PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: carnaging on April 12, 2004, 23:05
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:) hi, firstly i would like to thank everyone at PC-Pals for helping sort out my graphics card/OS error ::). Now that it is sorted and my system is running how it should, I have been thinking of an upgrade, I have an AMD Duron Processor, but other than that im not sure on the specs of my system???, I know it's pretty low though, as it seems to be very unstable and slow at some tasks. I am just wondering what video/sound card, processor or RAM you would recomend ::)
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Can you download and run Belarc advisor and post the results here Daz, that will give you most of what we need to know to be able to help you :)
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
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:)'aha, will do!! you guys are great!! :D ;)
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Thanks Daz, hope we can help further when you run the prog and post the results :)
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:)ok, i ran the program, the results are as follows:
OS:
XP Home Edition
Processor:
900 megahertz AMD Duron
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
64 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Drives:
20.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
12.74 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
CyberDrv CW078D CD-R/RW [CD-ROM drive]
IDE DVD-ROM 16X [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
ST320014A [Hard drive] (20.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5JZA2GS2, rev 3.04, SMART Status: Healthy
Controllers:
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
SiS PCI IDE Controller
Bus Adapters:
SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
Comunications:
Intel(R) 536EP V.92 Modem
RAS Async Adapter
System Model:
ECS K7S5A 1.0
Asset Tag: 0123ABC
Main Circuit Board:
Board: ECS K7S5A 1.0
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T 04/02/01
Memory Modules:
128 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot '0' has 128 MB
Slot '1' is Empty
Slot '2' is Empty
Slot '3' is Empty
Local Drive Volumes:
c: (on drive 0) 20.02 GB 12.74 GB free
Display:
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 [Display adapter]
Proview 15.7 [Monitor] (15.7"vis, September 2002
Multimedia:
C-Media AC97 Audio Device
MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
Standard Game Port
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
Other Devices:
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
I Left a few of the results out, as the wern't relevent (Users, Printers). ??? Does any of that make any sense? :-\
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Ok Daz, as its late here,( or early 3-10am) and I have been waiting for your reply before I went to bed, I can only give you a quick answer.
Hopefully someone can expand on it later :)
I found this review for your mobo :
http://www.sysopt.com/reviews/ecs-k7s5a/
So straight of I would change the CPU for the 1.4 GHz AMD Thunderbird.
It may even take a faster CPU than that but I havent had time to read the article fully yet.
It also takes DDR ram, Belarc doesnt say if your 128 is SD or DDR but 128 of either isnt that good for XP, it was fine for 98.
So I would also say get a stick of 512 DDR ram either in addition to the 128, if its DDR, or as a replacement for the 128 if it is SD ram as you cant usually run SD and DDR in the same board at the same time.
If you look on :
www.crucial.com
Theres a place to put your mobo model in and they will give you a list of the ram that is guaranteed to work with your board and are not to badly priced.
I think that you can probably get a lot better graphics card than your current one for not silly money but someone wil hopefully advise you a little later.
Hope that this gives you a little food for thought :)
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::)ok, thanks Sandra, i'll look at those sites in the morning, too tired now :yawn: :snooze: Thanks for the help, now i have a basis of what i need, as before i didn't have a clue! ;)
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Just had a quick look on the Elite site and if I have got the correct mobo, you would need to visually check the revision number of course and consider whether it was worth risking flashing the bios, then theres a BIOS upgrade that appears to allow a big increase in the CPU speed :)
02/08/09 09/09/02 AMI® BIOS. Support AMD Athlon XP 2400+ and 2600+ CPU
That would really make your pc perform especially along with the DDR ram and a decent graphics card :)
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You might like to have a look at this Graphics Card (http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/graphicscards/productView.htm?quicklinx=2VK5) from Dabs. I fitted the PCI version of this in another machine, and it seems fine.
