

 

[ricos0]

Great stuff - thanks to all for rapid replies. Now I can go shopping!

Rich

 

[cdogg]

Also, be sure to recognize the difference between the Thunderbird Athlon (650MHz - 1.4GHz) and the Palomino Athlon (1.2GHz - 1.8GHz). Both CPU's run on 'Socket A' and 0.18 micron die. However, the Palomino has one extra layer in its die. I'm willing to bet that a Palomino won't work well with your motherboard. So, to be on the safe side, I would stick with a Thunderbird when you choose the CPU.

Here's a full blown list of the differences between all Athlon models:

http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20021001/xp_2800-08.html

Good luck and happy hunting!
~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[TomCologne]

There's another option:
Leave your computer as is plus a network card and consider, i.e. a bare bone kit. Although the initial investment may be higher, it might render a better value. Instead of a spare processsor and maybe a heatsink+fan in a drawer, you'd get a backup/experimental/multi purpose machine plus an upgrade. Networked, of course! If you do some web and local research you should be able to find a good deal.

As long as cash flow, space and circumstances do not rule out an addition, why not check out that path?

TomCologne

 

[ricos0]

Update - thanks again for the hints...I took TomCologne's advice and picked up a barebone on eBay and added parts locally and from other online sources. I kept the old Athlon 800 basically intact and I now also have a new Athlon XP 2100+ (Thoroughbred), lots of cooling, SiS746FX chipset, radeon 8500, 6 channel sound, 512M PC2700, 40Gb 7200rpm, 52x24x52CDRW, DVD, floppy, 19" .22dp crt, naural keyboard & optical mouse running OEM XP pro all for about $600. The new PC is networked to the old one which is (currently) the internet gateway. This proves that you can build a decent new PC for a lot less than you might think...

The only problem took a while to figure out but unable to solve - running McAfee Firewall on the gateway does not allow the client PC to access the internet: to surf on the new machine I have to disable the firewall filtering (the ICS firewall is enabled). McAfee couldn't come up with a working solution (none of their fixes worked). Any ideas for a better solution?

 

[CitrixEngineer]

You should be able to surf with just port 80 (http) open on the firewall (and 443, for secure connections).

You may find certain internet functions don't work - you'll need a separate port open for Chat, certain games, remote access, etc - but ONLY open ports you need. If you've got them all open, that's like going out and leaving your front door open...

Hope this helps

CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk