Anyone familiar with the Abit III or Asus S370 Slotket ada..

[moe]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

I have a BX Slot 1 board whose Bios can handle PIII's up to 1Gig, unfortunately
the voltage regulator on the version I have is only capable of getting down to
2.0 v. I'm looking into using a Slotket adapter since it appears that they
provide for voltage adjustment that will get down to the PIII's 1.6 - 1.7 v
range.

The literature on the Abit III or Asus S370 Slotket adapter boards talks
about jumpers for voltage adjustment but nowhere does it state that the boards
are actually capable of voltage regulation.

Does the jumper setting actually regulate the voltage on the card or does it
just send a request for the specified voltage to the motherboard and depend on
the motherboard to actually provide the voltage control?

Does anyone who has any experience with these adapters let me know if either of
these units would provide the necessary voltage control to allow me to run a
PIII processor on a motherboard whose lowest voltage output is 2.0 v.

Thanks
moe

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:57:14 GMT, moe <moe@mci.com> wrote:

>
>I have a BX Slot 1 board whose Bios can handle PIII's up to 1Gig, unfortunately
>the voltage regulator on the version I have is only capable of getting down to
>2.0 v.

IIRC, practially ALL of them went down to at least 1.8V... I bet
yours does too, if not lower. The issue isn't what CPUs it
supported, their voltage, but rather the signal lines to a
controller chip and it's supported voltage. Practically all of
them, even on older LX slot 1 boards, supported down to either
1.5 or 1.8V, depending on revision. Some later BX boards had
controller that even went down to 1.3V, IIRC.

You seem to have let out a somewhat crucial detail though, the
particulars of your parts, ie- make/model/revision/etc.

Mention your specific board and if you can find a very high res
picture I may be able to tell you exactly what it's true low
voltage limit is, or if picture isn't high res. enough I can
point out the regulator controller so it's datasheet can be
consulted to find lowest supported voltage.

>I'm looking into using a Slotket adapter since it appears that they
>provide for voltage adjustment that will get down to the PIII's 1.6 - 1.7 v
>range.

The ones you mention have jumpers that "intercept" a CPU's VID
pins, which are hi/low logic signals the motherboard's switching
regulator controller sense to set the voltage. If that
controller doesn't support lower than (you mentioned 2.0V but I
think it's really 1.8V or lower) then these slotkets won't help
you get any lower than 1.8V.

There are slotkets with their own onboard voltage regulators,
supply lower than 1.8V, but frankly they are a waste of $$, quite
a few people ran Coppermine CPUs at 1.8V with no problem, it
isn't high enough to cause damage in several years' time. I have
CPUs that ran at 1.8V or higher from 1st day, in their era, and
still work fine today. It will not cause you to need a high end
heatsink or any extravagant case cooling either, the stock Intel
'sink or equivalent is plenty.


>
>The literature on the Abit III or Asus S370 Slotket adapter boards talks
>about jumpers for voltage adjustment but nowhere does it state that the boards
>are actually capable of voltage regulation.

They aren't. If you look at a picture of a slotket that can do
the regulation, it will (should at least) have a few things
visable (I list those parts easiest for anyone to ID, not the
whole design):

Power socket for system power supply to plug into it.
Larger pair of capacitors
Inductors (iron core with wire wrapped around it)

>
> Does the jumper setting actually regulate the voltage on the card or does it
>just send a request for the specified voltage to the motherboard and depend on
>the motherboard to actually provide the voltage control?

I should've just read ahead, would've saved me some typing.
No, those cards do not regulate but odds are extremely high you
don't need to get below 1.8V regardless.

>
>Does anyone who has any experience with these adapters let me know if either of
>these units would provide the necessary voltage control to allow me to run a
>PIII processor on a motherboard whose lowest voltage output is 2.0 v.

The two you mention are better than typical generics often called
"super slotket". Back in the day there were some folks who
noticed that higher speed CPUs were less stable on the cards that
didn't have median or larger sized capacitors to help with power
filtering, delivery. Name-brand slotkets are harder to find
though, if one costs too much you might just consider replacing
the motherboard instead, or even faster, more modern motherboard
& CPU. Or for cheapest solution you might be able to just grab
cheap slotket, median speed coppermine and go from there with a
bit of hacking it out. Fortunately that platform was long-since
matured so there's plenty of data about it, and different methods
to hack it.

