Calab said:
Looked at the PC last night. CPU is only a 500Mhz slot 1 Celeron - 100mhzx5,
512m cache, 2.0v.
HDD is a 10gig WD IDE. I'm hoping to replace this with a 40 or 60gid ,
depending on what I have in my spare parts bin.
I've upped the memory on this machine to 384 meg, which has helped a lot. I
also replaced the Trident AGP card with a nVidia 5200? AGP card.
Mainboard is a Seanix Columbia III. The chipset is the Intel BX440. I've
found a PDF for this board, which should help a lot. Multipliers seem to go
from 350 to 550Mhz. Manual says that this board can take Celeron, P2 and P3
processors. It doesn't mention CPU types or voltages.
So, at this point I'm just wondering what CPU's that I can use in this
board.
I do have an Asus Slotket adapter rated for CPUs up to 133Mhz and
Coppermines. I did find a 1Ghz P3 socket 370 chip @ 100Mhz and 1.75 volts.
Would this work?
Thanks all!
The multiplier control is irrelevant, as the higher speed processors are
multiplier locked, and any DIP switches don't affect them. Where the
multiplier becomes an issue, is for some of the processors above 1GHz.
Some older BIOS editions, combined with a high multiplier locked in the
processor, caused the BIOS code to fail while it was parsing the
characteristics of the processor.
Your Columbia III appears to be similar to my P2B-S. In Roland's FAQ,
the line "P2B-L/-S/-LS rev. < 1.04 pcba D02" corresponds to my board.
The entry for Coppermine reads "Y3"
Y3 - Not officially supported, but no known problems other than that
you need a slotket adapter which must be fcpga compliant and
must have voltage adjustment jumpers, which must be set to 1.8V
There are two generations of voltage regulator chip. See the VID table
in these two documents.
(VID table page 7) - regulator goes to 1.8V but no lower
http://www.intersil.com/data/fn/fn4417.pdf
(VID table page 8)
http://www.intersil.com/data/FN/FN4/FN4567/FN4567.pdf
Your board likely has the equivalent of the regulator described in the
FN4417.pdf document. If you plug a 1.75V slot1 processor into the board,
in fact the regulator gives zero volts, and the computer will not POST.
When I wanted to use a Coppermine processor on my board, I did a
"VID signal mod" to the slot1 processor. I changed the VID code
it sends, to read the 1.8V voltage value. The extra 0.05V doesn't
hurt that processor. Whatever processor module I was using, it
took one cut and one wire strap, to send the correct VID value.
If you purchase a slocket that can handle a Tualatin, they need a
supply voltage of 1.5V. If you change the VID status signals on
that processor to 1.8V, the processor burns out in three weeks to a month
of operation or so. When I wanted to plug a Tualatin into my
board, I actually purchased the regulator described in FN4567,
and soldered that to my motherboard, in place of the regulator
described in FN4417. That allowed me to use a 1.4GHz, FSB100
Tualatin in the board.
So I'd break the options down like this
1) Use a slot1 processor without modification. If your board
has the wrong regulator, there'll be a limit as to what
can be used, and have the processor ask for 1.8V or higher.
2) Use a Coppermine processor module, and do the VID mod to
some of the five VID signals. Or, purchase a slocket with
DIP switches on the surface, that allow setting the VID value
manually.
3) For usage of a slocket and Tualatin, you could change the
regulator to a pin compatible one. I got real lucky on my
board, that such a regulator was available for purchase.
4) Use the Powerleap slocket, typically shipped with a
Tualatin from Powerleap. It has an onboard regulator, to
supply the 1.5V needed. The Powerleap avoids the regulator
issue entirely.
For any of the above, you'd want to do research into what
kind of BIOS is provided with the Seanix. It might not have
microcode support for a Tualatin in the BIOS file, which
is not a big deal, except for an annoying message on the
BIOS startup screen. But if you use a processor where
the multiplier value conflicts with what the BIOS can
handle without a problem, then certain processor choices
might be best avoided.
Examples -
1) A Katmai uses 2.0V, and that voltage is high enough that
either kind of voltage regulator would work. This is
a 500MHz, FSB100 processor. But the machine already has
a 500MHz processor, so there isn't any room for significant
improvement here.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL35E
2) For the processor you named, a S370 1GHz Coppermine plus
a slocket, then you'll need to modify the VID code
sent by the processor, to 1.8V.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL5QV
The current VID is for 1.75V
0 0 1 1 0 = 1.75V
and you need to change that to the 1.8V value
0 0 1 0 1 = 1.80V
Two bits need to be changed, so either use the VID
DIP switch on the slocket, or you'll need to do one
cut and one strap, to fix the code.
One way to make these changes, is to put tape on a contact, to
make a logic 1. And use a U shaped bare wire, stuffed in the
SC242 motherboard connector, to make a logic 0 where needed.
But that could go flaky, and is only recommended for your own
machine, since you'd understand what was done.
http://tipperlinne.com/p2b-ds.htm
Instead, I'd make the changes right to the slocket itself. You'll
need a datasheet from Intel, with the pinout for SC242 slot1,
so you can verify you're modding the right pins on the slocket.
3) Purchase a Powerleap, complete with processor, from Ebay.
I'd aim for a 1GHz processor, for least problems with the
BIOS. Right now, I see a few 1.4GHz ones for sale.
http://cgi.ebay.com/PowerLeap-PL-iP...ryZ16180QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I've had three different processors in my motherboard, so I've
done a few of these experiments. I didn't like the Tualatin 1.4GHz,
because it made the Vcore regulator run a bit warm. I've never
tried a Powerleap, as that is too easy
My motherboard had a 300MHz/FSB66 Celeron to start, then overclocked to
450MHz, then I tried 1GHz, 1.1GHz, and 1.4GHz processors, and
settled on the 1.1GHz as the final install. Of the latter three,
one was a Coppermine and the other two were Tualatin (made possible
by the voltage regulator chip change).
Paul
