Slocket for Dual CPU Configuration

[Guest]

I am currently using Supermicro PIII DME motherboard, which is a dual Slot 1 "workstation" type of board. It uses Intel i840. At the moment I have got two Slot 1 PIII 700 MHz E running at FSB 100MHz.

With the recent price drop, I am thinking of upgrading my PIII 700 to PIII 1GHz. However Slot 1 type of PII1 1GHz is almost non-existent. The easiest solution appears to be to buy two Socket 370 PIII 1GHz CPUs, and use Slockets.

I did make enquiry with Supermicro technical support if using Slocket would work. They told me that Slocket will definitely work with single CPU, but would NOT work with dual CPUs.

Anyone has any experience as to which brand of Slocket supports dual CPU? I have heard that Abit Slocket does. But I shall be grateful for some real life test out there. I do not want to shell out my hard earned cash for two Socket 370 CPUs only to find that the 2nd CPU cannot work.

(Before you ask, the Supermicro cannot be overclocked and hence I cannot overclock my PIII 700 to 933 by changing FSB from 100 to 133. I tried but the board would not even boot. Supermicro does not allow you to put up the VCore voltage.)

 

[Guest]

NO we tried, and ran into the same problem with slot one's being scare but the 840 is such a good chipset that
its ashame..

there is no converter that works..
SM engineers I talked to 2 of them said they have tried the
Abit, the ASUS which is nicer, and several others..
when I talked to INTEL, they said there were differences in the pinouts for SMP and the converters do not take these into account sometimes

hope that helps and yes it sucks
the SM serverworks boards are socket 370 but do not have
AGP, so only for servers ..
we use both alot and both are good

CAMERON

CYBERIMAGE
<A HREF="http://www.4CyberImage.com " target="_new">http://www.4CyberImage.com </A>
Ultra High Performance Computers-

 

[Guest]

Thanks Cyberimage for his information.

However could he please clarify what he exactly means. Is it that in his experience, there is NO slocket whatsoever which can be used for dual configuration?

So there is not much point for me in attempting to use two Socket 370 CPUs and two Slockets (of whatever brand) at all?

My understanding of his message is that : he has talked to some Intel technical people, but was informed that there is some "trick" in the SECC2 package that no Slocket can duplicate. Is my understanding correct?

Thanks in advance again to Cyberimage for his invaluable experience, in respect of this frustrating episode concocted by Intel from socket to slot and back to socket again.

 

[Guest]

I also presume Cyberimage has spoken with two Supermicro engineers. And those Supermicro engineers have tried Abit and Asus Slockets, but neither works. So at least I can rule out Abit and/or Asus.

Is my understanding correct?

 

[Guest]

HI,
when I talked to the SM and ASUS engineers,
they have told me they have tried several slockets and
none worked on SMP dual P3 boards and they asked me to let them know if we found one, which we usually do.
we tried a few, and none worked as far as ASUS and ABIT.

My understanding from INTEL and MB makers is it is a low level hardware issue between CPU and Slocket, not MB specific..
of course it is also my expierence not to give up easily
and I guess if someone were motivated enough they could engineer a way around it to compensate and fool the MB and CPU, but for a $20 part I would be surprised if a slocket maker would do that.
hope that helps
CAMERON

CYBERIMAGE
<A HREF="http://www.4CyberImage.com " target="_new">http://www.4CyberImage.com </A>
Ultra High Performance Computers-

 

[Guest]

Yes, we talked to 2 SM engineers, one INTEL, and one ASUS
engineer,
and a partridge in a pear tree ha ha
seriously though we did and tend to be really broadranging
in our research of issues like this and others..
best
CAMERON

CYBERIMAGE
<A HREF="http://www.4CyberImage.com " target="_new">http://www.4CyberImage.com </A>
Ultra High Performance Computers-

 

[Guest]

To : Cyberimage.

You said "we usually find one". So have you eventually found one brand of Slocket which works with SMP in general, and Supermicro board in particular?

Another gentleman replied to my question in a different forum in Tom's Hardware Guide. That gentleman told me that he worked in a computer store, and he managed to use Asus Slocket S370DL to support dual CPU with Tyan Tiger 133.

Please see this thread:-


http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1

Thanks in advance again for Cyberimage's information and patience. I hope you do not mind answering this one last question.