Suggestions on next upgrade?

[crossed_wires]

Hi there. I'm trying to determine what kind of upgrading options I have now. I recently upgraded the video card to evga 7900GS and just added 2 x 1GB OCZ Platinum yesterday.
Just to clarify, I'm not looking at upgrading to AM2, at least right now. I'm going to stick with the 939 a little longer as it's working fine, but I just want to squeeze as much performance out of it as I can.

What do you think my bottleneck is?

My thoughts were either the mb or the hdd.
The mb: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/FIC/4006111R/4006111Rnv.shtml (Foxconn)
Unfortunately, the case/mb are a proprietary uBTX form factor, so if I have to upgrade those, I'm just gonna get AM2 probably. The BIOS is also their modified version of Award (I think) and there aren't even any visible options for voltage, multiplier or any OC'ing tweaks.
The hdd, from what I can tell is a pretty standard 250GB Western Digital 7200rpm 8mb cache.... I've been looking into getting a Raptor, but not sure my mb would support it -- any thoughts? I've also considered getting another drive and setting up a RAID0 or RAID5 array. I've never done that before, so it would take a little reading to get on the right track.
I also can't change the voltage or timing on my OCZ RAM (thanks to Gateway BIOS), although I hear it OC's quite well. I ran Memtest86+ for a few hours and it did just fine. No errors and timing was 2.5-3-2-5.

I'm also looking into components that can be carried over to an AM2 board when I decide to upgrade --- like the 7900GS and Audigy 4 that I already have...obviously the cpu, RAM and mb won't be able to though...

-Ryan

 

[crossed_wires]

No one knows, huh?

From what I can tell, the fastest 939 proc is a 4200+ (2.2 or 2.4Ghz) or thereabouts. Is this about right?

My mb has these two SATA ports: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/FIC/105552/105552mvr5.shtml

Does this mean that it can take both SATA150 or the SATA 3GB/s? Just wanting to find out my options. Currently, it has a IDE 7200rpm Western digital.

 

[SeasonalEclipse]

Yes you can run either one on either SATA port, but if you put SATA2 on the SATA1 it will run slower then if it was put on the other slot.

 

[JamesXP]

Couldn't you find the origan foxconn board and try flashing foxconns bios onto it?

 

[crossed_wires]

Yes, I could try that. I've never tried flashing BIOS before, however...
From what I've read, if you don't flash with the correct BIOS for that particular mb, it will cause the system to not even boot. That's never a good thing.

 

[White_Pawn]

the cpu is the bottleneck, since it is a gateway, i suppose you can't overclock?

You've got a few options:

1. flash bios some how.

2. buy another s939 mobo and oc.

3. ditch that platform and get an intel c2d. Those E21xx are real cheap and the E4300 isn't much more.

 

[crossed_wires]

Well, the case and mb are uBTX form factor (some proprietary Gateway crap), so replacing one will mean both of them.
I'm going to try flashing the BIOS and if that doesn't work, no biggie. I've seen comparable 939 boards on ebay for $30-40.
You're right, I can't OC the cpu (at least until I flash the BIOS, if I'm able to).
If I can, I'll be able to OC the cpu, RAM and then maybe buy an SATA Raptor or similar. Benchmarks should go up to pretty good #'s, at least for this system.

 

[crossed_wires]

FYI, I managed to find a couple websites related to flashing BIOS on Foxconn mb's.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/faq_detail.aspx?ID=en-us0000066 (Foxconn's "How To")

http://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates.jsp (list of mb manufacturers and BIOS updates)

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/biosflash1.html (Another informative "How to" guide)

 

[White_Pawn]

Raptors are overrated imho. I'd get a seagate 7200.10 drive over a raptor.

 

[crossed_wires]

For anyone interested, or for those who have a Gateway comp and want to flash the BIOS, read this tidbit of info I found on (http://ask-leo.com/c000497.html)

--------------------------------
"If you have a Gateway PC, they have a jumper you need to set and then you insert a floppy with the bios files on it and boot the pc, it'll beep then load the bios from the floppy. When it's done, you shut the pc off, take out the floppy, reset the jumper and boot. Works like a charm.

The Gateway thing also works similar for many many other Motherboard brands..."

--------------------------------
That's some good info for those interested in flashing OEM boards.
As it turns out, this Foxconn board isn't a half-bad Skt 939. It has 2 PCI, 1xPCI-ex1, 1 PCI-ex16, 7 USB ports, 3 Firewire, 2 SATA ports, 2 IDE ports....it's just that Gateway raped it with their proprietary BIOS and form factor.
I'm going to try flashing the BIOS tonight and add to this thread when I see how it goes...
Wish me luck.

 

[White_Pawn]

sounds like a plan, oc right away.

 

[crossed_wires]

Ok, so I tried getting all the info last night. I wrote down the mb model#, although I wasn't able to find it on the BIOS updates site:
http://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates.jsp (list of mb manufacturers and BIOS updates)
Maybe the site is outdated and newer boards (less than 2-3 yrs old) aren't on there....

I tried getting the BIOS version (Phoenix Award is all I can decipher), but the Gateway splash screen comes up right when the computer turns on, until right before it goes to the Windows loading page...

Does anyone know if there's a way to disable this? I'm pretty sure the BIOS version is hidden in the background.

I'm actually kind of scared now, as it seems that just about everyone who's tried that has ended up killing their board. I'm not worried a replacement is pretty cheap and I can get a good case in the process to use on a future build.