440BX Mother board advice

[Guest]

Tech Experts,

I would be grateful to you for some advice.

I have a 2 year old Dell PII-450 (slot1) computer with an Intel manufactured 440BX motherboard. My simple question is: Can I upgrade the PII processor with a PIII coppermine processor? I tried to do some research on my own on this issue, and was not able to get any details from the Dell Web site or from their technical support group. I know from the Tyan web site that there are 440BX motherboards capable of supporting up to a PIII 850 Mhz -- 100 Mhz FSB:
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/pentiumii_iii_ppga.html

Thanks in advance,

George

 

[Guest]

It depends if your motherboard has the voltage settings and multiplier to run coppermines. As well a bios flash will likely be required.

 

[Ron_Jeremy]

I agree with OMELETEBOY. Although the latest (last?) BX boards will run the currently fastest (1GHz) PIII no prob with the latest BIOS. My ABIT BF6 can support a 1GHz PIII

 

[JWMiddleton]

Georgemiu: I would look on the Dell web site for a BIOS upgrade. Read to see what the upgrade does of your system. Usually a readme file will state the purpose of the upgrade. Often it is to support additional CPUs. They usually list the added items. That might tell you.

Good luck!


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[uncoando]

A BIOS flash should take you to 800 mhz and beyond...Or you could get a 9th generation BX for around 100 bucks.

 

[Guest]

Like they said, it all depends on whether your MB got the correct voltage settings.

1. Two year old - I guess it won't support
2. Made by Intel - Unlikely that they have built the 1.65v support to your MB.

You know all the guys from Intel. Their MBs have no meaningfull configuration settings. No place for overclockers - and they call it STANDARDS, while all others in the community call it INFLEXIBILITY.

Your best bet is go for a brand name MB, around $90 would be perfect. I would suggest MSI6163-Pro (make sure it support Coppermine, as some do and some don't) or BX Master.

Or better yet, run screaming from Intel, and go for AMD

 

[Guest]

Thanks all for your responses.

I checked out the motherboard schematic and even opened up the box to inspect the board visually. I saw no evidence of a 1.65 cpu voltage. So I'd say it's a safe bet that coppermine is out of the question. My inclination is that if I'm going to replace the motherboard, I might as well go for an AMD processor.

One follow-up question: Suppose I wanted to upgrade the processsor on this box without a motherboard upgrade. Based on the little research I did, I would say that I could only go as high as a PIII 600 Mhz, non coppermine. Do you guys agree, and do you think it's worthwhile to do so? I do have the latest bios flash installed, and the doc contained no info regarding enhanced processor support.

Again, thanks in advance for your advice.

George