Dual Celeron 433 motherboard

[Guest]

Hi,

I've got a couple of spare Celeron 433s and would like to try and get them working as a dual processor Linux system.

Can anyone recommend a current motherboard that will work with them?

Thanks

Liam

 

[Guest]

Are they Socket 370 PPGA, Slot 1, or Socket 370 FCPGA?

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm running dual 300a's (ppga type) (@450 mhz) in a Abit BP6.
All in all it's been a great board.

z

ps... this board takes ppga socket 370 chips. I dont think they even made fc-pga 433's, but hey, I could be wrong on that one : )

Supposedly this board will also run ONE fc-pga celeron (with a converter from NEO in between). I should also warn that some people had some trouble with a voltage regulator/capacitor problem with this board, revision 1.1 I believe (I did not, but mine is a 1.0 board I think). Check out bp6.com for more info

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Zila on 05/01/01 10:22 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

Have no fear, your 433's are PPGA and will work on a BP6 with slot converters (slotkets). This is actually a great motherboard for the Celeron.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Guest]

Now I'm confused!

The processors I've got are socket types. From what I've seen the Abit BP6 is a socket motherboard - so surely converters won't be needed.

Is this a current motherboard? I haven't been able to find an on line source in the UK at the moment.

Also what's the newest processor that this motherboard could use? I may upgrade at some point and it would be nice to leave the options as open as possible.

Liam

 

[Guest]

Hi!

You shouldn't need any converters for those 433's in the BP6. Your 433's are the same more or less as my 300's. They just plug right in and work.

The fastest (non overclocked) celerons the BP6 can run dual is 533's, which are the fastest PPGA celeron's you can buy anyway.

Concerning the "new" FC-PGA celerons, first of all they appear to not be able to run in SMP mode at all, so you can only use one, and you need to use a NEO-S370 adapter to move some pins around for you to use even that one. As far as I can see, the board supports any speed FC-PGA celeron in this config.

The board can also supposedly run a single or dual FC-PGA P3 chips with NEO adapters (I have never tried this). There are some catches though:
1) The P3 must run at 100 MHZ FSB speed (not 133, things go all to hell at 133 MHZ front side bus because the board and chipset were never designed for this speed)
2) P3's must have cB0 stepping or above.
3) For dual P3's you need additional mods, and I believe they must have identical stepping.

As for being current, well, it's as current as your celeron 433's are That is to say, not very. It's a couple years old. Not many places sell them new anymore. I actually bought mine used (with cpu's) 8 months or so ago (back then you could buy them new very easily though).

Personally I dont think I'd bother trying to get this board to work with anything besides celerons. If I bought a pair of p3 cpu's I'd buy a VP6 or similar to use them in. More of a sure thing.

Hope this helps : )

z

 

[Crashman]

Sorry, your right, I was getting mixed up with the other great BX chipset dual motherboard, the Asus P2B-D. Yes, the BP6 is made specifically for the socketed Celeron. It will not work with any processors except the PPGA type in standard configuration. I remember when people were buying two Celeron 366's and overdriving them to 550 MHz each, and calling them 1100MHz machines (they really fudged on those numbers).
Your other good alternative is the Asus P2B-D, and THAT is the one that would require slotkets. But it gives you the option of later upgrades.
Sory about the confusion, this is the THIRD TIME THIS WEEK that I got my model numbers mixed up, so you have the right to whip me if you want.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Guest]

It's pretty cool that now you can buy a real 1100+ mhz machine isn't it? No fudging required : )

 

[Guest]

Thanks again.

Looks like I need to find an Abit BP6 then.

As last night I got my Win98 machine to a stage where it starts up and gives an 'Explorer caused an invalid page fault' error (even in safe mode!), it might be sensible for me to get another BP6 for this machine and turn this single Celercon 433 into another dual and put Win2000 on it.

So, anyone know where I can get two Abit PB6 motherboards in the UK?

Liam

 

[Guest]

Hey liamw,

Just a little disclaimer here, you might want to check the cost of upgrading both cpu and board (what components you can still use, etc). If you can afford it it might be more cost effective to do that and have say, minimum, a duron or t-bird 7-900 or so rather than a dual 433.

Then again, if you're just doing this for fun and a cheap dualie system to mess around with, by all means go for it. Like I said I'm still using a dual 450 celeron system. It still works, but by no means is it "really fast" by current standards. Still again, CPU isn't the only important thing anymore, either.

Though I like that board I didn't want you to think I was proclaiming it the mother of all motherboards. Current stuff is faster for not much more money. That's all.

good luck
z