Upgrading CPU

[thomasca]

Okay, I've been thinking of a CPU upgrade... Only problem is, is that I don't quite know what my Motherboard can handle.

I have a Compaq Presario 2286, with a VIA Cyrix MII 333 MHz (Product rated speed).

I'm also not quite sure how I would upgrade that CPU, or where I would find it in the Computer.

[mrwilhelm]

I highly doubt you'll be able to get any kind of appreciable performance boost by simply upgrading the CPU in that PC.

It sounds like you want to do this as cheaply as possible, so I think your best bet would be to purchase a case/MB/CPU combo somewhere and import your drives, memory, and peripherals to it.

[NooNoo]

Here is a tutorial about building a pc Many people as part of the learning process often fry some or all of the hardware at their first attempt, or don't get it working at all and have to pay for a technician. Only attempt this is you are sure that you can afford to!

here are all the drivers and links to documents for your compaq From reading various links I think you will find that the fastest CPU that motherboard can take is 350 mhz... not really worth upgrading, however, if you use the compaq as learning tool at least and it all goes horribly wrong, at least you will not have fried a brand new system!

Good luck!

[STIGOFTHEDUMP]

Originally posted by thomasca
Okay, I've been thinking of a CPU upgrade... Only problem is, is that I don't quite know what my Motherboard can handle.

I have a Compaq Presario 2286, with a VIA Cyrix MII 333 MHz (Product rated speed).

I'm also not quite sure how I would upgrade that CPU, or where I would find it in the Computer.

Hi, I am fairly new to comps myself but I have learnt a lot reading the likes of Noo Noo and chums,s answers to punters questions, if your not sure how to identify your CPU, in your machine, it could cost you in the long run if you mess up,if you realy want to go ahead with the "learning curve!!"then MrWilhelm,s got good advice get a new mobo with a cpu already on it and go from there,these guys know there stuff!!:methinks!! good luck

[Temps]

Hi,

Well as someone else suggested on your other thread, I would suggest trying to locate an AMD K62 chip, 350Mhz is the max the motherboard can support, but if you can only locate a 400 or 450 for cheap than get it anyway as it will still work but only at 350Mhz.

I think this will give quite a boost in performance, as I thought the Cyrix MII 333 only actually ran at 250mhz, or am I incorrect with this? I've used many of these in the past and i'm pretty sure this is the case.

However, even with a 350Mhz chip in your PC your not going to be able to run the latest games. Although in the "good old days" I had a K62 running at 400Mhz, 96meg RAM and a voodoo banshee card running Quake3 rather well.

As for the whole not being sure HOW to upgrade, well I would be careful if I were you, Noo Noo is very right with the whole learning curve thing, you shouldn't really tamper with anything you can't afford to replace really.

Personally I would start saving now...

[mrwilhelm]

My dad had a Compaq Presario 2275 running a 333 MHz K6-2. Even in it's heyday the performance of this machine was severely lacking (Quicktime movies looked like slideshows, etc.), but he was rather fond of it for some reason so I did what I could with it.

I eventually pulled the 333 MHz CPU and replaced it with a 500 MHz I had lying around. Compaq was less than forthcoming when it came to jumper settings, but through trial and error I managed to get it running at 450 MHz. The resulting performance boost was negligible. Even after bypassing the on-board video and sound and adding real cards the performance was still sub-standard. You really can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear no matter how hard you try.

I eventually did convince him that this machine had reached the end of it's life cycle and migrated the usable parts to a new MB/CPU/Case combo. It now plays games and multimedia without breaking a sweat and my dad couldn't be happier.

This was done very cheaply BTW, but as many have already pointed out, a certain level of expertise is required.