what are the things to consider when upgrading processor?

Question

i am planning to upgrade my processor, i had look at my motherboard's manual but it tells only the supported socket type and FSB. the socket is socket A and the supported FSB are 200/266/333 Mhz. it didnt tell the supported clock speed of processor but my motherboard has its pins for frequency selection, it supports 100/133/166 Mhz, i dont know what those for, help me understand these matters in order to decide choosing new processor for my motherboard. by the way my processor is amd duron with 1.6Ghz of clock speed and a model M7VIG motherboard. tnx..

Answer 1

Socket A is an obsolete platform. It could be tough finding an Athlon XP (333mhz fsb Barton) or Sempron (333mhz fsb Thoroughbred or Thorton) in the 1.8 to 2.16ghz range.

Answer 2

If your Socket A motherboard supports 133 and 166 bus speeds (266 and 333 MHz effective front side buses) you can basically upgrade to any Athlon XP model short of the Athlon XP 3200+.

Some Athlon XPs run using a 133 (266 effective) front side bus, those with model numbers from 1500+ up to 2400+.

Other Athlon XPs run with a 166 (333 effective) front side bus, models 2700+ to 3000+.

Some Athlon XP 2600+ models run at 133. Some run at 166. Check first before setting the jumpers.

There are also Socket A versions of the Sempron, all of which run using the 166 (333) FSB, but your motherboard may require a BIOS update if it doesn't recognize the CPU.

Your board is also compatible with older Athlon processors. These work at either 100 (200) or 133 (266) front side bus.

The way Socket A boards work is that the processor bus runs at twice the motherboard speed, hence 133=266, and 166=333.

Answer 3

That is an old CPU.

200/266/333
100/133/166

The top is twice the bottom 100*2=200, 133*2=266, 166*2=333.
The top is bus speed. The bottom is memory speed.

Some CPU's now are 5000MHz FSB.

Answer 4

for amd vs amd, it is ghz... for intel, its pentiums at the bottom, core2 in the middle, corei7 the top... also, the more cores, the better, the more cache the better... but cache isnt that important oh yeah... and to answer your first ?, get anything with AM2 socket, because i really doubt that they sell socket 939 4400 x2's