Athlon XP-M and the VIA KT333 chipset

[GhettoBlaster]

I am considering pairing an XP-Mobile CPU chip with an Epox 8k3a+ which runs on a KT333 chipset. This CPU should work perfectly fine in a desktop mobo right? I am looking at these CPUs mainly because of the 266mhz FSB on them.

 

[coomar]

depends, the mobiles require the mobo to unlock them (which i know the nf2 does), otherwise it defaults to multipler 6, you'll have to look up on whether the chipset does

seems like it does

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
I am considering pairing an XP-Mobile CPU chip with an Epox 8k3a+ which runs on a KT333 chipset. This CPU should work perfectly fine in a desktop mobo right? I am looking at these CPUs mainly because of the 266mhz FSB on them.

Yeah, they will work fine. However most mobo's won't properly detetct them (as they were intended for lappies, not desktop PCs). This is no biggie, just reqiures that you go into BIOS and set the FSB and multi and possibley the vcore (mobo might apply a little more than stock, which won't hurt the chip- it would just be uneccessary).

A google check idicates that this mobo has the Soft Menu III section in BIOS which will allow for all these adjustments. I just couldn't find how high the multi c/b adjusted. Might wanna d/l a manual and see if it gives the range of multi's offered.

Fern

 

[Mogadon]

Why don't you go with an nforce 2 board rather than the VIA chipset, they're better. I'm presuming you don't already have the board of course, if you do it's understandable .. 😉

 

[WobbleWobble]

Make sure that your motherboard supports Barton cores, which is what your chip is based on.

It's not that the mobo might not support mobile CPUs, but because it might not support the later cores.

 

[GhettoBlaster]

I already have the board, its not like I am buying one. The reason behind all this is that I have an even older mobo (KT266 chipset) just laying in a box not being used and it could use the CPU that is currently in the 8k3a which is a 1.0Ghz Tbird. I have enough spare part laying around to make a complete system its just I lack a CPU. Instead of getting one old enough to work right in the older mobo I wanted to get the best cpu that the newer of the boards would support.

I have oc'ed with the mobo before by doing the old pencil trick connected the traces on the Tbirds and it was a decent lil o/c'er, got a 1ghz up to 1.4ghz on air cooling but boy that delta fan was a screamer. So I can indeed mess with the multiplier.

 

[GhettoBlaster]

Can't get to Epox's US site right now but I got to their Europe site and got a little info

Socket A compatible AMD Athlon XP processor 1500+ to 3000+, 600MHz to 1.4GHz AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processor upto 1.3.Ghz

I keep reading that the 333 FSB for CPU's is unofficially support. I think I might be leaning to the XP-M which runns on 266 and should be o/c'able to 3000+ speeds. I'm still not 100% sure on the support for 333FSB CPU's.

 

[coomar]

i thought all mobiles ran off the 266 bus, you might want to try and find a higher one since your stuck at 266, mobiles like the 2800 that are 16x133

 

[GhettoBlaster]

Right the mobiles do run at 266, I was just curious if a 333 Barton would work in that board.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
Right the mobiles do run at 266, I was just curious if a 333 Barton would work in that board.

I think you should try it.

The odd thing I noticed in these reviews was that the board supported PC 2700 ram (166/33 mhz) but not officially CPU's at 166/333.

WTF is up with that? You shouldn't run these systems in asych mode anyway😕

Fern

 

[TRUMPHENT]

Originally posted by: GhettoBlaster
Right the mobiles do run at 266, I was just curious if a 333 Barton would work in that board.

The answer is a probably, qualified yes. I ordered a refurb XP2400 from Newegg, DOA. AMD sought fit to send me an XP2500 as replacement. It ran just fine on my KT333 chipset mainboard at 266mhz, a Soyo DUPE. I finally bought an ASUS A7V880.

Teh funnay. The Soyo board shipped with the special BIOS specifically for the AMD mobile Barton. I think it was to allow proper reporting of voltages more than anything else.