Eurythmic
majordomo plasticomo
Hey all! I'm afraid this question deals very little with recording - not directly, anyway. There's something I've been wondering about for quite a while. I haven't really wanted to ask my group of friends about this, because ... I dunno, if you're generally one of the people who "answers the questions", and you "ask a question", you're liable to get laughed at. 
I've noticed that there are a lot of people who really know their stuff when it comes to computers, though, so I thought I'd give this a go.
Here's my question. Although I've held onto a few legacy parts, and upgraded a few choice parts (such as the video card) along the way, the basic "skeleton" of my computer was built back in early 1999, if I recall correctly. I got rid of my Pentium I/200mhz and 32MB of RAM, and bought the just-released Celeron 466mhz and 128MB of RAM, and really thought I was the bees knees.
And my computer is still quite fast. I've tweaked it to the point where it can still compete with a lot of newer systems. But more and more often, I'm running up against its limitations...
So I'm starting to wonder what my best upgrade path would be. For several reasons, I'm not going to go with an AMD-based solution. Gotta be Intel.
There are a lot of variables here. Where to begin? Well, the motherboard might be a good place. I have the misfortune of owning a motherboard made by EFA, a company that basically went out of business after I purchased the board. The board is the Discovery ZX, and you can find its specs here:
http://www.efacorp.com/products/discoveryzx.htm
I purchased it because at the time, many of my components were ISA and I really needed the slots. This is still the case; my sound card, MIDI controller, and modem are all ISA.
And since the motherboard is no longer supported, a BIOS flash to give the motherboard ATA-66 capability wasn't released. But on the other hand, how many hard drives can sustain a 33MB/sec transfer rate, anyway?
So here I have a computer with a lot of ISA cards, and an AT case and power supply. This puts the Pentium 4 out of my reach, but I'm wondering about the Pentium III.
See, it could be a long time before I have the money to perform a complete overhaul, because most every component will have to be replaced - and if I'm going to do that, I want to buy the best.
I'd really like to give my current machine a bit of a speed boost, and buy the newer components one by one, until I get to the point where I can grandfather them all into a new Pentium 4 system.
One obvious choice, I thought, would be to pick up some extra RAM. I can buy a 256MB stick for $35 or so, which ought to help in some applications. But if you look at the specs for my motherboard, it says the board only supports up to 256MB. Why is this? Is this spec correct? Or, is it just that nobody thought that anybody would need more than that at the time? I suppose I could just buy a lower latency 256MB stick of SDRAM and put the 128MB stick away for a rainy day, but that seems a waste.
Lastly, I'm wondering about a processor upgrade. I know nothing about chipsets, so maybe somebody could clear this up for me - if the Pentium III is a socket 370 chip, and my motherboard uses the s370 form factor, and many PIIIs use a 100mhz FSB, and my motherboard supports a 100mhz FSB, why shouldn't I be able to slap a PIII in there?
I've got quite an essay going here, so I'm going to stop with this now. If anyone has some suggestions for me, they'd be much appreciated. All of the changes in the hardware industry in the last couple of years have kind of left me scratching my head. When I put this machine together, I thought the upgrade path would be as easy as it had always been. Definitely not the case here.
I've noticed that there are a lot of people who really know their stuff when it comes to computers, though, so I thought I'd give this a go.
Here's my question. Although I've held onto a few legacy parts, and upgraded a few choice parts (such as the video card) along the way, the basic "skeleton" of my computer was built back in early 1999, if I recall correctly. I got rid of my Pentium I/200mhz and 32MB of RAM, and bought the just-released Celeron 466mhz and 128MB of RAM, and really thought I was the bees knees.
And my computer is still quite fast. I've tweaked it to the point where it can still compete with a lot of newer systems. But more and more often, I'm running up against its limitations...
So I'm starting to wonder what my best upgrade path would be. For several reasons, I'm not going to go with an AMD-based solution. Gotta be Intel.
There are a lot of variables here. Where to begin? Well, the motherboard might be a good place. I have the misfortune of owning a motherboard made by EFA, a company that basically went out of business after I purchased the board. The board is the Discovery ZX, and you can find its specs here:
http://www.efacorp.com/products/discoveryzx.htm
I purchased it because at the time, many of my components were ISA and I really needed the slots. This is still the case; my sound card, MIDI controller, and modem are all ISA.
And since the motherboard is no longer supported, a BIOS flash to give the motherboard ATA-66 capability wasn't released. But on the other hand, how many hard drives can sustain a 33MB/sec transfer rate, anyway?
So here I have a computer with a lot of ISA cards, and an AT case and power supply. This puts the Pentium 4 out of my reach, but I'm wondering about the Pentium III.
See, it could be a long time before I have the money to perform a complete overhaul, because most every component will have to be replaced - and if I'm going to do that, I want to buy the best.
I'd really like to give my current machine a bit of a speed boost, and buy the newer components one by one, until I get to the point where I can grandfather them all into a new Pentium 4 system.
One obvious choice, I thought, would be to pick up some extra RAM. I can buy a 256MB stick for $35 or so, which ought to help in some applications. But if you look at the specs for my motherboard, it says the board only supports up to 256MB. Why is this? Is this spec correct? Or, is it just that nobody thought that anybody would need more than that at the time? I suppose I could just buy a lower latency 256MB stick of SDRAM and put the 128MB stick away for a rainy day, but that seems a waste.
Lastly, I'm wondering about a processor upgrade. I know nothing about chipsets, so maybe somebody could clear this up for me - if the Pentium III is a socket 370 chip, and my motherboard uses the s370 form factor, and many PIIIs use a 100mhz FSB, and my motherboard supports a 100mhz FSB, why shouldn't I be able to slap a PIII in there?
I've got quite an essay going here, so I'm going to stop with this now. If anyone has some suggestions for me, they'd be much appreciated. All of the changes in the hardware industry in the last couple of years have kind of left me scratching my head. When I put this machine together, I thought the upgrade path would be as easy as it had always been. Definitely not the case here.