Fastest P2 made?

[dexvx]

Just so you know, Compgeeks has a P3 - 1000Mhz / 100FSB / 256K cache SLOT 1 processor in retail packaging for a little over $100 + shipping. The best deal for a slot p3 i've seen, but still too pricey for me.

 

[butch84]

If you have an old P2 motherboard, the fastest celeron it will support without some kind of third party adapter is a 533. The 533 was based on the pII core, while the 533A and up was based on the coppermine core. My old p2 mobo would only support up to a 533 because of the new coppermine core which was produced on the .18 micron process, an upgrade from the .25 micron process. The main consequence of this was reduced voltage requirements (the voltage on a p2 celeron was 2v, while the voltage for a coppermine celeron was around 1.6-1.7v). So, it is most likely that your mobo will not have a voltage requlator that will go low enough for a coppermine celeron. It is possible that it would work with a bios update that would properly recognize the cpu and give it too much voltage (not a good thing), or it may not work at all.


Hope that at least makes some sense. If it were me, i would chuck the mobo and cpu and start over with one of the cheap combos previously mentioned

Butch

 

[wolf papa]

you might want to watch your voltages - the motherboard may only support 2.0 volts - Coppermines (both Celeron and P3) are 1.5v-1.7v. Although some slockets have jumpers or DIP switches to adjust voltage, I have not had any luck in using them to decrease the voltage when the mobo itself did not support lower voltages - the setup refused to boot. I believe the PowerLeap Tualatin adapter has an active circuit that signals the motherboard that 2.0v is being used, as well as actually supplying the processor with the correct voltage.

 

[Mavrick007]

Crap, it is a SEC type cartridge the he has for his PII 333 cause I just thought about that. Does the Powerleap adapter come in SEC type or just socket type? I don't think I could put a Slotket and then the Powerleap onto that and then the Cpu on that if it does only come in the SEC type slot.

Hehe I've been trying to get him to upgrade anyway to a decent machine since he is a programmer and he is way behind the times. Plus I just told him not long ago that Final Fantasy XI is coming to PC so he is really thinking about that since he doesn't want to upgrade his PS2. If he does upgrade, he'll have to go the whole distance since it has integrated video, plus an old Voodoo 2 card and probably old unusable ram, cpu and mobo. Hehe He will be able to keep the monitor though.

I didn't get the info from him yet but I will see what board and chipset and then post more to go from there.

 

[dawks]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
I just remembered my PII-350 is a cartridge type CPU, does this affect my ability to upgrade?

Yes, SECC's or Slot 1 CPUs were discontinuted at something like PIII 600... Im not sure the top speed they went, but I think its in that area.. not much higher.

Just another point, DVD Software decoding wont run very well on a PII.. Even a PII 450. DVD Software decoding IS possible on a PIII 400 however. SSE gives a big boost to the highly FP intesive process of DVD decoding.

If you want to run DVDs on something slower then a PIII, your best be is to get a hardware decoder card, or a video card capable of DVD assist. IE, anything Geforce1, or better, and anything ATI Rage128 should be capable of handling it..

I for example have a PII 400 which used to run DVDs via a PCI hardware decoder, to a pass-through to my TNT1. I then upgraded to a ATI Radeon 7500 64meg DDR card which is capable of DVD assist (motion compensation and such) and DVDs run fine. But there is definatly a need for hardware assist on CPU's without SSE, or below 600mhz.

 

[Mavrick007]

I know what you mean daz, cause I have a Hollywood Plus card for my old machine and it worked fantastic with my TNT2 Ultra and the K62/350.
I told him that it might not play as well with just his P2 333 but he said that they have machines at work that can play them fine around that speed.
I think he'll have to upgrade everything but we'll see what can be done for options on upgrading the cpu first.

 

[Amused]

For what it's worth, I've got a P3 1000MHz 100FSB Slot One processor sitting in an old Dell that I had upgraded from a PII450. They can STILL be had at Googlegear for $114. As can a Slot One 933/133MHz, 866/133MHz and 733/133MHz,

Daz, they made Slot Ones all the way up to 1Ghz.

 

[Mavrick007]

*Update*:
Ok, he got back to me finally and said that he checked his old invoice and it says that "It is an Intel Pentium II 333 mHz CPU with a P2-BX-ATX motherboard, and a 128 MB @ 100 MhZ bus". I told him to get back to me with the brand and model of the mobo so that we can see how far it can be upgraded, but it looks pretty good so far I would say.

