Help!! Upgrade Question w/ P2 Mobo

[Guest]

I've got a Gateway with a motherboard in it that is really hard to find info on. I've only found two pages on it:
http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/references/motherboard/4m4pb0x1/4m4pb0x1.shtml
http://www.gateway.com/support/manlib/cmponts/sysboard/8504321/index.htm
Based on the information on these two pages, is it safe to put a P3 (450 or 500, no faster probably) in this motherboard? I've got PC100 RAM and the motherboard is a 100mhz bus.
One of the pages says that a certain revision of the motherboard supports CuMine P3's. I don't have that one, I've got the 4000321. I could get a P3 that's not a Coppermine, right? Why would a mobo be compatible with one kind of P3 and not another?

Sheesh, I'm confused! Any help is appreciated.

 

[Guest]

do you know who makes the board. IF you know the manufacturer you can email their tech support or even call gateway or take it to a local gateway store. They ususally have average reps in the store that can at least call someone that knows!

Good Luck...

If I was you I would just go ahead and get a new AMD processor and MOBO. You can get a new mobo and processor for about the same price as a new INTEL P3 chip.

good luck


-Matt-

 

[Guest]

Some company called Tabor makes the board. I can't find their website. I'll try to get their phone # from Gateway.

Can I damage anything by trying a P3? I don't really want to replace the motherboard...

 

[LTJLover]

Well I seriously recommend going with the new board and AMD, but I can give you some help here on your board. My bro had an older Intel board with a cel 300a. I bought him a P3 700 coppermine to upgrade, but it didn't work...DOH! Expensive mistake, because then I had to find a new mobo that could do slot1 coppermine. The whole thing gets messy when trying to upgrade the CPU on older intel boards. The reason the coppermine doesn't work is because it is a new core manufactured with the .18 micron technology as opposed to the Katmai core with the previous .25 micron design. By doing this, Intel could fit the L1 and L2 cache on the chip die itself therefore eliminating the need for the slot card and making the chip faster. This smaller core uses less voltage however and the older boards won't supply core voltage that low. Your board sounds generic and not a very good basis for upgrading in my opinion. You won't destroy anything by plugging in a coppermine, but my bet is that it won't even power up, like my bro's old setup.

Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"

 

[Guest]

A Gateway tech just informed me that this motherboard is able to support processors up to 850mhz. I know, however, that it is not CuMine compatible, so I think I'll try a Katmai 450mhz P3. I can pick up one of those pretty cheap, and I don't see why it wouldn't be compatible with my mobo. The P3 Katmai's are basically like P2's in terms of voltage and etc, right?

 

[LTJLover]

as far as I know, yes

Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"

 

[Guest]

Allright, I'll give it a try and report back here in a week or so what I find out. Hopefully all will go well.

BTW, Jon, your sig reminds me of a fake article I saw a while ago about a liquid nitrogen-cooled Classic Mac running at 1ghz. LoL... it was hilarious. "Just duct tape the RAM in the cooling vents and the sheer amount of energy flowing around inside the case will connect them to the motherboard." I wish I could find it...

 

[Guest]

Just upgraded a friends machine from p2 350 to p3 550.

It is maxed out at the clock and fsb settings, and shows up as a p2, but it works just fine.