K7T Turbo-R and T-Bred ... Do they go together?

[Lemming]

Hi guys! I've got an MSI K7T Turbo-R and in the near future I'd like to upgrade my CPU from my current TBird 900 to max out the mainboard. The question is which CPU do I get? (The CPU will be the only thing I'll upgrade...) According to the MSI website my board supports Palominos up to XP 1800+ but no thoroughbreds and I was wondering why that is the case?

Has anyone tried running a t-bred on a K7T Turbo and what were the results?

Did anyone try running a higher than 1800+ CPU on this board?

I don't know anything about the differences between the two except for the manufacturing process (.18µ vs. .13µ)... Aside from their different overclockabilities is there a performance difference between the two? (i.e. would it really matter if the board really doesn't support the t-breds at all)

Ok, that's a lot of questions for the biginning, I'd really appreciate any kind of infos that you can offer!
Thanks!

 

[Iron Woode]

You are stuck with support only for Pal cpus.

I have used an XP2100+ on one. It was pretty darn fast. But you are limited to sdr ram as opposed to DDR.

Only the Turbo 2 supports T-bred cpus.

 

[BarryAZ]

Typically, the older motherboards simply don't like a full design change -- .18 to .13 is a FULL design change.

I suspect you are looking to simply tweak performance here instead of a full upgrade, not just for cost reasons, but for time reasons -- that is, a new system would require a full reinstall of the OS and applications -- and then tweaking for your own needs. I upgrade my primary system every 12 to 18 months -- and the most significant pain in the butt is the 12 hours or more required to install the OS, update the OS, install the applications, update the applications, and reset my customizations.

I can bring my email and such forward readily as I have a home office network. And I can bring my music over readily as I am running an external 18G SCSI drive for it. But still it is a pain.

 

[Lemming]

Thanx for your input guys!

Iron woode: u used that xp2100+ on the turbo ver3 (NOT Turbo 2 ver5)? I thought the tables supplied by MSI were probably a bit conservative...
I'm just hopin that the same goes for supporting tbreds! I think I read in another forum that some people have successfully run a tbred on their turbos. I guess I'm just going to try my luck with a tbred 1700+ and see where I can go from there.
I'm gonna have to wait a couple a weeks though to get the cash together...

I'll just fiddle around with my 900 and see where I can take it before it's job is done - there's some more unused potential in that one!

Barry AZ: In my case it's actually more cost reasons than time reasons why I only want to upgrade the CPU. And back then I actually bought that mobo with the upcoming XP's in mind so I'll follow that plan
There's absolutely no question about setting up windows being a major pain in the a$$ but I've gotten used to having to do it periodically, like once or twice a year... And I think some FAQ - not sure where exactly, but it mighta even been AMD itself - stated that I'd have to reinstall windoze anyways when upgrading to athlon XP to take advantage of the new features. I guess I'll see...

As far as the design goes, really the only thing that has changed is the die size, isn't it? The features and layout should be practically the same on pallys and tbreds(?) - please correct me if I'm wrong here

The mobo chipset is KT133A, the same as on the Turbo 2, so basic support should be there, right? From what I've read one major difference to the Turbo2 is that it can handle a lot more power than the turbo which is why it can support the higher XP's. But since the 1700+ tbred actually needs less power than the palomino I don't really see a problem there

well, I'll just have to try it out! Just hope that I'm not in for a bad surprise...