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP 8x
Compatibility PC
Graphics Processor / Vendor 1 x nVidia GeForce FX 5200
Graphics Processor Data Width 256-bit
RAMDAC Clock Speed 350 MHz
Video Memory Installed ( Max ) 128 MB DDR SDRAM - integrated
Memory Clock Speed 400 MHz
[/size]
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i would say more ram and i would say get it from a computer fair ;) if not then www.crucial.com (http://www.crucial.com)
just make sure you get sdram not ddr ram ::)
PoD (jonah)
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adding to the last post here a specific link to sdram ;D http://www.crucial.com/search/srchrslt.asp?keywords=sdram&type=All&ANDOR=AND&rowcount=20&cv=Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/search/srchrslt.asp?keywords=sdram&type=All&ANDOR=AND&rowcount=20&cv=Crucial)
hope i helped
PoD (jonah)
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just make sure you get sdram not ddr ram ::)
I think you meant that the other way round didnt you PoD ???
DDR is a lot faster than SD ram :)
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i know but doesnt daz'z pc take sdram?
jonah
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also sandra could you tell me y my pics arnt working :'( :'( :'(
and i am changing my name to jonah ;D
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also sandra could you tell me y my pics arnt working :'( :'( :'(
I can ::) No space between the IMG tag and the grin smiley :P
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lol thanx and yeh sandra i must of read it wrong i thought it sed sdram lol
jonah
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it doesnt seem to be working at all ? here is the code im using
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.animatedgif.net%2Fbarslines%2Fabar5_e0.gif&hash=ccd77d77efc75c0535a3020064f6383963c54d45)
Jonah is glad to help/be helped(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.animatedgif.net%2Fcartoons%2Fbugsndaf_e0.gif&hash=d29cddad53b0f680ad2b0f08474eb6842b5027a5)
formaly known as PoD (princeofdarkness)
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.animatedgif.net%2Fbarslines%2Fabar5_e0.gif&hash=ccd77d77efc75c0535a3020064f6383963c54d45)
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i cant put the code up :-[ i should know how to do it without it converting the code but i dont :'(
jonah
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I think that you have put the code in correctly Jonah (the artist formerly known as PoD), if its your pics on your sig that you are referring to ???
I think that the problem is that the address you are linking it to isnt accessable to the public as I get "you are not permitted to view this page" if I paste the url in IE :(
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ill try that 2moz thanx
jonah
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ok, i have downloaded the BIOS that Sandra found, and have ordered the Graphics Card that Simon suggested. I have looked around for DDR ram, but I'm not sure which one I should be getting as there is quite a few different types :-\
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???And another thing, what exactly do I do with the BIOS once I have them? Do they need to be in a special folder? There where two folders insde the package, 'without lan' and 'with lan', well I don't have a LAN setup, so i'm geussing i go for the one titles 'without lan' ::) insde there there is one file, '020809.rom' - just not sure sure what I'm meant to do with this :wtf:
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Dont bother with the BIOS just yet you may find that with the graphics card and extra ram you are ok for the time being.
Flashing the bios can go wrong and ruin your mobo :(
The site that you downloaded the bios from should have full instructions, when you decide that you want to upgrade the cpu.
Theres a system checker on the crucial site that will tell you which DDR ram is compatable with your mobo.
Your mobo takes PC 2100 or PC 2700, I think but the crucial checker will tell you :)
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http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.asp
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:-\my manufacturer isn't there :'(!! my computer is a Mercury I bielive www.mc.com (http://www.mc.com) is there website, :-\nothing is every straight forward for me! >:(
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You can go by the Motherboard manufacturer, in your case, ECA. I think this (http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Elite+Group+%28ECS%29%2B+Motherboards&mfr=Elite+Group+%28ECS%29&cat=RAM&model=K7S5A+%28Rev+1.X%29&submit=Go) is the page you were looking for. :)
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;DThanks Simon!!! Where would I be without P.C-Pals?! :D