Introducing the AcceleraPCI What is the AcceleraPCI? Will the AcceleraPCI Work On My System? Benefits of the AcceleraPCI My Upgrade My Results Final Thoughts

The Evergreen AcceleraPCI is here; this new upgrade is the "first PCI slot ‘System Core Upgrade'...".  This product will allow you to put a Celeron CPU into your Pentium PCI based system.

What is unique about this upgrade is that everything you need is in the box*; you will not need to obtain a BIOS upgrade.  You simply plug the upgrade into an open PCI slot and off you go.

The version I was able to test came with an Intel 466 MHz Celeron CPU and 64 megabytes of SDRAM memory.  Also included was a very easy to follow installation guide, an install disk, reference manual, registration card and disk, and additional
literature.

The AcceleraPCI is like a mini-motherboard that will fit into your computer.  It contains its own BIOS chipset, RAM slots and CPU.  The Accelera will replace many of the functions of your motherboard in your PC.

Unlike other CPU upgrades that replace your current CPU, the AcceleraPCI works from your PCI slot.  Your original CPU will remain in the system.  The PCI slot is located on your riser card or directly on your motherboard.  Your sound card, modem, video cards etc. will usually be found in the PCI slots, unless of course they are attached directly to your motherboard.
 

Here is a photo of one of my PCI slots; it is white and is located on my riser card.  Most systems will have one or more of these PCI slots.

The Accelera will plug into an available PCI slot, no need to remove your current CPU.  At the most you might need to move around one of your other cards.
The AcceleraPCI card is like a mini motherboard.  This card has on it everything you need to get your system running at its new speed.  On the card is a Socket 370 for using the latest Pentium II and Celeron processors.  The bus speed can even go up to 100 MHz.

The card also has its own BIOS, chipset (Intel 440zx) and RAM slots (two 144 pin PC66/PC100 compatible SODIMM SDRAM).
All these components work together to replace your current BIOS, CPU and RAM allowing the system to run at higher speeds.

The answer to this will be simple.  All you need to do is to visit the Evergreen Web Site, download the Prequal software and follow the instructions given.  This test has been provided by the manufacturer to help you know if your system is compatible with the AcceleraPCI and should be run before you purchase this upgrade.

Before you buy I also would recommend you make sure you have a free PCI slot with enough room to fit the AcceleraPCI.  In my system I had 3 open PCI slots and it fit nicely in that space.  If you don't have enough free space you may have to remove some of your other PCI or ISA cards, or maybe you will only have to move your PCI and/or ISA slots around.  Please check the physical dimensions to see if this will fit into your system.

Height: 3.95" / 10.03 cm
Length: 8.00" / 20.32 cm
Total Thickness: 1.66" / 4.21 cm
Processor side: 1.10" / 2.79 cm
Backside: 0.50" / 1.27 cm

The major benefit is the fact that you can increase the performance of your system without removing anything.  This retrofit on a PCI slot card provides us with the latest CPU & memory technology without going to the hassle of a complete motherboard replacement. A motherboard replacement would require reloading of all OS and application software, while AcceleraPCI does not. AcceleraPCI leaves the system image intact.

Now one of the other benefits is that when you boot up the system you can simply disable AcceleraPCI through its BIOS screen.  This is an important feature for people with systems that have restore and recover disks and master CDs from their computer  manufacturers.  A common problem with upgrades is the upgrade can interfere with using these recovery tools because the manufacturer only allows them to work with your PC's original configuration.  So when you need to, you can simply disable the Accelera and run the recovery tools, then once you are finished turn the Accelera back on for all that speed.

This best part about this upgrade is that I did not have to reload any of my software, saving me countless hours.  I have all the benefits of buying a new motherboard and none of the work.  In fact this type of upgrade is far simpler than buying a new motherboard.

Please read Part 2 of this review to see how this upgrade increased the performance of my system.