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Specs
- Upgrades 233 MHz and higher Pentium II processor-based systems
- Supports Slot 1 Pentium II motherboards
- Enables high quality enhanced imaging with iSSE And MMX technology
- Exceeds performance needed to run Microsoft 2000
- Supports popular Operating Systems such as Windows and DOS
- Requires no software or OS reinstallation
- Includes step-by-step illustrated guide for easy installation
- Automatic clock multiplier
- 1 year warranty
Installation
The kit comes with everything you need to install the upgrade in any legacy computer. Upon analysis, the Performa basically looks like a CuMine slocket with a Celeron chip inside. Although slockets like these are available from other manufacturers, none comes with the processor as a kit and carries a warranty. Although you might be paying more for this upgrade than buying it, the support factor and warranty should make up for it for most people. Installation was done on an old Pentium II 333 computer.
Specs:
- Intel Pentium II 333Mhz
- 64MB PC66 SDRAM
- 8.4GB Maxtor Hard Drive 5400RPM
- Intel 440LX chipset motherboard with integrated video and sound
- 5X DVD-ROM drive
Installation was mostly painless although a little trying. The people this upgrade is aimed towards might not feel comfortable opening up their systems to upgrade this themselves so that's a minus since it involves removing the old processor and inserting the new kit into it's place and reconnecting the HSF's power connector. Self-installation, however, can be easily done following the instructions carefully. Once installed properly, I was concerned that the computer might not like the new upgrade and display some bugs. To my good surprise, my computer immediately showed signs of increased speed in all tasks without any installation or additional software. This is a true plug and play device.
Hardware-wise, the device seems to be well put together, it comes with both the processor and the CPU mounted on the slocket and basically all it requires is to be inserted into the slot and connected to the motherboard's power connector.
Usage
Although many tasks were greatly increased in speed, there were some bottlenecks in the computer that slowed potential performance. This includes the slow (5400RPM) hard drive, the meager (64MB) SDRAM and the integrated sound and video. Upgrading the RAM next should be top priority followed by the hard drive. The added speed was very good in all applications and helpful in every aspect of using the computer. The great thing is that now the computer is recognized as a Celeron 766MHz and has all the benefits including the new instruction sets for the new Coppermine processors and the increased efficiency of MMX. Windows boot speeds increased by 4-5 seconds, which is good but not great because of the slow hard drive. Quake III framerates almost doubled from 35FPS to 68FPS at low resolutions but high resolutions basically stayed the same because of the cheap video. Quicker response time was experienced in every test we did and we are happy to say that every processor test we ran showed the increase of more than 50% from the previous tests. When upgraded with 64MB more RAM and a faster hard drive, the old system seemed like one of our SystemLogic.net workstations in response time and raw speed which is impressive.
>> Pros & Cons/Conclusion
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