Dell Dimension 8200, 850 chipset. How do I tell if it supports northwood processors? I have AA #

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gotsmack

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Mar 4, 2001
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I just got a Dell 8200 1.9 ghz williamette from my uncle and I was wondering how do you tell if the mobo supports 400 bus northwoods.

If it helps, at the time the system was purchased, 2 ghz was the fastest proc being offered by dell and the northwood proc was a month away from being released to market.

I have the AA # off the mobo. it is AA A56486-305

I THINK the mobo is the same as the intel D850mv mobo but I'm not sure. link is provided for convience

http://support.intel.com/design/motherbd/mv/mv_proc.htm

The following mobos support northwood procs

A71904-300 or later
A71906-300 or later
A56420-300 or later
A56423-300 or later
A73829-300 or later.

I am worried that dell mobos might be labeled differently



Thanks in advance.

thanks in advance.
 
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gotsmack

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2001
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I updated it already. It doesn't help


here is the description of the newest one

Release Date: 10/14/2002
The following changes have been made to the A08 BIOS to create A09: 1. Fixed resource allocation to some PCI devices when multiple adapters with bridges are in the system. 2. Properly set system power state when AC Power is lost in S3. 3. Added additional system board information into SMBIOS type 2 structure. 4. Fixed possible hang when exiting Diagnostic programs that access KB ports directly and USB Emulation is On. 5. Fixed possible issue with the Date and Time being changed after consecutive reboots. 6. Added new SMBIOS token definitions for UDMA, Hard Disk Acoustic, S1/S3.

previous one

The following changes were made to the A07 BIOS to create A08: 1. Added support for new Processors. 2. Fixed possible CMOS corruption when adjusting system configuration through Open Manage. 3. Updated ACPI sleep state mapping code to fix USB 2.0 devices not being found after a resume. 4. Added IDE UDMA support to speed up resume from Hibernate (when enabled). 5. Added support for additional models in the 8200 Series. 6. Adjusted USB Emulation support for special keys, and non-US keyboards. 7. Fixed false error on Floppy Drive when running Diags From Bootable Diags CD without a Floppy Drive. 8. Fixed issues with some USB devices causing a keyboard POST error with a USB keyboard. 9. Reduce POST time when no PS/2 keyboard or Mouse installed. 10. Added two new diagnostic LED codes for better memory failure isolation. No Memory Detected (ABCD=Grn, Yel, Yel, Yel) Memory Configuration Failure (ABCD=Grn, Yel, Grn, Yel)
 
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InlineFive

Diamond Member
Sep 20, 2003
9,599
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Originally posted by: gotsmack
no, most of the higher speed williamettes were pin compatible with northwoods.
Click to expand...

As long as it uses mPGA478 you are alright. Can you tell us what the chipset is on the motherboard? That would help.

-Por
 
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JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
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Originally posted by: gotsmack
I just got a Dell 8200 1.9 ghz williamette from my uncle and I was wondering how do you tell if the mobo supports 400 bus northwoods.

If it helps, at the time the system was purchased, 2 ghz was the fastest proc being offered by dell and the northwood proc was a month away from being released to market.

I have the AA # off the mobo. it is AA A56486-305

I THINK the mobo is the same as the intel D850mv mobo but I'm not sure. link is provided for convience

http://support.intel.com/design/motherbd/mv/mv_proc.htm

The following mobos support northwood procs

A71904-300 or later
A71906-300 or later
A56420-300 or later
A56423-300 or later
A73829-300 or later.

I am worried that dell mobos might be labeled differently



Thanks in advance.

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I hate to break this to you but chances are you have a socket 423 board. And with a 423 board, the fastest P4 it will take is 2GHz. If you have a 478 socket board, most likely you'll be able to use any 400MHz FSB 478pin P4.
 
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dexvx

Diamond Member
Feb 2, 2000
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Originally posted by: JackBurton

I hate to break this to you but chances are you have a socket 423 board. And with a 423 board, the fastest P4 it will take is 2GHz. If you have a 478 socket board, most likely you'll be able to use any 400MHz FSB 478pin P4.
Click to expand...

Uh... no. Dimension 8200 was Socket 478.

AFAIK, it depends on when you bought it. If you were one of the earliest adopters, then its "official" support is in doubt. However, the main difference between the Dimension 8200 revision was official support for 533 FSB.

Even if it isnt officially supported, you still might be able to use a 400FSB Northwood anyways because a lot of the socket 423 motherboards with an adapter can use a 478 Northwood. Although the bios might not identify it correctly, the processor should still be in full usage. Just go to support, enter your service tag and download the latest 8200 bios.
 
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gotsmack

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2001
5,768
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so I guess the obly way to know for sure if the mobo will support a 2.4 gigi northwood is to buy ine and pop it in.


The chipset is an i850. I don't know why anyone would ask me that when I posted it in the title.
 
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gotsmack

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2001
5,768
0
71
i guess it implies all 8200 models can support northwood 400 bus processors. Pretty much the best answer I'm going to get from dell.

thanks for the effort.
 
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johnjkr1

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2003
2,124
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Just get the latest bios on there before you try it....having worked at dell, i can tell you that seemed to help quite a bit
 
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rtrg

Junior Member
Jun 2, 2010
10
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JackBurton said:
I hate to break this to you but chances are you have a socket 423 board. And with a 423 board, the fastest P4 it will take is 2GHz. If you have a 478 socket board, most likely you'll be able to use any 400MHz FSB 478pin P4.
Click to expand...

I have several of these mobos from both the dimension 8100 and the optiplex gx400. Only the on board audio diffrenciates the two. The cpu is an INTEL 850, clock speeds from 1.2 through 1.9. What is the fastest speed this board will support AS IS? No additional hardware or software. I know this model is obsolete but for me they are fine. I am using one as I write this. My next board is a 1.2. A faster cpu will be nice. This is the same cpu the 8200 and 8250 use, although the mobos between the 8100 and 8200 are radically different as I remember.
 
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Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
3
81
InlineFive said:
Can you tell us what the chipset is on the motherboard? That would help.
Click to expand...
"Dell Dimension 8200, 850 chipset. How do I tell if it supports northwood processors? I have AA #"

RIMM slots and AGP... oh the bad old days.
 
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Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
4,971
1,695
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Unless this is a hobby project, don't spend money on a P4 system. Whatever the variety. Its not worth it.

The P4 architecture is 14(!) years old and completely outdated at this point. Even the fastest P4 (Pentium 4EE 3.73GHz) is completely outperformed by even the simplest Celeron CPU currently available.
 
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rsutoratosu

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2011
2,716
4
81
extremely hard.. ie a dell dimension 8200 would have gone through several motherboard revisions, best thing to do is go on dell community, aka dells forum and see if anyone came up with a way to id the motherboard for upgrades.

or if someone had google and done it in the last
 
tortillasoup

tortillasoup

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2011
1,977
4
81
I have this computer and honestly, you'd be better served going to a garage sale and picking up a computer. It's dog shit slow and its primary problem is it doesn't have enough memory to make it usable and to get the memory is expensive. I wouldn't spend more than $40 upgrading this ancient machine. Seriously your smartphone is actually faster than this machine!

I actually have the 3.06ghz version with 1GB of ram and it's very slow. If it had 2GB of ram, it'd probably be alright. All the money I ever spent on this computer I fully regret and wish I had just spent it towards newer hardware.
 
Torn Mind

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
12,066
2,768
136
Did some spammer necro this thread? It's from 2004, the same year my family got a Dimension 2400 with a crappy 2.0 GHz Celeron in it. How time flies.
 
H

hoorah

Senior member
Dec 8, 2005
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