There's a lot of related info on this 'site,
http://www.geocities.com/_lunchbox/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

moe wrote:

> I have a BX Slot 1 board whose Bios can handle PIII's up to 1Gig, unfortunately
> the voltage regulator on the version I have is only capable of getting down to
> 2.0 v.

How did you determine this '2.0V limit'? Because it's a direct
contradiction to say the BIOS 'supports' up to 1 gig PIIIs but can't
provide the proper voltage for them.

> I'm looking into using a Slotket adapter since it appears that they
> provide for voltage adjustment that will get down to the PIII's 1.6 - 1.7 v
> range.

All they do is provide jumpers to tell the motherboard what Vcore the
processor wants, just as the processor does. The only difference is the
slotket allows you to change the value requested by over-riding the
processor pins.

>
> The literature on the Abit III or Asus S370 Slotket adapter boards talks
> about jumpers for voltage adjustment but nowhere does it state that the boards
> are actually capable of voltage regulation.

That's because they aren't capable of any voltage regulation.


> Does the jumper setting actually regulate the voltage on the card

No.

> or does it
> just send a request for the specified voltage to the motherboard and depend on
> the motherboard to actually provide the voltage control?

Exactly.

>
> Does anyone who has any experience with these adapters let me know if either of
> these units would provide the necessary voltage control to allow me to run a
> PIII processor on a motherboard whose lowest voltage output is 2.0 v.

I seriously doubt the motherboard has 2.0v as it's 'lowest voltage'. Of
course, telling us which one it IS might have helped.

 

[moe]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

kony,
Thanks for your very informative post.

My motherboard is a Supermicro P6SBS Rev2 with the latest BIOS (R3.0) that was
available. The board is equipped with a Harris HIP6004ACB voltage regulator,
which according to the Faqs on the Super micro site is an old style regulator
not capable of supporting the proper voltage range for the PIII Coppermine
processor. (Faqs/support for this board now discontinued)

If The Harris regulator can supply 1.8v then I should be able to use either a
Slot 1 or 370pin CPU to upgrade this board.

Thanks again,
moe




On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:28:40 GMT, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

>On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:57:14 GMT, moe <moe@mci.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>I have a BX Slot 1 board whose Bios can handle PIII's up to 1Gig, unfortunately
>>the voltage regulator on the version I have is only capable of getting down to
>>2.0 v.
>
>IIRC, practially ALL of them went down to at least 1.8V... I bet
>yours does too, if not lower. The issue isn't what CPUs it
>supported, their voltage, but rather the signal lines to a
>controller chip and it's supported voltage. Practically all of
>them, even on older LX slot 1 boards, supported down to either
>1.5 or 1.8V, depending on revision. Some later BX boards had
>controller that even went down to 1.3V, IIRC.
>
>You seem to have let out a somewhat crucial detail though, the
>particulars of your parts, ie- make/model/revision/etc.
>
>Mention your specific board and if you can find a very high res
>picture I may be able to tell you exactly what it's true low
>voltage limit is, or if picture isn't high res. enough I can
>point out the regulator controller so it's datasheet can be
>consulted to find lowest supported voltage.
>
>>I'm looking into using a Slotket adapter since it appears that they
>>provide for voltage adjustment that will get down to the PIII's 1.6 - 1.7 v
>>range.
>
>The ones you mention have jumpers that "intercept" a CPU's VID
>pins, which are hi/low logic signals the motherboard's switching
>regulator controller sense to set the voltage. If that
>controller doesn't support lower than (you mentioned 2.0V but I
>think it's really 1.8V or lower) then these slotkets won't help
>you get any lower than 1.8V.
>
>There are slotkets with their own onboard voltage regulators,
>supply lower than 1.8V, but frankly they are a waste of $$, quite
>a few people ran Coppermine CPUs at 1.8V with no problem, it
>isn't high enough to cause damage in several years' time. I have
>CPUs that ran at 1.8V or higher from 1st day, in their era, and
>still work fine today. It will not cause you to need a high end
>heatsink or any extravagant case cooling either, the stock Intel
>'sink or equivalent is plenty.
>
>
>>
>>The literature on the Abit III or Asus S370 Slotket adapter boards talks
>>about jumpers for voltage adjustment but nowhere does it state that the boards
>>are actually capable of voltage regulation.
>
>They aren't. If you look at a picture of a slotket that can do
>the regulation, it will (should at least) have a few things
>visable (I list those parts easiest for anyone to ID, not the
>whole design):
>
>Power socket for system power supply to plug into it.
>Larger pair of capacitors
>Inductors (iron core with wire wrapped around it)
>
>>
>> Does the jumper setting actually regulate the voltage on the card or does it
>>just send a request for the specified voltage to the motherboard and depend on
>>the motherboard to actually provide the voltage control?
>
>I should've just read ahead, would've saved me some typing.
>No, those cards do not regulate but odds are extremely high you
>don't need to get below 1.8V regardless.
>
>>
>>Does anyone who has any experience with these adapters let me know if either of
>>these units would provide the necessary voltage control to allow me to run a
>>PIII processor on a motherboard whose lowest voltage output is 2.0 v.
>
>The two you mention are better than typical generics often called
>"super slotket". Back in the day there were some folks who
>noticed that higher speed CPUs were less stable on the cards that
>didn't have median or larger sized capacitors to help with power
>filtering, delivery. Name-brand slotkets are harder to find
>though, if one costs too much you might just consider replacing
>the motherboard instead, or even faster, more modern motherboard
>& CPU. Or for cheapest solution you might be able to just grab
>cheap slotket, median speed coppermine and go from there with a
>bit of hacking it out. Fortunately that platform was long-since
>matured so there's plenty of data about it, and different methods
>to hack it.
>
>There's a lot of related info on this 'site,
>http://www.geocities.com/_lunchbox/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:47:35 GMT, moe <moe@mci.com> wrote:

