Maybe A Dumb Question?

Hi all,

At the risk of being laughed at Im gonna tell you a little story and it goes like this...

There was this guy named (cough) Stan and he had a little 386 computer that he liked to play games on. Well when that fell apart
he got a 486 and continued to play games cus thats all he liked to do!!!! Not knowing anything of the innner workings of his cpu or any cpu for that matter (and still very little, but getting better)
he saved up his money and called the local computer store and asked what a good home pc was. The man at the store told him he could build him a 1100MGz Athlon AMD computer. Stan got excited and told him he wanted it so he could go fast and make his games work better!!! So Stan bought this cpu and it works well but now that he has been reading all the post from the BIG DOGS at WWW.WindowsBBS.Com he has a few questions.

How can I tell If I have what I bought seeing how all I got was a disk and a book that says on the front of it PC266 System Board
Socket A M810 series. Nothing here says Athlon or AMD, it does however say inside the book that it uses a T-BIRD chipset and that the mainboard has a Socket-462 procsessor socket for an AMD K7 type cpu. It also says that the mainboard supports a Socket-462 processor front side speeds of 200/266MGz

Did I buy some generic piece of junk?
How can I tell?
What is front side bus speed and how do I know if it running at what it claims to be?
Where can I check for upgrades for my motherboard?
Where can I check for upgrades on my drivers (installed by a SIS utilities disk that came with the cpu)?

My cpu is fast but how do I really know if it is what I bought and is running at what its potential is?
Is there any way for a NOOB like me to find out? Please I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for the help

Stan (FireDancer)

 

Stan, the only stupid question is the one not asked.
All valid questions you raise, and for most, not easy to find answers.
First, right click on My Computer, and select Properties.
Read everything it says there. Generally, this information is correct.
To get even more information, get Aida32 Personalfrom http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32
Install it, and run it.
Go through each of the screens carefully. It won't change anything on your computer, but it WILL tell you exactly what's there, and what speed it's running at.

It's only a piece of junk if it won't do what you want it to, or won't do it properly.
Knowing what you have, and then knowing what you want to actually DO with it, post back.
If you feel you paid too much, or it's not performing the way you expected, it's time for a return visit to the store.

 

Totally agree re: no dumb questions. Think I may have a little something for you to review and learn some more from. I think you have the 810L. Check these out.

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M810L.html

http://www.hardwaresite.net/m810.html

http://www.reviewcentre.com/review18343.html

 

Here Ya Go!

Reboot and Rockster,

I got the program you suggested and WOW! thats cool heres what I thought was importaint maybe you both can read it and tell me if its good set up or not and what all that bus speed stuff is at the bottom. Rockster thanks for the sites im gonna be doing
some reading tonight. Hope this isnt to long to post so here ya go
please post back on what you think.

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows 98
OS Service Pack None
Computer Name VIPER (TOOL)
User Name Stan

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 1100 MHz (5.5 x 200)
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset SiS 730S
System Memory 496 MB (SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (09/14/01)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter SiS 630/730 (16 MB)
3D Accelerator SiS 300
Monitor MTK C893 [NoDB] (A255C1156334)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter SiS 7018 Audio Accelerator

Storage:
Floppy Drive GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK
Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B (24x/10x/40x CD-RW)

Partitions:
C: (FAT32) 19530 MB (18784 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse

Network:
Network Adapter PPP Adapter.
Network Adapter SiS NIC SISNIC (192.168.1.100)
Modem HSP56 MR




CPU Properties:
CPU Type AMD Athlon-PECM, 1100 MHz (5.5 x 200)
CPU Alias Thunderbird
CPU Stepping A4/A5/A6/A7
L1 Code Cache 64 KB
L1 Data Cache 64 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, Full-Speed)

CPU Physical Info:
Package Type 453 Pin PGA / 242 Contact Slot A Cartridge
Package Size 4.95 cm x 4.95 cm / 13.99 cm x 6.27 cm x 1.64 cm
Transistors 37 million
Process Technology 6Mi, 0.18 um, CMOS
Die Size 120 mm2
Core Voltage 1.75 V
I/O Voltage 1.6 V
Typical Power 34 - 65 W (depending on clock speed)
Maximum Power 38 - 72 W (depending on clock speed)

CPU Manufacturer:
Company Name Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Product Information http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118,00.html

CPU Utilization:
CPU #1 8 %



Operating System Properties:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 98
OS Code Name Memphis
OS Language English (United States)
OS Kernel Type Windows 98
OS Version 4.10.2222A (Win98 SE)
OS Service Pack None
OS Installation Date 4/21/03
OS Root C:\WINDOWS

