Newb Question regarding Motherboard/Processor Compatibility

[Zach]

I'm just starting out in building my own computer, so excuse the
dumbness of this question.

A year or so ago, I built myself a computer. I read some reviews and
picked out the K7S5A as my motherboard, as it was cheap and stable (I'm
not interested in overclocking or frills) and got a Athlon 1700+ for my
precessor. Anyway, now I'm looking to upgrade my processor. Only
problem is, I don't know what the K7S5A will support. See, I bought
them as a combo originally. I searched the interenet but couldn't find
an answer to my question: how do you tell if a processor is compatiable
with your motherboard?

Thanks!


- Z a c h

 

[~misfit~]

I'm just starting out in building my own computer, so excuse the
dumbness of this question.

A year or so ago, I built myself a computer. I read some reviews and
picked out the K7S5A as my motherboard, as it was cheap and stable
(I'm not interested in overclocking or frills) and got a Athlon 1700+
for my precessor. Anyway, now I'm looking to upgrade my processor.
Only problem is, I don't know what the K7S5A will support. See, I
bought them as a combo originally. I searched the interenet but
couldn't find an answer to my question: how do you tell if a
processor is compatiable with your motherboard?

Thanks!

You didn't search very hard. It depends on what revision your mobo is (1.x
or 3.x or 'Pro') and what BIOS you have. It seems the 1.x supports at least
an XP200+ and the 3.x an XP2600+ but I don't know about the pro.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/download/k7s5a.htm

or

http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=192

Have fun.

 

[Zach]

You didn't search very hard. It depends on what revision your mobo is (1.x
or 3.x or 'Pro') and what BIOS you have. It seems the 1.x supports at least
an XP200+ and the 3.x an XP2600+ but I don't know about the pro.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/download/k7s5a.htm

or

http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=192

Thanks for the reply, but it seems you've overestimated my proficiency.

Under CPU, it says:

Socket 462 for AMD K7 Athlon XP/ Athlon/ Duron processor
FSB 266/200 MHz

Unfortunately, I don't know how to translate that into what processors
it supports, besides Athlons, Athlon XPs and Durons. Does that mean it
supports any Athlon XP with a FSB of 200 or 266?

I have no idea.


- Z a c h

 

[~misfit~]

Thanks for the reply, but it seems you've overestimated my
proficiency.

Under CPU, it says:

Socket 462 for AMD K7 Athlon XP/ Athlon/ Duron processor
FSB 266/200 MHz

Unfortunately, I don't know how to translate that into what processors
it supports, besides Athlons, Athlon XPs and Durons. Does that mean
it supports any Athlon XP with a FSB of 200 or 266?

I have no idea.

Not neccassarilly. It will support CPUs with a 100 or 133MHz bus but it
depends on whether the motherboard/BIOS can go above a certain multiplier as
well. Also, Palamino and Thouroughbred CPUs have different microcode and a
BIOS that supports Pallys may not support Tbreds. (Maybe PCB version 1.x?)

What revision is your mobo? It should be printed on the PCB somewhere, often
by the PCI slots.

If it's a 3.x revision it will support an Athlon XP up to 2600+ (133MHz FSB
version, hard to find) with the right BIOS. You may need to update yours to
do this. If it's a 1.x revision it will support up to an XP2000+ with the
right BIOS.

If you look on the 'downloads' link I gave you, that tells you what each
BIOS revision did for each version of PCB. For instance, under the BIOS
versions for the 3.x, revision k7s5a020809.exe and above say they added
support for XP2400+ and XP2600+ CPUs. The last version BIOS released for
this board (3.x) says "and support high speed CPU" whatever they mean by
that.

If you post back with what revision your motherboard PCB is maybe I can help
more.