dual pentium mmx 166 questions

[rnimz]

Ok heres the deal, at my last job I got a few old pentiums machines for free that they didn't need anymore, and I gave most of em away but with that I got an old pentium 166 mmx, (which has just been sitting with all of my other junk in my clothset), now one of the people who I gave one to, is going to buy a duron and a new board doesn't need is p166, So the question I have is do the old dual pentium boards (I found one for $39 new) require the same stepping cpus? (I am just assuming they do since they are older), and then the second question is does anyone have a pentium 166 MMX with the stepping SY059 (actual stepping xA3)? Also if anyone else has any suggestions, let me know, I have everything else for the machine just laying around so that isn't a problem. Ok one last question, will windows 2000 be ok with an old dual pentium setup? Thanks in advance.

-reid


edit: One more quick question, can you run two chips at the same stepping say a 166 and a 200, and just underclock the 200, (or over clock the 166)?

 

[BA]

Most of this is general, not too sure on the p55 specifics.

same stepping is usually a very good idea, but you could probably get away with differing s-specs. You could probably get away with 2k on it, just load up on the ram. I'd recommend NT4 or Linux though, doubt you'll be doing much gaming on dual 166's

 

[ravedave]

from what i understand of current dualies is you need them both to run at the same FSB and multiplier. find a speed at which both work, and it should work.
Win2k will probably be slow. my Celey 500 at work with 128MB memory is pretty slow in win2k Also you NEED at LEAST 64MB other for win2k to even be usable. when i had only 64MB and win2k I was working in 90% disk cache.

If this setup uses EDO than buy a new duron+mobo to run win2k
if it runs SDRAM then mem is cheap buy now!

 

[rnimz]

well we run win2k on our p200 with 64 mb ram with lots of stuff going and it really isn't that slow, but I have 4 16 meg sticks to put in it...

 

[rnimz]

Ok one more question about this, does anyone know if there are special dual pentiums or if all of them are capable, (I just assumed that they can all do it, but that might not be a good assumption to make)

 

[Peter]

No, not all Pentiums are SMP capable. Visit developer.intel.com and download the "Pentium Processor Specification Update" document to see which ones do and which ones don't.

Regards, Peter

 

[hans007]

where did you find a dual board for $39? i've got 50 pentium 166s here, and i'd like to try a dual.

 

[MaJik]

50 you say?
any word on selling them? I wanna put em all over my walls
No really I could use em for Rc5 or something.

 

[MaJik]

I downloaded "Pentium Processor Specification Update" (Release Date: January 1999)
never seen anything about SMP, looked though it 2x. Mabe i missed something, or is this wrong one or something?

 

[rnimz]

Well I have been all over the intel spec sheets and I can't find any info on which ones are SMP capable and which ones are not, the place that has the dual pentium boards is justdeals.com, they are AT boards (Soyo SY-5TH), and they are brand new in retail boxes. My guess is someone opened up a closet that had been closed for five years and went "what do we do with these?", but hey if you have 50 pentiums laying around, having a bunch of dual 166 machines might not be too bad, I mean its better that having a bunch of single 166 machines. Well if anyone else has input keep it coming. Thanks.

 

[Wik]

I have a server running Win2k Advanced Server with a 166 and 82 megs of ram. It is a bit slow at times but works great to share files with and to handle the routing of my network and internet.

 

[hans007]

oh well i just have the chips, not the machines. I was gonna sell em, but figured i'd mess with 2 and make a dual. That socket 370 soyo board with the zx for $39 is pretty good on there

 

[they call mr big]

you were joking about using the soyo mobo with those 166's I don't think do!! you need a socket 7 board, it's on with tx chipset or something like that..

 

[Peter]

Well, you take Intel document no. 242480 "Pentium Processor Specification Update", and then get to the "Technology identification information" table.

Admittedly, reading that takes some hard thinking (or a lot of practice ), so here's the scoop.

All those parts that have "0 or 2" in the "Type" column (meaning they can run as primary or secondary CPU) are dual processor capable, those that have "0" only aren't (and those that have "1" are overdrive processors that also don't do DP) ... except those that are broken according to Note 8 or 14.

Regards, Peter