Which processor can I upgrade to? 1

[scissorman]

I have a QDI motherboard, model K7V8363 kinetiz 7B/E, with Bios V3.3LCP apr02,2001.
At present it has a 900Mhz Duron processor on it, and SiSoft tells me that it is Socket A.

I have been to the QDI site and it shows that I can increase the processor to a 1400, but after that the FSB is shown as increasing from 100mhz to 133mhz - what does that mean, and does that prevent me upgrading with this motherboard past the 1.4ghz limit? Can I adjust the FSB or is that preset?

I have 3x128 ram, all running at DDR 133mhz - not the same thing?

 

[nightowl17]

By increasing your Bus speed from 100mhz to 133mhz will mean that everything you have in the pc [RAM] and so forth that is 100mhz will not work on a 133mhz system so you are looking at replacing tahat if it not 133, it is possable to run 133 on a 100 system and if that was done count your blessings Hope This Helps Solve Your Problem
nightowl17

 

[gargouille]

Actually, you can go to 2100+...and yes, you'll want to set the FSB in the BIOS to 133 (or more :>))
The CPU and RAM can run a different speeds

 

[scissorman]

Really?! I'm impressed - I assume the bios will have to be flashed and there will be a facility to change the FSB from within the bios?
Other than a new fan, will my system requie more cooling?

 

[gargouille]

So far, in my experience, (limited compared to some here), 2 case fans and the usual retail box cpu cooler do just fine...'course the video card has its own fan, too. The power supplies also have 2 fans...
But all the systems (all AMD) have run low 40's C. at lo or idle and very lo 50's with seti@home running.
I know some that use the thermal pad that comes on the cooler...but I prefer to clean it off...(carefully) with my wife's fingernail polish remover (just a little) lap it with a high grit # emory cloth and a dab of Radio Shack thermal paste.
I know plenty of others that use Arctic $ilver...just my preference.
As for the BIOS adjustment, the .pdf manual for your board has excellent instructions.
YMMV

 

[ceh4702]

100mhz is for a 200mhz bus speed and 133 is for a 266mhz bus speed. Durons run at 200mhz. This particular motherboard may support both athlons and durons. Athlons can be purchased at either bus speed; 200 vs 266. The question is why would you want the 200mhz bus speed Athlon? If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[scissorman]

I want the fastest processor my board will take, but at the same time I don't want to spend weeks trying to get the thing working.

I cannot find any sites which tell me for sure if my board will take a much quicker processor than 1400, so I am a bit worried about this talk of bus speed changing etc.

I replaced a 166 pentium cpu with a 400 many years ago and it was a bit fussy to say the least!

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I don't know the board, but I had a quick look at the website, and it says that you need to switch jumper JFSB to clock the FSB to 133Mhz. 100Mhz only = 200Mhz FSB on a DDR (Double Data Rate) board. It does't happen automatically, just because that is the rating of the chip. You need the correct chipset to go with it to get the full benefits. True, the processor will run DDR internally, but the Northbridge will become a bottleneck.

Yours is a KT133A-based board, so it's not DDR. You could stick an Athlon XP 2100 in it, but you wouldn't get full speed out of it. Pentiums were/are very fussy beasts (where did you get a Pentium 400 - they only went up to 233!), but AMD Socket A chips just seem to work most of the time, so you could well be in luck just slotting it in. Be aware that your PSU may need changing to support it - you should have 350Watts for preference. Less than 300 is NOT enough.

If you're thinking of spending that sort of money, you might as well get an XP1700 and a Chaintech 7VLJ motherboard and make sure (same money as an XP2100, but with this upgrade, you won't mind/notice having got the "slower" processor ). CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[scissorman]

You say I need the correct chip set to go with my upgrade - have I got the right one - VIA Technologies Inc VT8363 & KT133 System Controller?


System Mainboard >
Manufacturer: Legend.QDI,Inc
MP Support: No
Model: KINETIZ 7T/7B/7E
Version: V2.X
Serial Number: K7T/K7B/K7E

< Extended Mainboard Data >
Manufacturer: Quality Design (QDI)
Model: K7V8363 KINETIZ 7B/E BIOS V3.3LCP Apr.02,2001
Serial Number: 04/02/2001-8363-686B-6A6LMQ19C-00
Chipset: VIA KT133 Chipset

< System Chipset >
Model: VIA Technologies Inc VT8363 KT133 System Controller
Bus(es): ISA AGP PCI USB SMBus/i2c
Front Side Bus Speed: 2x 100MHz (200MHz data rate)
ACPI PM Support: Yes

The memory is 3 banks of 128mb DIMM SDRAM running at 133mhz. I am on a strict budget and cannot afford to spend out on a motherboard and a CPU :-(
The 400 processor I upgraded too was an Evergreen upgradde kit, so I guess it was a Duron or Athlon.

