SETI Cruncher Upgrade!

[Sir-Epix]

I have a Pentium 120MHz Classic. I want to upgrade it...and no it will not overclock...cuz its a Compaq. Here is a list of compatible upgrades that I have found.

CPU
Pentium 200MMX
Evergreen Spectra 400MHz
Evergreen AcceleraPCI 600MHz
Evergreen AcceleraPCI 700MHz
Evergreen AcceleraPCI 1000MHz

Memory
4X16 = 64Mb of EDO
2X32 = 64Mb of EDO
4X32 = 128Mb of EDO
2X64 = 128Mb of EDO
4X64 = 256Mb of EDO

Others
512Kb L2 Burst Cache

Please tell me what you think the best performance would be for the buck. This is a spare change project, so please keep that in mind...if you have any other suggestions please share them. Thanks.

[chawken]

Well, the 128mb of EDO should be adequate. As far as the Evergreen chips - I can't remember if they had a full functioning FPU. If not, I would take the 200MMX.

[TC]

It would help if you could provide some price breakdown...

[JigPu]

Well, definatly throw on the 512KB cache.... It's supposed to have a decent impovement on perfomance compared to 256K...

But if you're going for the Evergreen upgrades, I don't know if the L2 upgrade would help.... That darn on die L2.

I gotta check Evergreen's site, cuz' the last time I read, the best upgrade was to a 400Mhz... Lemme check it out...

JigPu

[chawken]

The Accelera PCI 1.0ghz w/128mb SODIMM runs about 339.99 and is approximately 3x more powerful than the Spectra. It looks as if the Accelera PCI is your best bang for the buck.

[TC]

For that kind of money I would consider building an entirely new machine. Personally I wouldn't spend more than $75-100 to upgrade an old system. I just built an entirely new 1GHz P3 box for $340 - 512MB ram and 10gig hard drive. Somebody here said he built a complete athlon system for around $300. I'd weigh your options carefully before plunking down that kind of change on an upgrade.