How Can I Upgrade My AL440LX?
There are several ways that you can upgrade your AL440LX from the basic setup. There is an interesting article on Tom's Hardware Guide that explains the merits of the various upgrades that you can do called, "It's Time For an Upgrade...But What's Best?" Here are a list of some of the motherboard level things you can upgrade on the AL440LX:
Memory
Memory upgrades are always a good option in my opinion, especially if you have less than 128 MB or have upgraded to Windows 2000. In addition to the information on Tom's Hardware Guide, make sure to take a look at my memory page.
CPU: PPGA Processors
You can upgrade your system to use any Intel PPGA Pentium II running a 66 MHz FSB, or a Celeron processor. This can yield processor speeds as high as 533 MHz. In order to do this, you'll need to buy a PPGA to Slot 1 adapter, commonly known as a "slocket" or "slotket." Be sure to check my Slocket page for more details.
CPU: FC-PGA Processors
You can also upgrade your system to use most Intel FC-PGA processors. The FC-PGA processors for the most part run at voltage levels lower than what the AL440LX can provide, so you will need a FC-PGA to Slot 1 adapter that has a onboard voltage regulator on it. This will allow you to upgrade to the faster Celeron 2 processors, which run at 533, 566, 600, 633, 667, 700, 733, and 766 MHz. You cannot use the faster Pentium II chips or Celeron 2 800 MHz CPU's because they are based on a 100 MHz FSB -- the 440LX chipset is limited to 66 MHz. For more information, please check out my Slocket 2 page.
Video Card
You can upgrade you video card to any PCI based card, or a AGP card that meets the AGP 1.0 spec. The AL440LX meets the AGP 1.0 spec, and can support cards that run at AGP 1x and 2x. The AL440LX does not support AGP 2.0 or 4x cards.
Hard Drive
The AL440LX onboard IDE controller supports ATA33. If you want to upgrade to a faster hard drive, I highly suggest buying an aftermarket IDE controller that supports ATA66 or ATA100, such as those made by Promise.
You can of course, upgrade just about any component in your system. This is a just a list of the big items, and is in no way all inclusive. Hope it helps!