 

[CrazySaint]

According to this page somebody got a 1.2GHz Celeron (Tually 256k, I presume?) working on the same motherboard I use with a special Powerleap adapter (PL-iP3/T), but it appears to be a bit fancier than just a standard slotket. Does this mean I could get a Tually Celeron up to 1.2GHz working on my board with just a slotket? Like maybe this one? I also found a slotket of unknown make & brand (I do know it has a speed adjustment), for $6. One thing I don't know about either slotket is how they handle the voltage differences.

[EDIT: I've also found out that I have the C1 revision of the 440BX chipset]

 

[MadRat]

If it can go Taulatin then consider a P!!!-T over the Celery-T.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: MadRat
If it can go Taulatin then consider a P!!!-T over the Celery-T.

I would, except that they cost about twice as much. I don't wanna spend much over $50, because I could get a ECS K7S5A+XP1600 for about $110 from newegg. Do you know if slotkets are sufficiently generic that any one will do, or if that Powerleap adapter had some special circuitry that made it work?

 

[MadRat]

The Powerleap has voltage regulators to bring down the voltage closer to the Taulatin's specs.

If you're worried about cost then stick to non-Taulatin Celerons that have 128k L2 cache or P!!!'s with 256k L2 cache.

 

[Mavrick007]

OK, I have the make and model of the mobo. It supposedly will support PIII's and socket 370 cpu's if you get a slotket or a powerleap adapter (which costs like a mint).

The mobo is the Tekram P6B40-A4X Rev 1.1, it has the 440BX chipset and is Slot 1 with a 333mhz PII now, can clock it at 66, 75, 83, 100, 112, or 133mhz fsb at cpu voltages of 1.3V to 3.5V. He has 128megs of ram right now but it can go up to 512megs.

I would like to know the best cost conscious purchase for the fastest speed that could be supported for a cpu (either Celeron or PIII (Tualatins included))? Keep in mind that the best price I saw for a powerleap adapter was around $68 on pricewatch so it might not be that wise of a purchase(unless someone can point me to a place where there is one for less than $40-50).

What's the best upgrade scenario here?

 

[ed21x]

a celeron 400 mhz can oc to 600, and the BX motherboard is definitely still the most solid, reliable, chipset i've ever used

 

[LarryJoe]

Originally posted by: CrazySaint
I've got an OEM PII-350 box (PIONEX brand) with a Biostar M6TBA 440BX board in it. Anybody know what the fastest chip it can take without modding anything is? The FSB is already operating at 100MHz (actually managed to get itself up to 103, but I have no clue how that happened since it has no FSB adjustments in the BIOS or on the board that I'm aware of) so it shouldn't need a Powerleap adapter.

[EDIT: I just checked prices at newegg, and I would be most interested in knowing the fastest Celeron chip I could put in here instead of a PIII, as I can't see spending $100+ on a chip for this old system]

The M6TBA was my first BX board. I bought the system from a local shop with a PII 350 in it. I eventually upgraded to a PIII 500 Katmai and it too somehow ran at 103. It is a pretty cheap mobo and not much fun IMO. I am sure you could run a CU chip in it, but note that about a month after putting the PIII 500 in, it died. I would not spend money on a Powerleap or other chip for that mobo. If you are budget conscious, I would head over to the FS/FT forum and pick up a good brand (Abit, Asus, etc.) BX Board/Chip Combo for short money. I bet you can get a board and >800mhz chip for $50.

 

[Mavrick007]

I'm going to keep looking the fs/ft section and see if there's an other alternative as well.
Anyone else have some suggestions on a cpu/slotket combo that might be worth the cost?

If the 440BX mobo can do 1.3V - 3.5V, then wouldn't it be able to use a Tualatin with just a regular slotket and not need the powerleap adapter which costs alot more?

 

[BLKGHOST]

I just upgraded my system from a PII 333mhz (just a week ago). I was running on a 440LX chipset (ASUS P2L97-S) and that processor was the fastest one I could get for that mobo. the fsb is at 66mhz and there were no PC100 mem. at that time. So the chances are that the memory is pc66. However, PC100 and PC133 will work fine on that chipset. So if you're planning an upgrade, think about the memory that you'll have to change also.

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: Mavrick007
I'm going to keep looking the fs/ft section and see if there's an other alternative as well.
Anyone else have some suggestions on a cpu/slotket combo that might be worth the cost?

If the 440BX mobo can do 1.3V - 3.5V, then wouldn't it be able to use a Tualatin with just a regular slotket and not need the powerleap adapter which costs alot more?

bump.. need some people who have went with a Tually or have some upgrade advice.