Systemax PC Athlone 750MHz upgrade to?

[SillyBilly]

Hi
I have a Systemax PC but don't know what motherboard is fitted. The Serial Number 01524970 is not recognized by their website.
It has An Award Modular v6.00PG bios. It came with an Athlon 750MHz processor which I would like to upgrade to the fastest processor I can. I have read that the Athlone 1.4GHz A1400AMS3C would fit the socket but needs a front side bus of 266MHz. I have lost contact with Processors, sockets, fsb!! What can I use?
When I look at the bios I have an option Frequency Clock Control, which leads to Auto Detect DIMM/PCI Clk - Enabled and CPU Host/PCI/Spread Spec - Default
Any help would be appreciated

[Neon]

Most likely, your motherboard has only 200 MHz FSB.

There are Athlons up to 1400 MHz compatible with 200 MHz FSB, and their part numbers all end with "B".

A1400AMS3B
A1300AMS3B
A1200AMS3B

and so on. The 1400 is somewhat difficult to find. Keep in mind that the fastest of this series run hot, and require good cooling.

[Cobracon]

This might help identify your motherboard, which should then allow you to download a motherboard manual, etc., from the OEM.

Download and install: http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

Run program, click on the 2nd icon at the top/left of the screen, then click 'Mainboard' in top/right window. Read info (if any) in lower window.

[Guest]

Thanks Neon and Cobracon.
I have downloaded and run the freeware PCWizard and CPUZ. They report that I have an unspecified 8363-686A Motherboard with Via KT133 Rev 02 and Southbridge Via VT82C686. The processor is an AMD Athlon 750MHz Socket A (462) with bus speed 99.7MHz and FSB 199.3MHz (PCWizard it says FSB 99.7 and Bus Speed 199.3!). So perhaps Neon you are right! Any other comments on what I can upgrade to?
The memory is Crucial 16LSDT6464AG-13EB2. I have 2 more memory slots: what other Crucial memory could I use. I have seen Crucial memory with 168pins with non parity and non EEC memory on ebay but they have different codes and I don't know what would match this or what I could use instead. I intend dual-booting from Win98SE and XP (I know about the lines I would need to put in Win.ini for W98SE.)

[SillyBilly]

Whoops I forgot to login!
Thanks Neon and Cobracon.
I have downloaded and run the freeware PCWizard and CPUZ. They report that I have an unspecified 8363-686A Motherboard with Via KT133 Rev 02 and Southbridge Via VT82C686. The processor is an AMD Athlon 750MHz Socket A (462) with bus speed 99.7MHz and FSB 199.3MHz (PCWizard it says FSB 99.7 and Bus Speed 199.3!). So perhaps Neon you are right! Any other comments on what I can upgrade to?
The memory is Crucial 16LSDT6464AG-13EB2. I have 2 more memory slots: what other Crucial memory could I use. I have seen Crucial memory with 168pins with non parity and non EEC memory on ebay but they have different codes and I don't know what would match this or what I could use instead. I intend dual-booting from Win98SE and XP (I know about the lines I would need to put in Win.ini for W98SE.)

[Cobracon]

Just go to Crucial's website and use their scanner: http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

[SillyBilly]

I did that first but the scanner doesn't recognise the system and says it has only 2 memory sockets!

[Qwerty]

Hi,

IMHO it's not worth to upgrade such an old sytem.

Even if you get a very-hard-to-find and pretty expensive 1.4 GHz Athlon you won't be able to use Windows XP on this computer. Although Win XP will boot and run on this hardware, it will be very slow.

You said that you want to use Windows XP and 98SE together. It could lead to problems. Windows XP requires at least 1 GB of RAM to work smoothly, and the Windows 98SE can't handle more than 512 MB. If more than 512 MB (or 768 MB) of RAM is installed the Win 98SE will not work at all !

Perhaps it's better to purchase a new cheap PC with Win XP and keep your old computer as a secondary sytem with Win 98SE and old applications on it.
If you get a KVM switch you will need only one monitor / mouse / keyboard to operate both PCs simultaneously.

[SillyBilly]

Thanks Qwerty
I had intended booting from win98SE partition with lines maxFileCache=524288 in Win.ini and MaxPhysPage=40000 in [386] section of win.ini. This wouldn't affect the XP booting from a different partition.
I realise that the system is old but so am I!!
I had thought that I could put 1.5Gb memory in which would be fine for XP considering how 0.5 is fine in my laptop. Having checked again PCWizard actually reports 3 memory connectors each with a maximum memory of 256Mb and a total maximum of 768Mb. Puzzle that, for it came to me with module 1 of 128Mb L3 and module 2 of 512Mb L2 with total of 640Mb. Could I put 3 512Mb modules for a maximum pf 1.5Gb?
Can you mix L2 and L3?