a7v8x/athlon xp 3000+

[maxwell011]

i've got the a7v8x mobo w/333 fsb. the bios has been upgraded to 1013.
first question: probably stupid, but do bios upgrades ever upgrade the boards fsb and if not...
question two: will my board take a chip with a 400 bus and clock it down or not accept it at all.

i want to know because i'm upgrading to the athlon xp 3000+ and there are two: a 333 and a 400. i want the 400 in case i upgrade my board and i can (maybe) get a good deal on one. thx, maxwell

 

[paparazi]

I'm afraid 333fsb default is the chipset limitation of this Via KT400 based motherboard.
How it overclocks is another question, all I can tell you is the differance in real terms between the two CPU models listed is very small.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[rvnguy]

maxwell011,

Ditto paparazi's comments.

You might find the info here interesting" and there are mobo compatibility items here also:

AMDBoard

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_11599_11604,00.html

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[maxwell011]

appreciate the help but am still unclear on the answer. anyone know if this particular board will accept the 400 fsb processor and clock it down for the 333 board or not accept it at all. thx

 

[paparazi]

maxwell011
Typically most 333fsb will run just fine with an XP3.2/3.0 400fsb installed
But why would you want to do that? if you can buy an XP3.0+ (333fsb) that will run at full speed.


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[rvnguy]

maxwell011,

i want the 400 in case i upgrade my board and i can (maybe) get a good deal on one.

Echo "paparazi", most will function but downgraded. You have a good reason to capture savings if you possibly get a mobo upgrade in the future.

It is very difficult to give 100% assurance that you will not have any problems mostly because XP can be finicky about hardware combinations.

The CPU/mobo combo should not provide any problems but with the other items i.e. Vid card, NIC, HD, CD/DVD, Mem, etc. there might be a particular combo that generates a glitch.

I apoligize for the link to AMD Board that sent you to the AMD site & not where I intended to direct you. My sloppy fingers I guess. Here is the correct link:

AMDBoard

http://www.amdboard.com/sempron_3000.html

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[maxwell011]

thx for all y'alls help. paparazi, the reason i'm looking at the 400fsb is in case i upgrade to a 400 board.
btw, i like your signature but it should be redundant. imho, it should be an unwritten law in forums: take a penny, leave a penny. i've been looking thru posts for a chance to help.

one more thing:
before i lay out the geld, will i notice a significant increase in the speed/preformance in my comp going from a 2000+ to a 3000+. (going from 266fsb to 400 (or 333) going up to 512k cache and going from thoroughbred core to barton.) ie, the time it takes to rip a dvd to hd or load time for maps in games like half-life 2, etc.

 

[paparazi]

With general desktop applications, not a lot , Rip and load times then appreciably quicker.
Although clock speed differance is only around 500mhz (going from 1.66 to 2.167mhz in the case of the 333fsb XP3.0+) twice as much L2 cache and faster 333fsb all help to give a noticeable if not startling performance booste.

The differance however between an XP3.0 (333) and an XP3.2+ (400) is to all intense and purposes undetectable to all but benchmarking software.
Thats why I basically challenge your upgrade reasoning.
It simply would not be worth going just one CPU step with the faster motherboard, this would be a waste of money which would be best spent on the next big step, a Socket 939 Athlon64 or other more modern platform.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[maxwell011]

paparazi, glad to hear about the improvement i'll experience going to a 3000+. you must have read my recent mind. when i do upgrade, i'll be going 64 so i won't be using this chip anyway. its all academic now, though, i found a good deal on a 3000+ at my local retailer but he only had a 400 bus chip so he told me to bring it in to see if it will work before i buy it. i broke my own rule ; i let someone else touch my machine. the chip didn't work ; the comp just shut down within seconds. he tried a few things and i don't know what he did but it took me an hour and a half getting into windows. i won't go into it all but bsod's, windows protection errors, wierd power problems,..... a couple times, i got into safe mode and the comp restarted by itself. got the steelers game on now for about 1 and a quarter hrs now but only half enjoying it ; keep waiting for computer to suddenly kick off.

 

[felixc]

Take a look at the chipset of your motherboard, or perhaps its user's manual. The Via KT-400 was Via's first 400MHz chipset, and I remember that the early mobos had problems running reliably at 400MHz. You may want to Google about the reviews of your mobo. If the chipset is a KT-400A, then it is the "bug free" version of the preceding chipset.

The BIOS may not allow you to bring the bus to 400MHz because your mobo may be known to not run reliably at that speed, or only with some relaxed timings that did not make the KT-400 such a good performer vs the KT-333.

 

[maxwell011]

ok. i bought an athlon xp 3000+ off ebay w/original heatsink/fan. put on some arctic silver and slapped it in. i made notes of how fast various things were w/the 2000+ so i could compare. everything is the same [or actually slower] w/the 3000+ put in. does any one know why. it has twice the cache than the 2000+ and runs at 333 instead of 266. there was a preset speed of 2167 which is what it runs at so i set it to that. that set the multiple at 13 and frequency at 166/33. should i change that or what. thx, maxwell