Is 800mhz worth it on a PIII? Asus P2B-F upgrade

[me101]

I have a p2b-f and have been debating getting a more powerful processor, currently have a celeron 400.

Is it worth going to 800mhz or just get a cheap 600mhz for 60 bucks less... Will I see any much improvement, for bang for the buck.

And also, anyone know who's the cheapest for a PIII-800 Slot1... Don't want to go to the step of getting a new mobo/cpu/cool combo! Current pricewatch cost is around $190 oem...

Am I better in a few months just getting a new mobo/cpu/cool combo like athlon 900 for around $200. Looking at pricing on pricewatch, not sure of the mobo combo, like the asus mobo that i've used in the past!

thanks.

Mark Elder ~ Boston ~ MA

 

[me101]

My board, a P2B-F is a 100mhz. So i'm limited to "E" processors. It's kinda expensive in one way to go to a P3-800E, so...

Is it worth going to P3-800E Slot1 ($190) or a P3-600E slot1 ($117). Will I see much of a difference from my Cel-400 or is my efforts going to waste and go to an athlon/mobo/cool combo for $175-200.??

A good choice for athlon/mobo/cool combo would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mark Elder ~ Boston ~ MA

 

[AndyHui]

Whether or not you see much of a difference depends on what you actually do with your system. If you do the "just surfing + word processing" with only light gaming, then you probably won't benefit too much by going to a 600E or 800E.

If you are doing graphics or heavy gaming, then you may wish to look into an upgrade. I have 2 P2B-F boards myself and am at a bit of a dead end....not sure what to do with them either. Personally, I would wait until I really needed a new CPU/motherboard....somewhere in the 1GHz+ range to really feel the difference.

 

[me101]

Thanks for the info AndyHui, I mainly use my trusty PC for general computing, plus a tad of Debian! Power is not my issue, just wanted to maxamise the potential of my mobo. But if Intel dropped the price of the P3-800E to $100 then I would jump at the chance. Having invested 18 months into my system, I'm not too eager to shell out more money and not get the relative performance.

My celeron-400 is being throttled by the 66mhz bus, I know this, so going to p3-800e at 100mhz I would see some improvement. But to spend in the order of $200 for a processor (+heatsink!) when athlons are so cheap i think is not good judgement. Unless someone has a cheap P3-800E Slot1 for sale

So I may just hold off and wait a while until I can get a good mobo/cpu combo for good money. Spend $250+ for a good setup (Athlon 800+asus A7V) that I can possibly overclock.

Any other readers with their thoughts on not spending too much money on an upgrade with the listed hardware below.

Mark Elder ~ Boston ~ MA
My Rig: Celeron-400, P2B-F, 256mb Crucial pc100, Maxtor 40gb + wd 13gb, Voodoo3-2000, SB Live, 3com 509B, 19" Proview

 

[Poof]

For that $190 you'd pay for a P3 800, you could get a decent OCing mobo, a Duron, a FOP and OC the bejeesus out of it. I did just that over the weekend and have Debian running on it.

 

[Truro]

Do you guys recall Anand testing a P2B* and saying it apparently had a 1/4 pci divider at 133 bus according to his scope analysis? I would guess this was about a year ago.

 

[zener]

I would go for either a 650e or 700e. If you have a pci graphic card or an agp tnt2 or newer types, there is a good chance you can run those processor at 133 fsb on a p2bf

 

[Plester]

definitely worth looking at a 600E-700E. find one that will do 133fsb, and you will have a very speedy system, assuming you RAM and vid can handle it. i just posted here about putting a 650E in a Asus P2Z and setting it to 133(866) and it worked like a charm, and i don't think coppermines are even officially supported on this board.

 

[AndyHui]

That's true. The P2B-F does not officially support the Coppermine processor....or at least, one of the two versions of the board does not.

The first version, marked Rev 1.00 does not support the Coppermine, supports less FSB options and has USB problems due to a missing resistor.

The second version, marked Rev 1.00. (note the extra period on the end), has support for Coppermine voltages, supports many more FSBs and has had the USB problem fixed.

If you really feel that the 66MHz FSB is holding you back, why not go to 75MHz? You end up with a 450Mhz Celeron and a nice little boost in performance.

 

[me101]

While investigating putting in a P2-800E, i found out rather lots about p2b-f, and the many revisions. You CAN put a P3-800E coppermine Slot1 into a p2b-f ASLONG as the rev is "1.00." and there is a chip with the training letters BCB, this version supports the lower voltage required by the coppermine, plus getting the latest bios updates.

As to adding a more powerful cpu into my system, i'm considering trying to hunt down a cheap 600E or 700E slot1 cpu, or if I wait (intel according to the register is about to drop the p3/celeron prices near end of january!) a few months, and get hopefully a bargain... OR just get an athlon/a7v/cool in a few months and then OC the sucker!

BTW, anyone know where there are benchmarks graphs and figures for processors, (TomsHardware used to be the place but it's got toooo hard to navigate!), like ranging from celeron 400 up to the athlon and the duron!

Anyone know where a deal for a p3/athlog can be got with all the users on AnandTech's experience.

Thanks.

Mark Elder ~ Boston ~ MA

 

[osage]

Truro, is this the piece you are referring to ?HERE

 

[Truro]

Wow, 1997, that's much older than what I saw, which was a forum thread not that far back. That's exactly what he was saying, though.

 

[JmsAndrsn]

Man,
I thought that BX boards did not even come out until about April of 1998. I guess not.

As for upgrading your CPU, I would recommend using a Celeron II with a slocket. Try to get one that will run at 100 FSB. A Celeron II at 100 FSB will perform about the same a PIII that is 150-200 MHZ slower than it(ie. a Celron 600@900 would give performance close to a PIII 700 or 750). I'm sure you could find several Celeron II's at 100 FSB in the "for sale" forum for $75-$100. I think this would be much more cost effective than buying a PII.

 

[Joony]

so does the P2B-F support the Celery 2?

 

[Joony]

and read this > http://www.asuscom.de/support/techmain/FAQ/mobo_cpu/faq077_Pentium_III_CU.htm its in german use treanslation thingy at altavista.com

 

[Plester]

just to add my 2c. the P2B-F is STILL an excellent mobo, and with a c400, you aren't even close to maximizing its potential.

go over to the FS/FT forum here and pick up a 500E-700E on a slotket w/ voltage control. you can find a 700E that does 933 for $130+/- and 500/550 are in the $100 range or less. depending on your vid card, and RAM - 133fsb is a breeze. newer geforce based cards, ATI, voodoo3 series, matrox g400 - almost all handle 133fsb/89mhz agp without issue.

i am still building high performance systems for people using the P2B-F because of its excellent stability and speed.

 

[Diesel21]

I am running a Celeron II 566 @ 850 mhz in my P2B-F. So yes, the P2B-F does support the coppermine cpu's