>
>kony,
>Thanks for your very informative post.
>
>My motherboard is a Supermicro P6SBS Rev2 with the latest BIOS (R3.0) that was
>available. The board is equipped with a Harris HIP6004ACB voltage regulator,
>which according to the Faqs on the Super micro site is an old style regulator
>not capable of supporting the proper voltage range for the PIII Coppermine
>processor. (Faqs/support for this board now discontinued)
>
>If The Harris regulator can supply 1.8v then I should be able to use either a
>Slot 1 or 370pin CPU to upgrade this board.
>
>Thanks again,
>moe
>
>

Looks like it supports 1.8V-3.5V, you should be fine at 1.8V, and
maybe even squeeze a little overclock out of it, most later
Coppermines would do 1.1-1.25GHz, (+-100MHz).

However, you need the slotket to set voltage to 1.8V, so you
can't use the slot 1 SECC type CPU unless you manually,
electrically alter it's VID (voltage ID) pins to achieve same
1.8V detection by the regulator, because the slotket "tricks" the
board into thinking the default voltage is 1.8V, but without
slotket the CPU is only providing signal for 1.5-1.75V
(Coppermine voltage varied within that range based on speed and
stepping). That wouldn't be worthwhile unless you simply can't
find any slotkets and I don't remember which contacts were the
VID, so you'd need check intel's datasheets for that unless
someone else here knows. The socket 370 version + slotket is
much easier.

 

[moe]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 03:10:54 GMT, kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 01:47:35 GMT, moe <moe@mci.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>kony,
>>Thanks for your very informative post.
>>
>>My motherboard is a Supermicro P6SBS Rev2 with the latest BIOS (R3.0) that was
>>available. The board is equipped with a Harris HIP6004ACB voltage regulator,
>>which according to the Faqs on the Super micro site is an old style regulator
>>not capable of supporting the proper voltage range for the PIII Coppermine
>>processor. (Faqs/support for this board now discontinued)
>>
>>If The Harris regulator can supply 1.8v then I should be able to use either a
>>Slot 1 or 370pin CPU to upgrade this board.
>>
>>Thanks again,
>>moe
>>
>>
>
>Looks like it supports 1.8V-3.5V, you should be fine at 1.8V, and
>maybe even squeeze a little overclock out of it, most later
>Coppermines would do 1.1-1.25GHz, (+-100MHz).
>
>However, you need the slotket to set voltage to 1.8V, so you
>can't use the slot 1 SECC type CPU unless you manually,
>electrically alter it's VID (voltage ID) pins to achieve same
>1.8V detection by the regulator, because the slotket "tricks" the
>board into thinking the default voltage is 1.8V, but without
>slotket the CPU is only providing signal for 1.5-1.75V
>(Coppermine voltage varied within that range based on speed and
>stepping). That wouldn't be worthwhile unless you simply can't
>find any slotkets and I don't remember which contacts were the
>VID, so you'd need check intel's datasheets for that unless
>someone else here knows. The socket 370 version + slotket is
>much easier.



I'll pickup a slotket and socket 370 100Mhz CPU on Ebay and give this a try.
thanks
moe