Help with my P4B

[Smokin_Joe]

Budget:$400 (max)
Main uses of intended build:
To try and speed up what has always been a disappointing computer.
Parts required:
SSD?
New ethernet card?
Magic?
Previous build information:
P4B/SWA
Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz 512K 400 bus SL6PP Socket 478 CPU
3 gig of PC133(I believe)
ATI 8500DV Video Card 64Gig
Internal Audigy Sound Card
Promise PCI Card (2 additional ide connectors)
DVD ROM
Cdrw
Monitor resolution:
1920x1080 + I have a video out to a old school 53" televison
Storage requirements:
5 physical pata/ide drives
Will you be overclocking:
Never was happy with the performance and maybe that is the answer!
Any motherboard requirements 2 case fans(same size as a cheap internal PSU
Extra information about desired system:
This is installed in a beautiful Antec box that has removeable harddrive holders. Easy removal of all front mounted Drives, Audigy front access etc.
When I built this I was disappointed from the beginning.
Streaming from another computer on my network had little hiccups.
Streaming over the internet had little bufferings.
It was a difficult and fussy configuration with the Drivers and Catalyst from ATI.
I never use it anymore and I was wondering if I should just start from scratch.
I paid $500 for the 8500DV and it was basically a pvr before they were invented.
I am trying to make one last attempt to try and make use of what has always been a huge fail for me.
The video card is AGP 4X
Feel free to chime in.
I wonder if something using pci to a sata would be bootable under xp and be faster than the ide?
PS xeromist mentioned that if I added an adapter so the ide could be connected to a sata ssd that it would be limited to the ide speed and wouldn't give much performance difference.
I was thinking about using something like this to connect a ssd drive to the 40 pin ribbon.
https://www.amazon.ca/HDE-SATA-Drive-Interface-Adapter/dp/B008X8NK0I/ref=pd_sbs_147_6?_encoding=UTF8...

xeromist had shown me this bidirectional unit from syba and I did like the idea of being able to use it in both directions..ide to sata or vice versa. But he pointed out the performance would be limited to the ide speed.

https://www.amazon.ca/Syba-SD-ADA50016-SATA-Converter-Bi-directional/dp/B002OEBO6E/ref=pd_cp_147_4?_...

[xeromist]

I suppose it depends on what type of swapping is occurring. Random access on an SSD is going to be better but overall throughput is going to be limited to 133MBps. So swapping out large pages is going to be slow.

Honestly I haven't done any research on PVRs today but I wonder if it's worth it. I see some older TiVo products on Ebay for as little as $60. Maybe those aren't any good though. You'd have to read reviews. If you do get that P4B machine working it's still going to be slow, hot, noisy, and power hungry for what it does. It's an interesting project for the sake of it but I wouldn't do it for any practical considerations. As long as you aren't buying any new parts I'd say have fun!

[Smokin_Joe]

xeromist wrote:
I suppose it depends on what type of swapping is occurring. Random access on an SSD is going to be better but overall throughput is going to be limited to 133MBps. So swapping out large pages is going to be slow.

Honestly I haven't done any research on PVRs today but I wonder if it's worth it. I see some older TiVo products on Ebay for as little as $60. Maybe those aren't any good though. You'd have to read reviews. If you do get that P4B machine working it's still going to be slow, hot, noisy, and power hungry for what it does. It's an interesting project for the sake of it but I wouldn't do it for any practical considerations. As long as you aren't buying any new parts I'd say have fun!

I am thinking it is going to get demoted to the 900 Antec box and possibly be used for storage and backup.
Might even just have it purr in the corner and fold stuff...
The Z270A is looking like a candidate for the Antec Tower with easy to remove components.
It still would get a folding job as well.
I do like to watch downloaded movies on the big screen so that is all it would have to do in the livingroom.

As far as media center goes I have pretty much gone over to Kodi...

[Smokin_Joe]

Now this has caught me totally off guard and I could use some input
If you have had the experience of over clocking an Intel 2.6GHZ Pentium 4 on the P4B then you are a good candidate to answer my question.
First off let me say that the reason I am here is I had something happen to my settings and options when I was adjusting the cpu/mem settings in bios.
It had never happened before and it hasn't happened since.
Is there a special sequence of procedures to unlock the grey fields in the bios?
For example when I tab to the cpu setting I have 3 options
manual(which unlocks and ungreys the multiplier)
2600(which changes the multiplier to 100 and grey)
3458(which changes the multiplier to 133 and grey)
At no point does the greyed (26x)become unlocked.
The other day when I was playing around with the mem settings under chip config
ras cas etc it was hanging on boot and sometimes it would give a long beep over and over etc.
After about 3 (or more)reboot attempts each time changing a T setting trying to get it to boot I went into the cpu setting and clicked on the Manual setting...
At this point something strange happened...
I had a long list of numbers starting at 800, 900, 1000 all the way to 3458 I think....the list extended to the bottom of the page and beyond.
I could have set it to anything.
The (26x) wasn't greyed and it too had a long list of choices.
The 100 multiplier was a long list of choices as well.
Just had to click on anyone of them and the long list appeared.

Is this normal and what is the procedure to repeat this?

Never happened again and I don't have a clue how to repeat it....lol
Thanks
Joe