P3/Celeron socket

[kchen]

A bit of ancient history for you folks...

I'm still running a PPGA Celeron-500, which I _of course_ plan to fully upgrade later when I have the money to spring for a top of the line CPU/board/RAM but for the moment I need a CPU boost on a budget, and was thinking of going to a higher-end P3 (i.e. whatever they got to). Hmm. So that brings up another question - what was the fastest P3? 1.3 gig?

Anyway, my real question is whether or not the P3 PPGA sockets are the same as the Celeron PPGA. If they are interchangeable then I should be able to get a P3 for cheap and that's that. But if I have to switch mainboards it'll be a pain in the ass since this is only a temporary setup anyhow and I guess I'll just wait until I can get my hands on one of those 2+ gig monsters.

 

[Mephistopheles]

If I´m not mistaken, all boards supporting Celerons support P3 (it´s the same socket, exactly!) at least up to 1.13Ghz, prior to tualatin, the revised P3 core. Tualatin (which starts at 1.13Ghz and scales up to 1.4Ghz - note: there´s a tualatin 1.13 and non-tualatin 1.13Ghz, the former outperforming the latter) is probably not supported, as it requires FC-PGA2 or something. (maybe I´m wrong here, this info is old!)

So I guess the fastest P3 you can get, along with a bios revision, is a 1.13Ghz p3. Anyway, p3s are considerably better than celerons. Question: does your mainboard support 133Mhz FSB? Your celeron probably doesn´t use 133mhz fsb, so changing to a p3 that supports it should give you a real boost. You should be able to find a cheap p3 fairly easily. If it has been used before, then it should be very, very cheap. But you´ll probably find more of the 933Mhz-1Ghz variety, because intel took some time to iron out the 1.13Ghz after the 1Ghz, so the 1.13 wasn´t on the market for a long time and is probably not as common.

 

[Teq]

You're not mistaken... it's all socket 370.

The only hitch might be the BIOS or chipset... it's wise to check with the manufacturer first and be sure the chip being inserted is fully supported.

<b>But</b> being a socket 370 system, in need of an upgrade presents an interesting opportunity. Upgrade to a 1gig Via C3, get the speed boost and a silent PC at the same time!



---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[Crashman]

You're completely wrong.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

Sorry, but since he was wrong, so are you!

BTW, do you have rocks in your head? His Celeron 500 is already performing at levels near that of the VIA C3!

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

You're confused because these are all Socket 370, so they all "fit", but not every CPU will work on every board!

There are no "PPGA" P3's. They are "FC-PGA". Intel updated the socket spec for the newer versions. Boards new enough to support FC-PGA processors were backwards compatable to PPGA processors, but not necessarily vice versa. Which means we really need more information about your motherboard!

At any rate, Intel revised the spec yet again for Tualatin core processors (mistakenly refered to by many as "FC-PGA2", a few Coppermine core CPU's also were "FC-PGA2"). The original FC-PGA processors are all Coppermine cored.

Boards that supported Tualatins no longer supported the older PPGA processors, they were only backwards compatable to Coppermines. Because of this, I know your board is not Tualatin compatable, which means you're limited to the older style Celeron 1100 (128k cache version) and PIII up to 1GHz (1.65v or higher).

And then there's the bus speed issue, again this is dependant on your board. So until I (notice I didn't say we) know what board you have, I (not we) can't give you any more advice.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Teq]

And <b>that</b> is why I told the guy to check with the motherboard manufactuer first.

Gees...


---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[kchen]

My board is an ABIT BM6 with the latest (last) BIOS update (Award). The SoftMenu lets me pick voltages from 1.3-2.3v and bus speeds between 66-133MHz. Multiplier goes up to 12X. However, I think official support for this board stopped after the 800Mhz chip so there are no presets to indicate direct support for anything faster, but that's just cosmetic... right? The manual also makes no mention of using P3s, only Celerons, but I was thinking (hoping) that was because only Celerons used Socket 370 at the time (P3s were still only available in Slot form).