Compatabilty of Athlon XP 1800 233 FSB with mobo

[Kakkarotto]

I have just bought an AMD processor and been told afterwards that it will need a mobo that supports 233Mhz FSB. I have an ABIT KG7 RAID mobo and will be getting an ASUS A7V8X mobo. I have looked at all the specs on tomshardware and on AMD.com and can't figure out if it will support 233Mhz or not.
I need to know what problems might incure when I try it and will there be any long term damage caused to either the processor or the mobo if I try them out.
If the PC does work what should I look at to see what performance I actually getting out of the machine and what I could do to maximise the performance.
I have built up P3s and P4s but never built an AMD before and know there are some very clued up people that use this site so I would really appreciate some wise words here.
Thanks

 

[ski]

I do not know who told you that the Athlon XP 1800+ CPU is designed to run at 233MHz, but they are incorrect.

The Asus A7V8X MB has a FSB that can run at either 100 or 133 MHz, or 200 and 266 MHz DDR, respectively.

The Athlon XP 1800+ CPU has a locked multiplier of 11.5(cannot be manually changed), is designed to operate on a 133 MHz FSB, and runs at a speed of 1530 MHz.

You should have no problems with your CPU and that MB.
Also, you would install PC 2100 DDR SDRAM, which runs at 266 MHz.

 

[paparazi]

Both the Abit KG7 and the Asus A7V8X will support the 266fsb XP1800+ CPU.
Your information was incorrect, as pointed out, XP's upto 2.4+ and some early XP2.6's have a 266front side bus.
What this means to you is: a bios or motherboard jumper setting for the CPU and memory of 133 (because the memory is DDR, it effectively doubles to 266 matching the 266 of the CPU.
So in the bios it should read 133/133 for CPU/Memory

Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Any modern Socket A motherboard will support 266Mhz FSB Athlon XP processors, as will the ABit KG7. I have one in a machine I use constantly - it's a great board, even though it's looking a bit long in the tooth compared to KT600 and NForce2 based boards.

The Asus A7V8X is a great board, but based on the old (read; tried and tested) KT400 chipset. I would be tempted to look at the newer chipsets for future proofing, but that's my opinion.

The only difference to bear in mind between Intel and AMD processors is that AMDs require a little more attention paid to proper cooling. A *tiny* dab of thermal paste, a carefully aligned heatsink and an extra case fan or two will save you coming back here posting things like "My processor is running at 80C - is this normal?".

You should find that a default installation will give superb speed - if you've never used an Athlon XP, you're in for a surprise - those CPUs pump out terrific performance for the money. You can make some BIOS tweaks to get a little more out of your setup, such as setting RAS to CAS to 2.0 (if your RAM supports it) - but I wouldn't bother, unless you're determined to get the highest score on PC Mark.

Other performance maximising tips (none of these have side effects, such as making the processor run hotter or destabilising the system - if you want that sort of tweak, try one of the *other* forums ;-));

1) Buy quality RAM, and plenty of it - especially if you plan on using Windows XP.
2) Buy fast hard disks with a large cache (7,200 RPM, ATA 100, 8Mb Cache minimum).
3) A Fast Graphics card.
4) A Sound card that has low impact on the CPU, such as the Terratec DMX 6 Fire.
5) When you install software that comes with hardware, disable all the background applications that tend to get stuffed in the taskbar - those things generally consume resources unnecessarily.
6) If you have 2 hard disks, put the pagefile on the 2nd. This trick does not work with partitions, only with physical disks.


Good Luck!

 

[Kakkarotto]

Citrixengineer, What would be a good brand for RAM? Ski above has recomended PC 2100 DDR SDRAM, which sounds good.
Also how do I find the page file? Is it as easy as cutting and posting it to the same directory in the 2nd drive?
I am still waiting for my heatsink and fan to arrive. I have noticed that there is a much smaller contact point for the thermal past than on intel processors. The way that the processor arrived the paste has been smeared all over the place. I will clean this all up and then buy some new paste to apply. I have been recommened to buy Arctic Silver 3 paste. I take it that there must be a covering over the entire contact surface area and that it must't be too thick so that it does does ooze out.
I will invest in an extra case fan, to be on the safe side, I do usually leave the case of anyway.

 

[Kakkarotto]

Citrixengineer, What would be a good brand for RAM? Ski above has recomended PC 2100 DDR SDRAM, which sounds good.
Also how do I find the page file? Is it as easy as cutting and posting it to the same directory in the 2nd drive?
I am still waiting for my heatsink and fan to arrive. I have noticed that there is a much smaller contact point for the thermal past than on intel processors. The way that the processor arrived the paste has been smeared all over the place. I will clean this all up and then buy some new paste to apply. I have been recommened to buy Arctic Silver 3 paste. I take it that there must be a covering over the entire contact surface area and that it must't be too thick so that it does does ooze out.
I will invest in an extra case fan, to be on the safe side, I do usually leave the case of anyway.
Thanx

 

[ski]

Crucial makes quality RAM, and it's not that expensive.
Just go to their site, plug in your MB's make and model, and it will spit out the type of RAM that it uses.

Here's a link for applying Arctic Silver thermal paste:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I second the vote for Crucial - you really can't go wrong with them or Kingston. Both have websites that allow you to ascertain the exact modules for your system, and both provide quality RAM at reasonable prices.

The main thing with RAM is not to go for the false economy of unbranded cheap sticks. I would also suggest getting the fastest RAM your board can handle; in the case of the A7V9X I think that would be PC 3200. Although it costs more, it will give greater impact to any future upgrades. On the other side of the coin (before someone correctly picks me up on this point!), the improvement of PC 3200 over PC 2100 is not great in itself.


As for the page file, the way to move it is (assuming Windows XP) via My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance [Settings] -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory [Change]. Maybe there's an easier way to get to this dialog?

Once in that dialog, simply create a new paging file on your new drive (I recommend setting Initial Size and Maximum Size to a figure that's twice your available RAM - YMMV), then set the old one to 0. Reboot when prompted and you're done.

There have been many debates all over the net on the best settings for a Page File. The settings I recommend work well for me and give the results I want.


As far as thermal paste goes, you'll only need a tiny amount - about the size of a grain of rice (shortgrain!).

I hope this helps

 

[Kakkarotto]

That helps a lot, thanx. I will be putting all this advise into action very soon.
Thanx again to everyone