Is a P4 Northwood compatible on a 800mhz FSB board

[No_Tone]

Hello. I have a P4 2.66ghz FSB 533mhz; a Northwood I believe. The current motherboard I have is an ASUS with the RDRAM and AGP 4x. I want to upgrade to Dual Channel DDR and AGP 8x, however I want to keep using the same CPU.

My question is that many of the AGP 8x boards are FSB 800mhz. Can I stil use my CPU on them? What do I do about DDR RAM? If the FSB 800mhz board uses DDR400, does that mean it will have to be downgraded as well? I found the perfect chipset for my upgrade, Intel 865P, but apparently that chipset was never mass produced. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[ChipDeath]

It'll work. The newer chipsets are always capable of running at lower speeds than rated (and higher too...)...

In fact, you may be able to overclock your current CPU a little, if you wanted.

If you can find one, get an Abit IS7. They're generally regarded as the best Socket 478 board around. Failing that, any 865 chipset-based board from a half-decent manufacturer would suit your needs.

If you need to buy RAM, it makes no sense to buy any new DDR ram slower than DDR400 (PC3200), as the faster ram can always be run at lower speeds too, and doesn't actually cost any more.

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[Crashman]

Actually the 865P is a cut-down version of the 865PE.

Now on to your question: Up until about a year ago ALL Socket 478 P4's were Northwood. That means these modern chipsets, the 865PE and 875P, were designed for Northwoods. In fact, many boards entered the market that couldn't even support the later Prescott P4.

So these boards were DESIGNED FOR YOUR PROCESSOR. The 865P is nothing more than a defective 865PE with 800 bus disabled because it couldn't take the speed. All these chipsets support 533 and 400 bus as well, although some BOARDS didn't support 400 bus due to a BIOS issue.

You have a 533 bus P4, so you wouldn't have a problem with ANY of 865PE or 875P boards. A great board for you would be the Abit IS7 (not the cheaper E or E2 or -whatever). You should be able to get one for around $80.

If you want cheaper and don't mind OEM boards, the Gigabyte GA-8ISXT-FS is a full-featured 865PE board that was OEM for Fujitsu Siemens, performs great, and can be found for around $40. It has the restrictive BIOS settings typical of OEM boards, but resembles an upper midrange board in other aspects.

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