Should I go through with this swap...

  • Thread starter Thread starter PapillonIrl
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PapillonIrl

PapillonIrl

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My Pentium III 733 for an AMD Duron 1GHZ ? Just the MOBO/Chipset and Case you understand, I'd be keeping my own hard disks, RAM and soundcard etc. There seems to be only one IDE channel on the Duron MOBO though, shouldn't system and audio drives be on different cables ?

I got to try the AMD for a couple of days, and it does seem quicker, and slighly more solid, but then again my OS install was eight months old on my PentIII and I did a fresh one on the Duron.

Is there any known issues with the AMD and the Delta 44 ?

My Pentium III seems a little flakey of late, I'm inclined to swap if there doesn't appear to be any major issues, but even if I don't I am going to rebuild the OS. Heres what I'm thinking:

Drive 1, 40GB, 54000

Partition 1 - C: Win98SE only
Partition 2 - D: Win2000 only
Partition 3 - E: Apps and archived music for playback only

Drive 2, 40GB, 7200

Recording disk.

Sound OK ?

Any thoughts/warnings would be very helpful.

Nathan.
 
Doesn't seem to me like the small gain in performance is worth the pain and cost. IMO, I think you would be better off saving your pennies and doing a more thorough upgrade later - at least to an Athlon XP CPU and DDR RAM. AMD's Hammer chips will be here soon, and their release should push down the price of the current batch of XP processors.
 
I use that exact same AMD 1ghz duron chip with a Delta 44 and running just fine. I had freezing problems with my system earlier but I found out it was because of my cheap ass PSU. But your setup should work just fine, what manufacturer is your motherboard?
 
I have a P3 750 that is starting to show it's age. I wouldnt upgrade for a Duron. I'm going to jump into a XP but that Duron is probably just slightly faster and less reliable than the P3 system.

If you cant afford a full upgrade right now add some RAM. I think 512MB is the minimum needed nowadays.
 
I have not seen less than 2 IDE controllers on a motherboard since... well, a long long time.

Unless you are having some very annoying problems with the P3, or unless you have an immediate need for a second cheap computer (i.e. your old P3 mobo), I would hold off the upgrade until you can afford something like a Athlon 1.8 or above.
 
RWhite said:
I have not seen less than 2 IDE controllers on a motherboard since... well, a long long time.
Click to expand...

Once again you are correct sir :)...there is two channels, but when I try and connect a HD to the IDE channel that is connected to the CD-ROM, it tells me very nicely that the HD is '...not an ATAPI device' or some such thing. I think the cable in this channel is slightly different though...maybe I need to change that, or something in the BIOS setup...I take it it is preferable to have my two HS's on different channels ?

RWhite said:

Unless you are having some very annoying problems with the P3, or unless you have an immediate need for a second cheap computer (i.e. your old P3 mobo), I would hold off the upgrade until you can afford something like a Athlon 1.8 or above.
Click to expand...

I have been having frustrating problems with my P3, there is a bottleneck somewhere that I can't pin down. I have pretty much finished setting up the Duron, and I am impressed with the speed difference, it seems to be alot faster than just the higher clock speed would suggest.

I think I'll stick with the Duron, the very fact that it's a year newer than the P3 should make it easier to sell when I can afford my next upgrade, no ?

Nathan.

p.s. Texroadkill: I have 512MB RAM, and a 7200 RPM audio disk, it was when I installed these recently on my P3, and noticed virtually no improvement (from 192 MB and 5400 RPM) that my frustrations began...I just didn't have the time to root out what was the bottleneck.

p.p.s. I hope it does'nt sound like I'm ignoring all the advice given here, 'cos I do value it...but I'm going to risk the new system being less reliable, and go with the Duron. The Duron is brand new, my Uncle gave me the cash to buy a PC for his business and get it on the network. So I just asked him if I could keep the Duron, and sell him my P3 for the same price...what I'm trying to say with all this babbling is it wouldn't be out of the question to swap back if it all goes pear-shaped. Just more work for me to get both systems back up again.
 
cool, good luck. You shouldn't slave a CD off the same cable and IDE as a HD. I cant remember why and maybe it only applies to the newer motherboards but that is my understanding.
 
What about those Hammers?

Elevate,
Any idea when the AMD Hammer chips will be out? I'm looking to start buying the components for my new system around the first of July and was wondering when the prices of the XP chips was going to start dropping. Thanks!
 
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