Advice sought for new CD-ROM drive

[Fran]

Hi. The CD-ROM (GoldStar CRD-8240B 24x) of my Packard Bell Legend Supreme 1820, Pentium 200 MMX with 16 MB of RAM, went dead a few months ago. I am shopping for a new one, but am not sure if I meet the requirements.
Today I saw a Digital Research Technology DRCDROM52X that looks very nice for the price. Would you help me understand the requirements?
It says: " IBM Compatible 486 DX2 or higher based system (Pentium Recommended)"
I don't know what DX2 means.

It also says "One (1) Available IDE Interface port (Enhanced IDE Recommended)"
I guess I have this, right?

Sorry, I can't check my manuals since they are on the Master CD which I can't read.
Is Digital Research Technology a good brand you would recommend? The 54X speed is quite attractive compared to my 24X.
Thanks.

I also would like to add some RAM to my 16 MB as soon as I find out what kind of SIMM chips my machine uses. Would anyone know?
Thanks again.

[Prof I. M. Boring]

Hi Fran. Your Pentium 200 should meet the minimums, couldn't find anything on that 486 dx2 (it was an upgrade from a 486). Ide ports are what connects your cd-rom (and hard drive) to the motherboard. If you take out your old cd-rom, you will have that port for the new cd-rom. I doubt you will have the eide port (enhanced ide) as your system is fairly old.



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[iisbob]

Dx2 simply meant it now has a FPU ( floating point Unit ) , a processor component specifically to calculate 3D apps, like games. The 486 was the 1st CPU to include this Co-processor on the chip itself instead of being an external piece.




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iisbob
"640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates, 1981"
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 09-24-2001).]

[Fran]

Thank you both. I got bought the CD drive today. They have a good web site with detailed installation notes. If I get into a problem, I'll be back. And if it goes well, I'll let you know too.

[Paleo Pete]

Sorry iisbob, but I have to disagree. The 486 chips were originally 25 or 33MHz, when Intel wanted to go for 50/66 they simply made the chips still run on the original 25/33MHz bus, but the chip itself ran at twice that speed, hence DX 2. The DX 4 did the same thing, allowing a DX 4-100 to run on a 25MHz bus on the same motherboard but at 100MHz. So the DX2 means that the chip runs at twice the motherboard's bus speed.

So the P-200MMX certainly meets the requirements, I don't know if that's a good brand or not, never used them.

Look into memory after you get your CD ROM working so you can check out the manual. It's probably 72pin SIMM, FPM will almost certainly work, and maybe EDO. My Legend 100CD will use FPM and it's a much earlier model, P-60. Yours should handle EDO.

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[Fran]

Originally posted by Paleo Pete:
Look into memory after you get your CD ROM working so you can check out the manual. It's probably 72pin SIMM, FPM will almost certainly work, and maybe EDO. My Legend 100CD will use FPM and it's a much earlier model, P-60. Yours should handle EDO.



Pete, I have 16 MB of EDO RAM upgradable to 128 MB.
Is all EDO RAM the same? or are there different kinds?
Thanks.

[hacker]

Just to adding to the history lesson.

The "DX" meant that there was a co-processor as opposed to an "SX" that didn't have one.

"2/66"and "4/100" was the processor speed.

All the best.

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I was called "hacker" before there was a HeathKit.

[Paleo Pete]

OK...should have posted this link in the first place, 486DX2 (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/fam/g4.htm) from the good ol' PC Guide.

The DX designation was used first with the 386 CPU, SX as well. With the 386 the DX was a 32 bit chip, the SX was 16 bit. I can't find anything that indicates exactly what the DX/SX designations mean, but I can say that hacker is correct in stating that the 486 DX had a math coprocessor and the SX did not. In fact, the SX was the same CPU, but due to inability to meet standards it was disabled and sold as the SX instead of the DX. The 2 after the DX or SX indicates that the CPU runs at twice the system bus speed. 386 Page (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/fam/g3.htm) if anyone is interested...

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[Fran]

Well, I did it! I replaced my old CD-Rom drive with the new DRT 52x and it is working just fine. My first upgrade! Do I get something nice for this, or what?
Thanks to y'all, guys for the advice and support. It is well appreciated.
Fran.

[iisbob]

Pete actually it does refer to the disabling of the FPU ( DX ) and on the SX it represents the enabling of the FPU.

It doesn't pertain to the cpu speed, it's just a designation to identify that the 486DX hasthe additionally math co-processor enabled.


I realised this morning that i posted in error, i should have said that the DX2 means no active FPU. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

Intel Chipsets (http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?Intel)




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iisbob
"640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates, 1981"
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)