First post, by Ruxini
Hi all
Sorry for n00by questions - this is my first time working with a retro computer. Also I'm aware that my system from 1999 is probably way too new to being taken seriously by many of you, but I hope you will help me nonetheless.
I want to turn my childhood computer into the beast of my childhood dreams. The idea is to keep the case, HDD (no formatting) and the motherboard. I want to keep the computer's "soul" so that I get the experience of working on the same machine I used to as a child/youth. The machine is in working order and has never been formatted, so I have all the files etc from back then. The machine will be used in my sound recording studio (I made my first raps on that machine and would like to use it again).
The motherboard is a Gigabit GA-7IXE with Slot A.
specs https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-7IXE-rev-11#ov
It looks like the fastest CPU I can get is the 1ghz, 200mhz bus AMD-K7100MNR53B A
specs http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%2 … MNR53B%20A.html
Questions:
1. Is there any way to get a faster CPU on the motherboard?
2. What kind of RAM should I get for this?
3. The motherboard has an AGP slot - does this mean I can put a Radeon HD 3850 GPU in there?
4. Can I do something to add an extra drive for storage? If so what would be the fastest?
5. Would it be possible to add a FireWire PCI card like this https://www.delock.com/produkt/89144/merkmale.html? (to be used for my RME FireFace400 audio device)
6. I would like to add a USB PCI card - is this possible and if so which would be the best/fastest?
7. Is there anything else I can do to make the machine run as fast as possible?
8. Is there something I should be aware of? (like the need to get new batteries for something, getting new PSU etc.)
Thank you very much for reading so far and hopefully for answering my n00by questions.
All the best
Rune