FC-PGA, what is it

[Drache42]

I have a dual P3 motherboard here but it sais i can only put FC-PGA P3s in it. now what is FC-PGA and what P3 can i use?

 

[4Ryan6]

FC-PGA means Flip Chip - Pin Grid Array, which is a Socket 370 pin configuration which went up to 1000Mhz so you need to find out what the largest size processors your motherboard can run, and what the Front Side Bus speed needs to be to know which processors to purchase, and you should be able to get that information from the motherboard manufacturer, if you don't have a manual. As just to inform you but not confuse you, when the Tulation processor came out it went higher than 1000Mhz but will not work for you because they changed the Pin configuration setup. If you need more help post the motherboard manufacturer and model number.

You never know what you can do until you try.

 

[chuck232]

As just to inform you but not confuse you, when the Tulation processor came out it went higher than 1000Mhz but will not work for you because they changed the Pin configuration setup.

You sure about this? I think there's only 1 Socket 370. The only thing is, your mobo may not recognize the CPU, but a BIOS flash usually solves that. I'm not sure about this though....(??)

Falling down stairs saves time

 

[imgod2u]

Tualatins are physically socket 370 as well, however they have a different pin layout (as in which pin is for what) and a different voltage interface. So it won't work in mobos that weren't meant for the tualatin (Intel calls the interface FC-PGA2). So your board can only handle P3 processors (officially) from speeds of 550 (make sure it's socket and not SECC) to 1 GHz P3's.

 

[Crashman]

NO NO NO NO NO! I have an FC-PGA2 Coppermine in my system RIGHT NOW! The only difference with FC-PGA and FC-PGA2 is the HEAT SPREADER on top. The way to tell if a Celeron is Coppermine or Tualatin is that the Tualatin version has 256k cache instead of 128k of the Coppermine. The way to tell if a PIII is a Tualatin is by the voltage on the package, the Coppermine had 1.65v, 1.70v, or 1.75v, while the Tualatin has 1.475v. As far as I know, all the PIII's from 1000MHz down are Coppermine.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Drache42]

ok i have a atlon (yes atlon on athlon) V694D motherboard. This seems to be the same as the Elitegroup D6VAA but without RAID. its a dual socket 370 mobo but it sais i can only use FC-PGA cpus. actually in the manual it states

- supports PPGA/FCPGA celron CPUs (using a single processor only)
- FCPGA Pentium III CPUs are supported (using single or dual processors
-Cyrix MIII Cpus (susing a single processor only
-supports 66Mhz, 1000Mhz or 133Mhz FSB

now does this mean the i have to get 1130MHz P3 and run it at 133FSB?

i really dont want to overclock...yet

so from what i have heard so far the coppermine is the only one i can run, correct?

 

[eden]

Also PIII Tualatins are 512KB L2, you forgot to add that.

--
Intel and AMD sitting under a tree, P-R-O-C-E-S-S-I-N-G!

 

[Crashman]

Nope, there are two versions! A desktop version that works in single use only, at 256k, the main difference from the Celeron being that the cache has 0 latency while the Celeron has 1 clock latency cache. The other difference is the bus speed. Originally, the 256k Tualatin PIII was 1.20GHz, while the PIII-S (SMP, 512k) was 1.26GHz.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

No, I doubt it would even support the 1.13, because it's probably not Tualatin compatable! That leaves you with the following choices for a 133MHz FSB processor:
1000EB (also available as the 1000E with 100MHz FSB)
933EB
866EB
800EB (also available as the 800E with 100MHz FSB)
733EB
667EB
600EB (also available as the 600E with 100MHz FSB)
533EB

By now you've probably figured out that the "E" stands for "Coppermine" (actually, the onboard cache), and the "B" stands for 133MHz bus speed.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Drache42]

in the manual it also said that:
FCPGA Pentium III 500~1130, FSB: 100Mhz, 133Mhz

 

[Crashman]

What the manual DOESN'T tell you is that the original Coppermine PIII 1.13GHz was recalled by Intel because it didn't work, and that the new Tualatin PIII 1.13 won't work!

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Drache42]

so what you are telling me is that the fastest i can put in it is 1Ghz. what is the fastest FC-PGA P3 processor(with 133FSB)?

 

[Crashman]

Basically that's it. The fastest CPU you can put in it is a Coppermine PIII 1000EB. Beyond that it gets tricky:
The only difference between a FC-PGA and a FC-PGA2 package is the metal cover over the core. Even the Coppermine core CPU's are comming with that metal cover now. So in fact there are FC-PGA2 CPU's that will work on your board, but they are the old CPU's with the new cover.

Basically, I'm fairly certain that all PIII 1000's will be Coppermine. If you wanted to know for sure, you would have to look at the voltage, it's written on the box. If it's 1.65, 1.70, or 1.75 volts, it's Coppermine and will work. If it's 1.475v it won't.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Drache42]

ok now thats cleared up, what cpu fan do you guys think i should get. I dont really care about the money, i want something cool, this is my second box used as a linux box, and i want to make it really cool (no pun intended).

 

[Crashman]

The retail boxed fans are nice and quiet with adequate cooling capacity.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Hoolio]

Someone said that the tualatin sever version has 512k, but my laptop has a 512k tualatin in it.

 

[eden]

Laptops with 512K L2? Man that must draw power. But damn that is nice, I wish I'd own such!

--
Intel and AMD sitting under a tree, P-R-O-C-E-S-S-I-N-G!

 

[Hoolio]

It is a Dell inspiron 8100:

1Ghz PIII Tualatin 512k
256MB PC133 SDRAM
20GB ATA100 HDD
8x DVD drive
Gefroce 2 MX 32MB

When it is running at 1Ghz the battery lasts about 1-2Hours at full load eg playing a game.
When running in batt optimised mode(733Mhz) it runs for 2-3 hours at most.

Great laptop, never had any trouble with it, I would recommend Dell actually but as I can build desktops myself i would build my own PC, that is why I can wait for the Sledgehammer chips to come out, by then i should have saved enough money for a quad processor Xeon(i gonna buy 2MB cache chips from EBAY) and I will build a dual or quad processor Opteron sledgehammer.

I would like to save for an 8 processor opteron but I think it will cost too much.

 

[Drache42]

that aint the point, i want something really cool, im goin for cool factor here, and i want more then adaquate, i want the best...

 

[Crashman]

Both the Server version and the Laptop version have 512k, only the lowely desktop version has 256k. The 256k PIII Tualatin is still faster than the Celleron Tualatin because the cache has 0 cycles latency instead of 1. And because it has 1/3 more bus speed, for 1.3 better memory transfers.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

Perhaps the Volcano 7 would be up your alley? I've never gone past the Volcano II on mine.

<font color=blue>At least half of all problems are caused by an insufficient power supply!</font color=blue>

 

[baldurga]

What are you going to do with so much power? Star Wars XXII?

DIY: read, buy, test, learn, reward yourself!