Switching CPUs on my MB

Yes it is that easy...lucky of you to have a hybrid board...even if the bios is out of date the processor will be detected at the right speed...becuase pIII have onboard "sense" pins that tell the fsb to the board...and since the multiplyer is onboard its a sure bet that everything will go fine...flashing the bios before you get your chip is a good idea however...ya never know it could solve any unforseen problems.

Simple, cheap, and upgrade. Well, that rules out any processor that will work in your socket! This is because the 128k Celerons were poor performers, all the way up to 1.1GHz, not really an upgrade for what you have. And the Coppermine PIII's are expensive.

What I'm going to suggest will be simple AND cheap AND a REAL UPGRADE! Listen carefully:

The newere Tualatin Celerons are decent performers, mainly capped by their slow BUS SPEED. Your board supports 133MHz bus, and these Celerons come with a 100MHz bus.

An ideal solution would therefore be the Tualatin (aka 256k) Celeron 1100, overclocked to 1466. Why do I recommend this specific processor? Because it has a very high likelyhood to operate at the 133 bus speed overclock! The 1200, for example, would be 1600 at 133 bus, and that's just too far for most of Tualatins.

But the Tualatin is wired to not work on your board! The only option is a Tualatin adapter. Now there are several kinds out there, in both Slot1 and Socket370 types. I'm going to make the radical suggestion of sticking to Slot1. Why? Because there is a specific adapter, called the Upgradeware Slot-T, that has the following features:

1.) Adjustable core clock detection, you can manually set the adapter so the board will detect it as a 133 bus CPU.
2.) Adjustable core voltage detection, you can manually set the adapter so the board will detect it as whatever voltage you like, and use that core voltage.

These two features are NOT available on any other Tualatin adapter. The Upgradeware Slot-T cost $20.

The Tualatin Celeron 1100 cost around $45, and at 1466MHz will outperform nearly anything else for your board. So for a combined total of $65, you can get top notch performance better than any pop in CPU.

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

Mahalos to you Crashman for all that helpful information. now i wish i posted in here before i got the P3 from ebay!!!!! i would have gone your route for sure!!!! if you read my post to PIII you know that i have installed the processor with success but my question is that i dunno if my MB "picked" it up and running at optimum speed. if not then what shall i do? thanks for all your info!!! it has helped me dearly!!!

Mahalo,
Scotty
Bodywear and Nutrition Inc., Owner
Honlulu, Hawaii

Thanks and mahalo,
Scotty