Category: CPUs
Socket 7 and AGP
Q: Am I likely to have problems if I upgrade to an AMD system and an AGP-equipped Socket 7 motherboard?
A: You may encounter problems, especially if your AGP card is one of the newer 2X or 4X AGP variety. We had poor results attempting to use a Voodoo3 or a TNT2 in a Socket 7 board. However, an older TNT card worked fine and, with...
Project: Building a custom PC with one CPU, suitable for running Windows 98, Me, XP Home or a similar OS (Those looking to run Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro or Linux might want to also see our updated feature on building an SMP-capable PC.)
Total Cost: As little as a few hundred, or as much as you care to spend. We spent about C$2500 in Oct. 2000...
Sure, sure. AMD and, to a lesser extent, other Intel cloners are price/performance leaders. Still, conservatives tend to run with the CPU market leader. But choosing Intel has its share of dangers.
Building a PC? Start Here.
Intel's code-names for the various models of Pentium II series chips can get pretty confusing. The "Deschutes" was...
If the above paragraph is gobbledegook to you, here's help (and a glossary, if any of the terms below don't make sense either.) Or, if you prefer, jump directly to our recommendations.
The Basics
PC memory can significantly improve your system's performance.
Window 95 or 98 require a minimum of 64 MB to really run properly
Windows NT needs twice...
Buying a computer is, of course, one of the most challenging aspects of computing in general. PC or Mac? Is it powerful enough? Will it become obsolete too soon? Are the components the best choices? There's an old saying (at least, it's old in "computer-years"): "There's Good, Quick and Cheap. You can have any two of the three....
Camino is the code-name for the next generation i820 chipset from Intel that may ultimately make obsolete many of the components found in the nearly new PCs sitting on many of our desks. The i820 made its official debut on Nov. 15th, 1999.
Here's the items in current PCs that are at risk:
Memory. The i820 Camino chipset provides memory...
A
ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface specification. See http://www.acpi.info/ for details.
AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port. A slot found on all Super7 and Slot 1 motherboards designed to provide high-performance graphics when a suitable AGP graphics card is connected. AGP graphics cards are particularly well-suited to...
We welcome your questions on hardware and computers. The following Q&A addresses the topic of hardware upgrades for PCs and Macs, including topics such as RAM, CPU and motherboard upgrades.
Buying or upgrading a computer is, of course, one of the most challenging aspects of computing in general. Is it powerful enough? Will it become obsolete...
Q: I have dual 600 Coppermines and Windows 2000. My friend put my system together and has never dealt with dual CPUs before. Only one seems to be enabled. How can I be sure and, if not, enable the second CPU?
A: First, you need to be sure that both CPUs are recognized by the BIOS. Does the system mention two processors at bootup time (on the...
AMD announces the K6-III
On Feb. 22, AMD announced its fastest CPU yet, the K6-III. Early tests have shown that the new AMD processor, which costs slightly less than comparable chips from Intel, outperforms the Pentium II in general CPU performance, but is considerably slower in floating point calculations.
However, according to Ace's Hardware,...
Overclocking: is it worth it?
Q: I don't want do try anything that might compromise my machine or my data. Is overclocking risky?
A: Overclocking can indeed be risky to your data and the hardware itself -- not to mention your PC's warranty if something goes wrong. You can burn chips out (permanently!) or crash hard by exceeding tolerances. With...
Here comes a revised version of the Pentium III and...
New Celerons, lower prices from AMD
As detailed in our Q4'98 CPU report, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are embroiled in an ongoing war to win consumer mind share, with fiercely competitive pricing on processors. Indeed, on Jan. 4, 1999 -- the very day Intel announced its latest 366...
Building a PC? Shopping for a central processing unit?
On Oct. 13, 1998 at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, CA, Intel and its CPU-building competitors announced next-generation processor designs -- some of which have since shown up in computers, some which are still forthcoming, and a few that will probably never see the light of day....
Celeron - Thanks, but...
The original Celeron, as we've noted in several articles, lagged behind the Pentium II primarily due to its lack of L2 cache. The Celeron also officially lacked the ability to run on systems with a 100 MHz bus, however adventurous users have proven that overclocking the Celeron (and the new Celeron-A) is indeed possible,...
New CPUs, chipsets coming
With the April '99 release of the K6-III, followed by the summer release of the K7, loss-plagued AMD continued its marketshare war against Intel during 1999. The K6-III contained the same high-performance CXT core as the previously released 380 and 400 MHz versions of the K6-2 (distinguished from their predecessors by the...