fan for AMD K6 2

[John_Wayne]

Hi there,

I'm planning on upgrading a Pentium 200 (no MMX) to an AMD K6 2 (socket 7), can I use one the new socket A fans, will it fit for thickness of the cpu, and on the attachment hooks?

Thanks very much ... Johnny

 

[phsstpok]

The "hooks" will fit but you have to watch the dimensions of the heatsink. If you get a 60mm x 60mm heatsink it will fit fine. Anything larger depends on your motherboard. Basically any Socket A/370 HSF should be good enough for a K6-2. You don't even need a noisy fan.

<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>

 

[Frisbee]

Hi;

First of all, I hope that you have checked if the K6-2 will work on your Pentium 1 mobo. If you found a Super 7 mobo, then everything is fine of course.

I have a K6-3+ 550, which replaced my original K6-2 400.
I have been using Globalwin's Fop32-1 cooler on both chips, and it is super!
Mind 2 things though:
1. Its fan is quite noisy, and overkill for any K6-2 below 450Mhz. Either use a voltage regulator to make the fan run slower. That's what I do: I let it run at 2800rpm, instead of its normal 4200rpm. Nothing to worry: I think that this heatsink could even cool my K6-3+ WITHOUT the fan.
Another option is to replace its fan by a slower and quieter model. (I think it's a 60mm fan.)

2. Its base measures 70mmx62mm: make sure that there is enough space around your cpu.

It's a very powerful cooler for socket 7 cpus. Actually it's kinda overkill: even with the fan running that slowly, my K6-3+ 550 never exceeds 37°C. Dunno in Fahrenheit, but 37°C is like a very hot summer, no more .
This cooler can cool an Athlon 1300, so...

You can see this cooler at the following url:
http://www.globalwinusa.com/products/fop32_1.html

Also, Globalwin still sells specific socket 7 coolers.
You can find them at the same website.

PS: only the K6-2 500 and 550 need rather powerful coolers.
If you will be using a K6-2 450 or below, almost any socket 7 cooler will do.

If you have any more questions, let me know, okay? I have a lot of experience with upgrading and tuning my Socket 7 system.
But I live in Belgium, so if you are an American or Canadian or so, don't forget that we live in a very different time-zone, so my answer could take some time...
Greetings from Belgium!
Carl

 

[Crashman]

Yes, it will fit perfectly and offer superior cooling. Just get a standard sized version.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[John_Wayne]

Thanks all for the info, one other Q: What's the difference between Super 7 and "regular" 7 ? Actually my mobo is Aopen AP5T with the TX chipset. After updating the bios and reading the "new" manual it looks like it would take a K6 up to 400 Mhz. If I could not find a cheap K6 2 at 400 Mhz, maybe I'll buy a brand new 550 Mhz and underclock, cause the mobo will only support up to 6x (by choosing 2x) multiplier with 66 Mhz bus.

 

[Frisbee]

Okay, the difference between "Super7" and "Socket 7" mobos is all about the bus-speed of the motherboard:
- Super7 boards all run at 100Mhz. Some rare models with the Ali Alladin V or VIA MVP3 chipsets can even run at 133Mhz, but 133Mhz is no "official" spec of Super 7.
- All "regular" Socket 7 mobos run at 66Mhz.
There are 2 exceptions to this:
Some older models run at 60Mhz (Pentium 60), or even 50Mhz (Pentium 75 and 100) and 45Mhz (Pentium 90).
And then there's Cyrix, which used to let its Socket 7 systems run at 75 or even 83Mhz, the fastest "regular" socket 7 ever.

So in short, not counting the exceptions:
- Super7 = 100Mhz bus-speed
- Socket7 = 66Mhz bus-speed

Super7 is no more than the "last evolution" of Socket 7.

The K6-2 400 looks like a good upgrade for you indeed.
But I suggest that you check if your mobo with its new BIOS could also run a K6-3, a K6-2+ or a K6-3+.
In short:
- the K6-2+ is a K6-2 with an extra 128Kb of L2 cache on board. It generates less heat than the K6-2 and is quite faster. The K6-2+ also has the "3DNow! Professional" extensions: see below for more info.
- the K6-3 and K6-3+ have even twice that much L2 cache on board: 256Kb.
There are 2 differences between those 2 chips:
The K6-3+ generates much less heat, and has the Athlon Thunderbird's "3DNow! Professional" extensions, which in themselves are an inmproved version of the 3DNow! instructions set found in both the K6-2 and K6-3. This comes down to an increase in performance in SOME programs.

The K6-2+ and K6-3+ also see the 2x multiplier as "6x".

So check it out. If your mobo can run a K6-2, you have a 90% chance that it can run a normal K6-3. These are very rare these days, but you may have a good chance to find one on EBay or so.
Performance with the K6-3 will be roughly 20-25% better than with a normal K6-2.
I think that you only have a fifty-fifty chance that your mobo will run the K6-2+ or K6-3+, but with those the performance increase will be like 25-30% compared to a normal K6-2.

If you would like to find a K6-2, K6-3e, K6-2+ or K6-3+, look at
www.arrow.com
Their search-engine su*?ks, so send them an email and ask them to give you the product numbers of AMD K6-2, K6-2e, K6-3, K6-3e, K6-2+ and K6-3+ processors.

On their website, I found a local reseller (in Belgium) which sold the K6-3+, so this is how I found my K6-3+.

I hope this helped you.
Greetings from Brussels!

Carl

 

[Crashman]

I believe I've actually upgraded that board with a K6-2 400, and perhaps a 450. Here's the tricks:

I don't think the board supports 2.2v for the K6-2. But the K6-2 will operate normally at up to 2.8v core if it's overcooled with an Athlon/Duron/PIII type cooler (even a fairly small one).

The processor will convert the 2x multiplier to 6x internally, that means 66.7MHz bus gives you 400MHz, 75MHz bus gives you 450MHz. IIRC the board either doesn't have the 83.5MHz setting or becomes unstable at that setting. Otherwise, 83.5MHz bus would give you 500MHz.

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