CPU upgrade options for a NEC PII 350 (440BX mb)

[JoseB]

I have a refurbed NEC Ready 9905. The model that NEC gives it is RB 248. It is a Pentium II 350. The mb is called an "872" by NEC. It has been a nice system and works well.
Lately I have been looking into upgrades for this system's processor, and have been stymied because I would like to get a large speed increase
and I am not sure about compatibility.
The NEC site info says:
This motherboard utilizes the SEC slot (SLOT1), which is a staggered 242 pin Single Edge Contact slot. BIOS Intel® E28F002BXT80 2 MBit Flash EPROM
System BIOS by Phoenix
Bus PCI/ISA based system bus (PCI 2.1 compliant)
100MHz maximum bus speed
Chipset Intel® 82440BX PCI AGP Controller (PAC)
Intel® 82371EB PCI chipset (PllX4E)
This motherboard supports the following CPUs:
Celeron 266/66, 300/66
Mendicino 300/66, 333/66
Pentium?II 233/66, 266/66, 300/66
Deschutes 266/66, 333/66, 350/100, 400/100
Pentium?III 450/100, 500/100

It seems as though (from other posts I have read on Anandtech forums) I can use a
SLOCKET (e.g. Microstar MS-6905 Master Slocket), a cooling fan - "Golden Orb", and then one of the new Celeron II's (533a or 566) to get a low-cost (about $140), overclocked, 800Mhz upgrade.

I have overclocked processors in the old Pentium (P5) family, but never anything in the Celeron or PIII family, so this is somewhat new stuff to me. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Alphacowboy]

possibly a 550 PIII but you will need a bios update! The board in those usually is a standard BX chipset and should support any PII/PIII slot1 processor!

 

[Alphacowboy]

that board is made by intel if I am not mistaking... O/C is a bitch and good luck cuz it ain't going to happen! I would buy a new board, the case should support a better board no problem!

 

[birddog]

most of those OEM boards only support 2 bus speeds (66 & 100). I'd recommend getting a new MOBO (a good VIA board is @ $100) & then either the P3 or a celeron.

Check in your bios to see if it does allow any bus speeds besides 66 & 100 mhz.

 

[alchemist]

do a bios update, then you can use any of the p3's except the coppermines, To use a coppermine you need a socket adapter that has onboard voltage regulators to lower your voltage to the coppermine specs. You could do a celery 566 but you need to be sure to buy a pretested one as you only have two choices of fsb (unless you do do a softFSB) 66 and 100. In reality the celery is the best upgrade for you as the rest of the components are aged and really out of date so putting a more expensive processor in there will not do too much for you as your video card will not be very fast (if its integrated). This should make you happy for a while and you can save your money for a complete build later.

 

[JoseB]

Thanks for your posts.
As you would guess, the support from NEC isn't too great lately.
It seems to be impossible to get an intelligent reply for a question like this from them.
I would love to do a BIOS update that would help with the issue of new processors, however the most recent BIOS listed on the NEC web site is from 1998, and I already have it. Is it possible that I could use a BIOS update from Intel?

As far as this system goes, it isn't the latest, but it is still quite current - UDMA 33, 3 DIMM sockets, AGP 2X slot in which I have a CL TNT card w/16MB. No trouble with 3D games in DirectX or OpenGL.

My question that I would like to explore is can I use a (pre-cert) 533a/566 Celery with an MSI Slocket/Golden Orb and be assured of success at 800/850Mhz? (Pointers to other web sites are appreciated) I have already taken a look at MSI's site and found no answers.

I'd like to avoid a new MB if possible, even though I understand that there are much better ones available at around $100.

 

[alchemist]

You should email compuwiz, he does pretested cpu's he is the guy who knows about the c2's out here. Since your mb probably doesnt support the lowered voltage required by the chips, your slocket needs to have a voltage regulator on it. Since it already supports the original celerons, i see no reason why it wont recognize the new ones.

 

[Quickfingerz]

p3 500 mhz should be a guarantee. 550 might be a possibility. check for BIOS updates and see what it says. Download a program, i use sisoft sandra that will tell you what is that highest clock speed you can get.

 

[compuwiz1]

If that is a bx board, the issue would then become, can you force 100MHz fsb with a Celeron. I see no problem with the proper slotket.