gtephx (Wild Rider) (05/03/91)
i recently purchased an ancient ibm pc-xt at a company surplus sale.
of course, the thing is an absolute pig compared to my apollo workstation :-)
so... what can i do to speed it up? i've heard about the nec v20 & v30 chips.
what's the difference between the v20 & the v30? i know they include some 80186
instructions & they have faster microcode... what else? how about the clock
crystal? can i swap in a faster clock crystal after installing the appropriate
nec cpu w/o harming anything? what memory chip speeds mesh with what clock speeds?
that is, does the memory system get pinged each cycle (i.e., 125nsec. memory min.
for 8Mhz)? finally, where's the best place to buy all this stuff?
whew, that's 'nuff 4 now.
(kinda reminds me of the old days when we used to hop up our cars :-)
cheers && happy hacking,
wr (wild rider)
--
Wallace Roberts, AG (formerly GTE) Communication Systems, Phoenix, AZ
UUCP: ...!{ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att}!gtephx!robertsw
Internet: gtephx!robertsw@asuvax.eas.asu.edu Bike: '82 GS1100L Suz
voice: (602)581-4555 fax: (602)582-7624 Cage: '89 Mustang GTpsycho@banana.ucsb.edu (Scot Kellan Forbes) (05/06/91)
In article <1991May2.234628.4375@...!asuvax!gtephx> robertsw@gtephx.UUCP (Wild Rider) writes: >so... what can i do to speed it up? i've heard about the nec v20 & v30 chips. >what's the difference between the v20 & the v30? i know they include some 80186 >instructions & they have faster microcode... what else? how about the clock >crystal? can i swap in a faster clock crystal after installing the appropriate >nec cpu w/o harming anything? what memory chip speeds mesh with what clock speeds? >that is, does the memory system get pinged each cycle (i.e., 125nsec. memory min. >for 8Mhz)? finally, where's the best place to buy all this stuff? I have a question along similar lines. Please forgive my ignorance in the world of hardware.. If I have say a 8Mhz 286 machine, what's to stop me from simply buying a 16 or 20Mhz 286 chip and popping it in where the 8Mhz chip used to be. Would I need a 16 or 20Mhz clock crystal for it to run at that speed with the new chip? (I already know know I may need to upgrade the BIOS, or do I? You do for the 386sx accelerator card from Microway if you have a 6 or 8Mhz 286) Can you get a clock crystal that runs at that speed? What would the faster clock crystal do to the rest of the system? Are there any other chips that would have to be replaced with a faster version? Could I get all of these chips mail order from say the Computer Shopper? Would all this add a bunch of wait states for memory access? Would faster mem chips solve this? You might be saying "Just get a new motherboard" but it isn't that easy, here's the deal. I am an Amiga owner and I'm considering puchasing the 286 bridgeboard (which allows simultaneous execution of Amiga and IBM software and is 100% IBM compatible as far as software is concerned.) The board only runs at 8Mhz and I'd like to be able to run Windows 3.0 so I can work from home if I have to, and running Windows on an 8Mhz machine in intolerable. Plus I'd just like the extra speed in general and I like to mess with hardware when it's a safe thing to do. Any insight would be appreciated, "Get a real computer" requests will be ignored :) Thanx in advance, Scot Forbes
ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) (05/08/91)
Get a new motherboard. "Turbo" motherboards are quite cheap - $60 to 80. 286 motherboards are as low as $100. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------