I wanna upgrade my abit be6/p3 500mhz

B

bobbo

New member
I've been thinking about building a gaming/recording computer lately and think that maybe I'll just build it for the gaming part, and then see if my delta soundcard will work with it, but if it doesn't I'd like to upgrade a 2 year old computer I have right now, and just use this computer for audio and nothing else. Here are the specs:

abit be6 motherboard
pIII 500
wd 10g HD 5400rpm
wd 20g HD 5400rpm (I'm pretty sure they are both on ata 33 ide)
32 mb video card
256 mb ram (its a few years old too, cheap stuff)
cdrw, cdrom
using windows 98 now, but did have win nt as well, and could install that as well

With ntracks and delta 1010 soundcard I can record pretty well with it, but playing back more than 8 tracks seems to get tricky sometimes. I believe a lot of the slowdown is in the hard drives. Could I use some sort of ide ata 100 adapter and put it in one of the pci slots and get a good 7200 rpm drive?
I read slackmasters post about his upgrade and this motherboard, so maybe I could upgrade the processor too.
Any ideas for me? I like the computer a lot, but just a little more oomph would be great and I'd be set, and I wouldn't have to worry about this next computer build being compatible with my delta soundcard.
 
The BE6 can take a PIII processor up to 850Mhz if you flash to the final BIOS revision. You are talking about the BE6, and not the BE6-2, right?

The BE6 can also take a Celeron up to 850Mhz, although the literature doesn't say it's possible. The Celeron over 600Mhz, or Celeron II, is just a coppermine PIII with less cache and limited to a 100Mhz FSB. Although the BIOS won't automatically detect the Celeron 850, you can simply set the processor up manually @ 8.5 x 100.

Regardless, since the BE6 is a Slot1 board, you'll need a FCPGA to Slot1 adapter, which will run around 20 bucks. I can get you a reliable part number if you choose to upgrade the CPU. You might be able to find a Slot1 PIII if that's the way you want to go, but they're rare anymore.

The CPU upgrade will certainly give you added performance. Even a Celeron at 850 would be a good improvement over your non-coppermine PIII at 500Mhz. The Celeron 850 can be had for around 50 dollars. I upgraded from a Celeron 400 that I was overclocking to 500. I'm happy enough about it.

A faster hard drive would certainly help. The BE6 has an integrated Highpoint ATA/66 controller (HPT366 I think is the number), so you don't need to invest in a controller. Jumping from ATA66 to ATA100 will not help you in any realistic fashion.

One thing I will note, however: when I flashed to the most recent BE6 BIOS to support the 850 I installed, the machine started to lock up during long HD transfers. The highpoint controller BIOS is bundled with the BE6 BIOS and there's nothing you can do about it, and the BIOS change was screwy for me. I *was* able to fix it, I believe, by downloading older Highpoint drivers (not BIOS) directly from Highpoint. After I installed the older drivers all was well. Can't say for sure that you'll run into the same problem.

Right now I frequently do 24bit/44.1Khz projects consisting of 24+ tracks and several effects. I use the latest m-Audio WDM low latency drivers in n-Track, and use ASIO drivers in Fruity Loops and Buzz Tracker. Oh, and I'm doing Windows 2000, SP2. My hardware is:

Abit BE6
Celeron II 850Mhz
256MB Crucial PC133 CAS2
15GB 7200RPM Maxtor on highpoint
30GB 7200RPM Maxtor on highpoint
Sony CDRW on intel
Generic CDROM on intel
TNT 32MB AGP video
S3 2MB PCI video (secondary monitor)
USB keyboard, mouse, joystick, & various other crap
3Com PCI 10/100 Ethernet
M-Audio Delta44
Ensoniq PCI128

Did I mention that most of my OS HD is filled up with damn video games!? I play lots of games and the system performs pretty darn well still. UT, Q3, Battle Realms, Max Payne, Deus Ex, Serious Sam, TA, NFS Porche, blah blah. I typically run 3D FPS games at 1024x768x16. I also do development work using MSVC++, Dreamweaver, and so on. Plus I use Office XP and just a shitload of other apps. I use ONE installation for everything, including audio. No problems with Win2k on this system. No performance drift over time.

So it certainly is possible to work with your existing machine and get it up to snuf. Note however, that this will be the last upgrade you'll be able to do with the BE6.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Thanks Slackmaster2K,
So, if were to get the Highpoint ATA/66 controller working and install a maxtor 20GB 7200RPM Ultra DMA 100 drive, then install the highpoint drivers that this would work ok? Or would I need a different hard drive?
Is this the processor that you used?
INTEL CELERON 850 MHz FCPGA CPU PROCESSOR -OEM Celeron 850 FC-PGA form factor (370pin socket). 128k L2 cache. Model#: OEM80526F850128
Its $50 at newegg. Oh, and yes if you could let me know the model number for the FCPGA to Slot1 adapter that would be great. Is this kind of what that is?
http://www.amamax.com/fcpgaptpslot.html
Are they all the same, or do they make certain, and different types of these adapters?
I'd love to upgrade this computer. Its been real good to me.
 
