Questions About Upgrading

[tman70]

I know that I will have to update from W98se to Wxp some time in the future.

I ran PC Pitstop and it said I need to upgrade my cpu from 450 mhz to 1000mhz and to install XP.

Right now I believe that my computer is just at the minimum to run XP.

This is all new to me and it will have to be done on a "as I can afford it plan".

I have looked at some "800 mhz single slot" for around $50.

My questions are these:

1- If I upgrade to say, 800mhz do I just plug it into the motherboard and that is all.?

2- Do I have to change the BIOS?

3- Is there anything else I will have to do?

4- Do I eventually go with XP Home or Pro?

Thanks for any feedback.

[TheTerrorist_75]

What is your motherboard make amd model or the brand and model of your PC if it's an OEM? For just normal surfing the web with no network setup WinXP Home retail works great. That is what I upgraded to.

Edited April 24, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[tman70]

The computer is a Dell micron/millennia.

The motherboard is a DR737.

[TheTerrorist_75]

I believe you are severely limited to the processor you can use. If you can find a slotket and 600MHz Pentium III and install the full 256MB of memory you should be able to run WinXP Home SP2, but it may be slow. I think you would be better to do a fresh install of Win98SE with all of the updates just before June 30th and use an imaging program so you could reload 98 once errors started. You also would be better off picking up a newer used PC that will handle WinXP. It isn't just the processor and memory that may be an issue. The video setup could also hinder an XP install on that Dell.

http://hardware.mcse.ms/message143802.html

Motherboards with the 440BX chipset can be expected to handle a Pentium II (350, 400, or 450MHz) or a low end Pentium III designed to operate at 2.0v on a 100MHz front side bus (450, 500, 550, 600MHz). The smarter slotkets have built-in voltage regulators to handle higher speed, lower voltage processors. No matter what, processors with 133MHz FSB will not operate at rated speed in a 440BX board.

[tman70]

I believe you are severely limited to the processor you can use. If you can find a slotket and 600MHz Pentium III and install the full 256MB of memory you should be able to run WinXP Home SP2, but it may be slow. I think you would be better to do a fresh install of Win98SE with all of the updates just before June 30th and use an imaging program so you could reload 98 once errors started. You also would be better off picking up a newer used PC that will handle WinXP. It isn't just the processor and memory that may be an issue. The video setup could also hinder an XP install on that Dell.

http://hardware.mcse.ms/message143802.html

Motherboards with the 440BX chipset can be expected to handle a Pentium II (350, 400, or 450MHz) or a low end Pentium III designed to operate at 2.0v on a 100MHz front side bus (450, 500, 550, 600MHz). The smarter slotkets have built-in voltage regulators to handle higher speed, lower voltage processors. No matter what, processors with 133MHz FSB will not operate at rated speed in a 440BX board.

Thanks TT-75

I thought I would be better off getting a better(newer) computer.

I followed your advice from another post some time back and cleaned an old 15 gb hd and downloaded W98se and all updates on it as a back up.

I got this computer from ebay for $60 counting shipping and it has been working fine. Maybe later I can luck up and find one with xp at a cheap price.

Thanks again for replying.