Do the socket 423 to 478 adapters work as advertised?

[Wedge1]

I'm thinking about getting a socket adapter/converter for 423 to 478 like this one this one.

Can anybody attest to the reliability of these? Are they problematic or do they work as advertised?

 

[MichaelZ]

yes it will, but with the following limitations:

- 400Mhz FSB Only (Willamette or early Northwood running @ 100 real FSB)
- CPU must be 2Ghz or less

this limits your choice of 478 CPUs significantly. if you already got a 478 CPU which fall in the criteria to be used with, then go for it.

 

[Wedge1]

I have a 1.7 I could use because it is socket 478.

But why can't I use over 2.0GHz? I was thinking of getting a 2.6GHz processor.

 

[Vette73]

Why not juts spend the $50 on a PT800 type board and get a better CPU and better board for cheap?

 

[Wedge1]

I did a search at Newegg on the PT800 and I see what you mean about those boards - pretty cheap. I haven't read anything about the PT800 chipset though. Good stuff?

If I did that I would use 512MB of 266 RAM that I already have. But I would still be looking at what kind of price?

2.8c = $180
SOYO "SY-P4VTP" Motherboard = $41 after rebate (are these reliable boards?)

total: $221

 

[MichaelZ]

if your going for cheaper stuff, try soltek rather than soyo.

that adapter is just an adapter, they don't extend the capabilities of your existing board to handle higher ghz which it wasn't even designed for. it's the same as when people try to use the mouse PS2 adapter on a USB keyboard and find that it doesn't work.

 

[Wedge1]

Damn that would be cheap. Are these VIA chipsets good?

Would I be losing a lot of performance by sticking with Single Channel RAM instead of Dual? I confess to not knowing enough about RAM, but if I went Dual then I'm looking at buying new RAM as well.

 

[MichaelZ]

modern intels do love dual channel.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Wedge1
Damn that would be cheap. Are these VIA chipsets good?

Would I be losing a lot of performance by sticking with Single Channel RAM instead of Dual? I confess to not knowing enough about RAM, but if I went Dual then I'm looking at buying new RAM as well.

Yes the PT800 and PT880 are good chipsets. Not the best, but they cost half as much as others. Abd if you don't want/need dual ch memory the SOYO "SY-P4VTP" for $41 after rebate is a good deal

And if you want dual ch memory, then get the PT880 chipset. Will have Dual ch memory and True SATA, etc... A lot for your buck and will support pretty much every socket 478 P4


There is some good deals on Ram after rebate, check out hot deals (or Fatwallet.com) if you need some ram.

 

[Wedge1]

Perhaps this one if I go Dual Channel.

 

[BigBadBiologist]

That last one looks like a good deal.

Don't even consider going with a socket adapter if you want to get a 2.8c. As stated above the Wilamette CPU motherboards really only went up to 100MHz FSB (yes, some would overclock to 115-120 or so). The 2.8c runs at 200MHz FSB, thus, you would wind up with a 1.4GHz CPU. Plus, the BIOS would probably not recogize the CPU.

The other issue with going with a 2.8c if you plan on using your current RAM is that I'm not sure what kind of RAM dividers those motherboards have. I know they can kick the RAM speed down to 166MHz if you are running the 200MHz FSB that the 2.8c requires, but I don't know if they can go down to 133MHz.

 

[Wedge1]

Dual Channel RAM ::: Any suggestions?

I know I need to do my research but I want to ask this question anyway.

 

[Vette73]

As for ram, pretty much any name brand like geil, mushkin, kingston, etc... will do fine as long as you get 2 matching slabs.

 

[Wedge1]

Guys, I have decided I'm going to do this the way I really want. I'm going to build a high-performance PC, probably a 2.8C processor and the right motherboard.

Now, I'm thinking I might want to take this to at least a 3.0. Could anybody suggest brand and model of RAM for this?


As for the original question I posted, I'll be getting that adapter to place a 1.7 where I currently have a 1.3 that sits in a 423 socket.

 

[MichaelZ]

double whamming ey?

Well, to hit 3.0ghz on a 2.8C should be pretty easy. You'll need some PC3500 and you'll be able to run 1:1 FSB:RAM at 3ghz.

Grab yourself something made by the following and you should be ok to reach 3ghz: Corsair, Kingston, Kingmax, Geil, OCZ, Mushkin. Some are pricier than others but all will do what you need. Find the best deal for you. 2 x 256 would be the cheapest for dual channel which you definatly want in order to get max performance out of that 2.8C.

 

[Wedge1]

Thanks i82lazyboy, but I have a newbie question:

Since PC3500 RAM wants to run at DDR433, does it *automatically* overclock itself to that speed or is that something I still have to adjust through the BIOS?



Edit: Looking at Newegg's RAM, what type of organization does it require? 32M x 64 -Bit?

 

[MichaelZ]

you'll have to adjust the speed in the bios to match your front side bus speed.

what type of organization does it require? 32M x 64 -Bit?

dun understand what you mean here.

 

[Wedge1]

Originally posted by: i82lazyboy

what type of organization does it require? 32M x 64 -Bit?

dun understand what you mean here.

It has to do with the layout of the chips. Looking at Newegg's RAM you will see in the description "organization".

Look here and you'll see what I mean. In the description, just above "warranty" is the "organization" of the RAM. What type of organization do I need?

Examples:
two 32M x 64 -Bit
two 64M x 64 -Bit
two 128M x 64 -Bit
64M x 64 -Bit
32M x 64 -Bit

 

[MichaelZ]

oh that's just the size of the dimms. example 32M is a 256MB stick, 64M is a 512MB stick and so on.

don't know what your budget is, but right now ram prices are just too damn high. 2 x 256 is at least affordable. take kingston hyper X for example. i paid 180 australian dollars for 2 x 256 PC3500 sticks. now you can't even buy 1 stick of Hyper X PC3200 for that much. kinda make me wish i purchased 2 x 512 PC3500 sticks when i had the chance...