I just wanted to point out that you might have some trouble migrating to NT with the intention of using the Highpoint Controller. I have an Abit BX6r2 board, and when I tried installing Win2k - it may be different for the NT4.0 etc.. but I assumed you're referring to 2k - it wouldn't even recognize my harddrive on the highpoint controller. I'd definitely give that a read up, I think there is a work-around now though.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. Having a BX board I've been reading up on upgrading my system this past week. From what I can tell, someone correct me if I'm wrong, there is no difference between the celeron2 850's all the way to 1.1ghz - EXCEPT for the 1.0ghz and 1.1ghz A versions which are Tualatins I believe since they have 256k L2 cache and even though they fit FC-PGA sockets, they are a bit different(Fc-PGA2). So you might be able to upgrade past the 850mhz mark that the previous poster mentioned. I'm thinking of getting a 1ghz myself and adding some more ram before the prices get too high - they seem to be going up.
 
He can't upgrade to the 1Ghz with the BE6.

Also, there's no fix for installing Win2k or any NT OS onto a drive that is on a non-standard IDE controller. What you have to do is press F6 (or F8?) during the first part of the setup. If you watch, it'll say "Press F6 now if you want to install a mass storage driver" or something like that. If you hit F6, then at the end of the initial setup process you will be prompted for a floppy drive containing the drivers for the controller.

If that doesn't work for some reason (did for me), you can also simply put the drive onto the intel controller, install NT, install the highpoint drivers, and then move the drive to the highpoint controller. Works like a charm.

EIDE (etc) technology is backwards compatible, so a Maxtor ATA100 drive will work on anything from an old EIDE controller, to an ATA133 controller. The controller and drive will operate according to the speed of the lowest slowest component; in this case 66. I really like Maxtor drives.

Yes, that's the Celeron I used...at 850 they're going to all be the same. Well actually I got a boxed processor because it wasn't much more than OEM. Nice thing about buying a retail processor is it comes with a heatsink/fan, so it saves you some shopping and is worth it if the price difference isn't great (you also get a longer warranty). The FCPGA adapter was one I found recommended highly on usenet and is an Asus D370SL *I THINK*. It might be kind of hard to find, but it's worth it. Yes the card you found is the right kind, but look for the Asus first, it's fully automated and I know it works :)

Remember that you'll need to flash the BIOS. After you do the upgrade (if), the first thing you should try is to copy a bunch of large files around. The transfer should be nice & smooth with no hiccups and the system should not lock up :) If it does then I need to figure out which versions of everything you need to fix it. (it wasn't hard, I just had to try a few different drivers if I remember correctly)

Oh yeah, and before you do a CPU upgrade on the BE6, make sure you're familiar with the location of the CMOS reset jumper. This allows you to reset the BIOS to "default" if the system won't start up with the changes you make. It's a simple matter of putting a jumper across a couple pins for a second, and then putting it back. I would suggest that right before you do the upgrade, you start the system and enter the BIOS setup, then go into the Soft CPU Setup thing and set it up for Custom, CPU Multiplier: 8.5, FSB: 100, AGP: 2/3, PCI: 1/3 and everything else can be left normal. Then save the changes and exit, then immediatly power down and do the upgrade.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I'll add one more thing. When installing the highpoint drivers, you must install the driver for BOTH of the channels that you'll see in the device manager before restarting. After installing the FIRST one, the system will ask you if you want to restart. You must choose no, and then go and install the second. Then it's ok to restart. This is all right in the manual, but lots of people miss it.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Ok, thanks a lot. I found out where and how to clear cmos in case of emergency. I downloaded the bios flash awardflash utility from abits site, and also the latest bios. I have a question about that though. The bios download is named be6th.exe, when I click on it, it extracts a bin file named Be6_th.bin.
Which one of these files should be on my boot disk? So far on the boot disk I have these files:

command (which was made when I did a "copy system files only" format after putting in a floppy disk. I think this has all the files I need to boot to dos, I think) Is this correct?

Then theres the "awdflash" file I downloaded from the abit site.

I'm just not sure which bios file should be the 3rd file on the disk. Do I just need the be6th.exe file, or the Be6_th.bin file or should I put both of them on the disk, making a total of 4 files on the disk?

Now for the hard drive, if I do get a faster hard drive, can I still use the other slower drives, as well, and leave them in the regular ata 33 ide slot that I have them installed in? I'm not sure if this is recommended, especially since the 10 g one has windows already installed on it. Maybe I should format that slower drive first, then connect the faster drive on the highpoint controller, format the faster new hard drive, then install windows 98, then install the highpoint drivers (all this on the new faster drive). Maybe I could just use the other slower drives as some storage or something. Does this sound like the correct way?
Thanks Slackmaster.
 
Ok, the executable file is just a self-extracting zip, so just copy the .bin file that came out of it; it's the actual ROM image. You'll need to visit abit again for instructions on using awdflash...when you boot to dos with the floppy, you'll need to enter some long ass line with a bunch of switches (if I remember correctly).

As for the hard drive, don't think about it too much :) It's fine to leave the OS on the slower drive and just use the faster drive for audio. Lots of folks do that. You will miss out on some performance, especially during boot and loading programs, but your audio won't be affected as long as you're using the 7200RPM drive to store your audio data.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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