New Processors On Old Boards: Adapters From Upgradeware for Socket 370 and Socket 423

Socket 370 With Tualatin Pinout: Overshooting The Mark

The underside of the adapter socket.

With the help of Upgradeware's 370GU adapter, we were able to run a Tualatin-core Celeron processor on an old BX motherboard. A Pentium III would have been conceivable too, but it operates at an FSB speed of 133 MHz, a pace our motherboard cannot keep up with. As we wanted to examine how well the adapater socket worked, and not how well it could stress the motherboard's FSB, we decided to use the Celeron, which is technically equivalent to the Pentium III.

Perhaps you've already noticed that BX motherboards are almost invariably based on Slot 1. So we had to resort to an additional Abit adapter board that enabled us to run a Socket 370 processor in a Slot 1 interface. We then plugged the adapter socket with our test Celeron into this board.

And lo and behold - the BIOS recognized the CPU as a Pentium II with 1,300 MHz - not exactly accurate but quite sufficient. A runthrough of SYSmark 2002 caused no problems. The operation was a resounding success!

A list of compatible motherboards can be found at the following link:

http://www.upgradeware.com/english/product/370gu/compatibility.htm .

Upgrading The Pentium III: Suitable Chipsets