License Information:
Registered Owner Stan
Registered Organization N/A
Licensed Processors 1
Product ID 11103-OEM-0076474-65488
Product Key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Current Session:
Computer Name VIPER
User Name Stan
UpTime 20183 sec (0 days, 5 hours, 36 min, 23 sec)

Components Version:
Common Controls 5.81
Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (IE 6 SP1)
Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106
Windows Media Player 9.00.00.2980
DirectX 4.09.00.0901 (DirectX 9.0a)
ASPI 1, 0, 0, 0
ODBC 3.510.3711.0

Operating System Features:
Debug Version No
DBCS Version No
Security Present No
Network Present Yes
Remote Session No
Safe Mode No
Slow Processor No

Problems & Suggestions:
Suggestion Your system seems to be ready to run Windows


Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 62-0914-001437-00101111-071595-SiS730S$M810LRRelease 09/14/2001 S
Motherboard Name Unknown

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 200 MHz
Bandwidth 1600 MB/s

Thanks Stan

 

The pertinent bits:
AMD Athlon 1100mhz Thunderbird. Slot A CPU.
Motherboard PC Chips M810R with SiS chipset.
Onboard Video and Sound.
AMI BIOS.
Windows 98 SE.

The FSB is 100mhz doubled for the T-Bird, exactly where it should be.

Although not the best quality motherboard, if it gives you no problems, then it's fine. Not one to do any overclocking on though.

I suppose, depending on what you paid for it, it's probably a good basic system, not great for gaming though. Excellent for email, web, Word, etc.
Nice to see you've put a decent amount of RAM on it (512 meg, 16 meg shared video), as that can make or break the speed of a system like this.

 

Thanks

Reboot,

Thanks for looking! Can I sak what a reasonable price would of been in your own opinion? I got everything from the inside out to the case(just the cpu) I had the rest. As far as the games, I play one only and its more then sufficant to run it and I have fun with it but we (me and my wife) use it for just that.. home pourposes e mail, web browsing ect...
is the front side bus at 100MGz good or is that slow for what im doing?


Thanks again for the help,

Stan (FireDancer)

 

I can't say what's reasonable. In Canada, where prices are inflated beyond reason, everything is different.
I can only say that the motherboard is what I'd call "bottom line ".
Not known for quality, or stability, it's nothing I would put in a build for any of my customer's, nor my own personal systems.
Like I said before though, if it's working for you, with NO BSOD's, and no hardware conflicts, then it's doing it's job.
The 100mhz FSB doubled is more than enough for average apps.
Having the RAM that you do is what makes that system as speedy as it is. Any less, and you'd be frustrated.
Don't try any serious FPS games on it (Quake et al), and don't start getting into photo/movie editing, and it should be good for a long while yet.
If you're considering any sort of upgrade soon, there are some excellent deals on quality motherboards for less than $100 with all the options you currently have. Prices on Athlon XP's are also under $100, unless you're getting over the XP 2500+ or so.
Add a $100 video card (Radeon 8500LE maybe?), and dual DDR (about $70 for 512 meg), and you'll notice a HUGE increase in speed.
If you don't need the speed for anything, then you don't need an upgrade.
Get the mileage out of it that you can, then sell it (or hand it down to the kids/grandkids) as a great starter system, and build yourself a nice new box

To get back to your original questions:

Did I buy some generic piece of junk?
No. It's not great, but it's not terrible. Depends more on what you want to do with it.
If you are into serious gaming, then it's overdue for an upgrade. If you're not, then it's great as a web/document machine.

How can I tell?
Aida32 tells all

What is front side bus speed and how do I know if it running at what it claims to be?
See above.

Where can I check for upgrades for my motherboard?
Only upgrade if you need to. At this point, an "upgrade" should consist of a new motherboard, CPU and RAM, otherwise leave it as is.

Where can I check for upgrades on my drivers (installed by a SIS utilities disk that came with the cpu)?
You don't need any. With SiS chipsets, if it works, don't fix it. The only time you may need an upgrade is if something doesn't work properly, and even then it may NOT need a chipset driver to fix it.
Windowsupdates may be all it needs, ever, period.

 

If I am understanding what you are saying: You bought a Motherboard cpu combo.

The cpu is 3 year old technology. The cheapest MoBo-cpu combo I could find at my favorite web-site was $150. Of course it was a name brand ASUS MoBo with a Athlon XP 1700 cpu. It cost $140.

If you could find one like yours it would be <$100. Then add on labor for swapping the components. The shop owner has to pay rent and eat, so he jacks the price of the parts by 50-100% and then charges you labor. So I could see him charging you $200-$250 for the service.