[mythtv-users] Power supply for ATX

Stroller linux.luser at myrealbox.com
Sun Jan 21 13:47:45 UTC 2007


On 21 Jan 2007, at 12:51, Damian Surr wrote:
> ...
> Can you get quiet power supply's for old ATX motherboards and cases in
> the UK?

Yes, you can, although I can't really suggest where right now. I'm  
sure some Googling would turn up some suppliers, but I'm only  
replying right now because I'm interested in answering one of your  
other questions.

> Is an ATX2 supply compatable with ATX (if I know computer  
> manufacturers,
> I'm guessing not!).

Hmmmn... I'd guess otherwise. My experience is that manufacturers &  
PC specifications do take compatibility a long way - take, for  
instance, the prevalence of PS/2 & mouse sockets on current  
motherboards, 5 years after USB was going to make these "legacy"  
connectors "obsolete". For years (into the Pentium 3 generation, I  
guess?) I had motherboards with ISA slots I never used. The  
incompatibilities we do encounter between hardware are surely only  
sacrifices that manufacturers must make in order to achieve performance.

> If anyone knows much about this stuff, I'm also interested to know  
> if I
> can upgrade the 1.2GHz processor that's in the thing, or are is the
> Socket A chipset just too old?
>
> Here's a couple of info pages on the motherboard if it helps.
> http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=91

Looking at that page there's a link to the motherboard's manual.
<http://tinyurl.com/yt23qj> (zipped pdf)

It says "supports AMD Athlon 700mhz - 1.2ghz or future socket A  
processors based on 200mhz (100mhz double data rate)" - from this I'd  
assume that you're unlikely to find a processor significantly faster  
that will go in this board.

Faster socket A processors based on 200mhz (100mhz double data rate)  
MAY have been released since the manual was published, but since  
yours was the fastest available at the time, I doubt you'll be able  
to find one with twice the clock-speed, or even as much as 1.5x. You  
surely won't be able to find them in the shops, and my experience is  
that eBay is too much hassle for a 10% or 15% clock-speed increment.

My experience is that once a socket implementation has been EOL'd  
(end of lifed) it's rarely worth upgrading machines based upon it. PC  
components are so cheap these days that you can probably get a  
processor with 3x the clock speed (and the motherboard to run it on)  
for as little as $100. Or £100, if you don't have any US holidays  
planned in the forseeable. :(  See the "help me upgrade" thread for  
some examples.

Stroller.
  


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