Is this the info you need to say definitely yes or no to what I can upgrade to? Do you need anymore? Your help is very gratefully appreciated.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Ah - the Evergreen processors, of course! Evergreen specialise(d?) in making overdrive processors based on the IDT WinChip. Not as powerful as the equivalent Intel, AMD or Cyrix model, but very useful if your board wouldn't take the next generation processor.

According to QDI's specs, there are 2 versions of this board, the K7B and the K7T. They then go on to say that only the 7E board can support Athlon XP processors.

It also looks like your BIOS is out of date - the newest version is November 2001. Note that you need to switch jumper JAV in order to flash upgrade your BIOS

Check out these charts;

http://www.qdi.nl/support/download/KZ7B.htm

http://www.qdi.nl/support/qanda/bios.htm

http://www.qdi.nl/support/qanda/cpuqdi.htm

This last chart should help a lot - as long as you identify your board correctly, you should see at a glance which processor you can use - those letters are important; the 7E board supports all Athlon XP Model 6 (Palomino) CPUs. It will NOT support Model 8 (Thoroughbred) CPUs. All good component stores will tell you which core the processor has. If they can't tell you, don't buy from them!

You say your board is a 7B/E - which is odd, as that seems to be contradictory. The B is a 100Mhz board, and the E is 133. If it's definitely an E - and you say that it runs the RAM at 133Mhz, then you can run Palominos.

However, your listing shows the FSB as running at 100Mhz - do you mean you bought 133Mhz RAM and used it in this board? This is fine, except that the RAM will step down to the board's speed.

Look for JFSB. If it's there and can be set to 133Mhz, you can run Athlon XP processors at whatever multiplier your board supports.

If it isn't, then you're stuck at 100Mhz, and therefore 1400Mhz CPU (200FSB, NOT 266FSB).


Hope this helps



CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[scissorman]

Well, I opened up the PC and found that the motherboard is a Kinetiz 7B, so I guess that's the end of that.

Would upgrading the processor to a 1400 be that big an improvement?

What I am puzzled about is that SiSoft Sandra told me that my memory banks were 133mhz, which is why I bought it.

If I upgraded the processor would I need a new fan, or would the old one do (it has a massive heatsink on it), also, my power supply is 300 watts - would that be sufficient for a 1400 processor?

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Yes, 300 Watts will suffice for a 1400.

What puzzles me is why the chart on QDI's site states that the board can't run 133Mhz chips, when it's based around the KT133 chipset. I wonder if anyone on T-T has a bit more knowledge of this chipset and its variants.

Maybe I'm wrong about the possibility of the RAM stepping down, and in actual fact it runs asynchronously with the FSB, which would explain Sandra reporting it @ 133.

Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[scissorman]

If the ram does run asynchronously am I still limited to the 1400 processor?

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, the Frontside Bus and Internal Memory Clock Speed are two seperate beasts. You can have memory running at a different internal clock than the FSB. Take Intel's 850E chipset for example. It only runs DDR 333MHz memory, but the frontside bus is 533MHz.

In theory, it would be better for the 2 to be equal. But it's not always so!

~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein

 

[scissorman]

Excerpt from the manual of my motherboard...

&quot;Jumpers labelled JFSB is located on the mainboard providing users with CPU overclocking features. The host speed can be set as 100/133mhz. ...

AMD Athlon CPU FSB is 100mhz, but delivering twice the throughput of 100mhz Pentium III based systems (ultra-fast 200mhz). So setting up to 133mhz FSB is also supported. However, whether or not your system can be overclocked depends upon your processor's capability. Whether the processor is bus ratio locked or unlocked should also be taken inot account. We do not guarantee the overclocking system to be stable.
Warning: Do not set CPU frequency higher than its working frequency. If you do, we will not be responsible for any damage caused.&quot;

I've checked and the JFSB is set to 100mhz. What is bus ratio locked? Does this now mean that it could take a larger processor than 1.4 and that I just se the jumper to 133mhz instead?

 

[scissorman]

as an addendum to my last post, the manual shows a diagram, which I cannot properly reproduce here, but looks like this;

JFSB HCLK

Close 100

Open 133

What is HCLK - anything to be worried about? I'm guessing now that my motherboard will allow me to slot in an Athlon XP CPU - would there then be other settings I would have to adjust?

Why would the QDI site show that I was stuck with 1.4 upgrade if I can readjust the JFSB?

 

[cdogg]

It's talking about the ratio that the processor uses internally. With the older Athlons that went up to 1.4GHz, this ratio was locked at 100MHz with the multiplier of 2 (200MHz). Assuming that you can set this to 133MHz, then you should be able to use the Athlon XP processors that use the 266MHz FSB (133 x 2).
~cdogg

&quot;The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.&quot;
- A. Einstein