Overclocking an old CPU/ old pc

This is a stab in the dark, but I am using Mandriva 2009 with a 1.3
ghz Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic T with D1371 Mainboard. The only area it
falls down is playing Flashplayer stuff e.g. via YouTube. I have the
maximum RAM installed, and anyway it's only using half that on
average. The CPU can be 90% used during these videos online. Can I
tweak anything? I know it's old, and I have a newish laptop for the
heavy-duty stuff, but if anything can be done to get this machine
going as smooth as possible I'd be interested. I don't understand
overclocking, have never needed to look into it before, so any replies
could you keep them idiot-prood please. Thanks.

I've been told elsewhere I couldn't get a faster CPU in this machine
(socket 370 apparently), or maybe a 1.4 ghz which probably wouldn't be
worth it. If anyone knows it would take 1.6 or 1.8, I'd be pleased to
know.

Note, I am not using the onboard Intel 810E graphics but instead a 256
mb NVidia GeForce fx5200.

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:38:34 -0800, poachedeggs wrote:

> This is a stab in the dark, but I am using Mandriva 2009 with a 1.3 ghz
> Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic T with D1371 Mainboard. The only area it falls
> down is playing Flashplayer stuff e.g. via YouTube. I have the maximum
> RAM installed, and anyway it's only using half that on average. The CPU
> can be 90% used during these videos online. Can I tweak anything? I
> know it's old, and I have a newish laptop for the heavy-duty stuff, but
> if anything can be done to get this machine going as smooth as possible
> I'd be interested. I don't understand overclocking, have never needed
> to look into it before, so any replies could you keep them idiot-prood
> please. Thanks.
>
> I've been told elsewhere I couldn't get a faster CPU in this machine
> (socket 370 apparently), or maybe a 1.4 ghz which probably wouldn't be
> worth it. If anyone knows it would take 1.6 or 1.8, I'd be pleased to
> know.
>
> Note, I am not using the onboard Intel 810E graphics but instead a 256
> mb NVidia GeForce fx5200.

You probably can't overclock this machine. They generally don't put
overclocking features into mainstream systems, it would be a support
nightmare for them. Motherboards that are sold to build it yourselfers
are overclockable.

The only way to tell for user is to go into the BIOS and see if they gave
you a means of changing the CPU clock.

"poachedeggs" <> wrote in message
news:8e2df04c-a9cd-49ee-8f1b-...
> This is a stab in the dark, but I am using Mandriva 2009 with a 1.3
> ghz Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic T with D1371 Mainboard. The only area it
> falls down is playing Flashplayer stuff e.g. via YouTube. I have the
> maximum RAM installed, and anyway it's only using half that on
> average. The CPU can be 90% used during these videos online. Can I
> tweak anything? I know it's old, and I have a newish laptop for the
> heavy-duty stuff, but if anything can be done to get this machine
> going as smooth as possible I'd be interested. I don't understand
> overclocking, have never needed to look into it before, so any replies
> could you keep them idiot-prood please. Thanks.
>
> I've been told elsewhere I couldn't get a faster CPU in this machine
> (socket 370 apparently), or maybe a 1.4 ghz which probably wouldn't be
> worth it. If anyone knows it would take 1.6 or 1.8, I'd be pleased to
> know.
>
> Note, I am not using the onboard Intel 810E graphics but instead a 256
> mb NVidia GeForce fx5200.

Probably not possible to modify FSB or CPU clock ratio on a proprietary
system. Max processor for that clock locked mb is 1.4Ghz. You generally will
not notice a 100Mhz increase in speed, all other things being equal. A
1.3Ghz PIII Celeron system with 512Mb of DDR should be adequate for web
browsing an Flash animation. That's a Tualatin Celeron system, but the FSB
is ramped down to 100Mhz from the standard 133Mhz for PIII Tualatin's and
the L2 cache is 256Kb instead of 512Kb. Unless your m/b BIOS supports
non-Celeron Tualatins, sticking a real 1.4Ghz Tualatin PIII in there will
drop the expected processor speed from 1.4Ghz to 1.05Ghz due to the locked
FSB while doubling the full speed L2 to 512Kb. Likely a bit slower. If it
does support the 1.4Ghz PIII Tualatin, it would be worth it in my opinion
because they're avalable for $10 on eBay and doubling your L2 and bossting
the speed by 100Mhz should make some small difference. Make sure your system
will support a 133FSB Tualatin and adjust FSB accordingly when detected or
it's $10 plush shipping down the drain.