Can an 800MHz FSB CPU run on a 533MHz only MoBo

Oct 31, 2003
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Could I drop a P4 3.2 into a laptop that's mother board only supports a 533MHz FSB. I know I'll be missing out on performance on the bus but I'm not worried about that... That's mostly CPU talking to the RAM if I'm not mistaken. My thought is to make everything else faster. A 3.2GHz CPU would access the cache a lot faster and would basically be very fast with anything that it didn't have to access main RAM for. Can it be done or would the Hyper Threading get in the way of it... or is that something only enabled in BIOS? Or am I really mostly stuck with a 2.8GHz CPU with 533MHz FSB? What's the thought... My laptop is found in the link below in the sig.

All responses are welcome going from too much heat to HT messing it up to 800MHz FSB chips incombatible with 533MHz mobos...
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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It will work in most boards it will like just be 16x133=2.133ghzand not 3.2ghz...If the board has ocing options to 200fsb+ you may even get lucky and be able to get it to 800mhz and default 3.2ghz....

As for HT not all 533fsb boards supports it...HT runs great and I would strongly advise to take advantage of it....The ppl who say it adds o much heat are full of it cause I have had it enabled and disabled and it was like 2c max for me.
 
Oct 31, 2003
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I never really got into how mulitpliers work... I know they are there but... I've never messed with OCing to know much. So in a non overclockable MoBo (or so I would think) with a 533MHz FSB standard, an 800MHz FSB CPU would downclock to match the the FSB that is supported in turn downclocking the whole chip? I'd be better off getting a 2.8GHz CPU that has 533MHz FSB right? That's a small upgrade from 2.533GHz... any suggestions.
 

Duvie

Elite Member
Feb 5, 2001
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Do you know if the board you have supports HT??? I would only get the 533fsb 2.8ghz if they have one that supports HT otherwise I would look at the 3.06ghz that does support the HT and can be a nice ocer....
 
Oct 31, 2003
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I'm pretty sure the mobo does not support HT... the manufactures list it as being able to use anything with a 533MHz front side bus and with out HT. They actually say it can use a 2.4GHz, 2.533GHz, 2.6GHz, 2.8GHz with a 533MHz FSB. And the slightly newer model actually makes mention of using HT and up to 3.2GHz. Not mine though.