Is it still possible to setup a Dual Athlon XP Barton system?

krackato

Golden Member
Aug 10, 2000
1,058
0
0
I'm looking at building a Dual Athlon system. The MP's aren't too badly priced, but the prices of the XP's just make me drool.

Is it still possible to drop 2 Athlon XP processors and run them in SMP? Is this stable?
 

oldman420

Platinum Member
May 22, 2004
2,179
0
0
i dont think so. it might work.but it will most likely run i doubt you will see true muliprocessing i think there may be a pin mod but i am not sure
good luck
 

Jen

Elite Member
Dec 8, 1999
24,206
14
76
It is possible to use the mobiles in dual mode with or without modification to the processor


Asus board with 1010 bios will work with the mobiles without modification
Gigabyte board will also work with the mobiles without modification
msi k7d master l requires the processors to be modifed




The modification required for the MSI is disconnecting the third L5 bridge to disable the powernow feature also allows processor to be seen as MP


Jen
 

Vette73

Lifer
Jul 5, 2000
21,503
9
0
^


Correct. Now that the Bartons have come down even more in price and you can do the pin trick to get higher Mhz Dual bartons is a nice system.
 

krackato

Golden Member
Aug 10, 2000
1,058
0
0
The pin trick?

I like the idea of getting a motherboard that requires no modification. If I got the Asus or Gigabyte board, would I still have to do the pin trick? According to Pricewatch.com the Athlon 2600+ XP barton mobiles go for $33 less than the Athlon 2600+ MP's. With 2 processors, that's a $66 savings, which would be pretty nice. Still, the regular XP's are $27 cheaper than the mobiles which works out to $54 savings there (total $120 savings over the MPs).

Athlon 2600+ MP = $127
Athlon 2600+ XP Mobile = $94
Athlon 2600+ XP = $67

Still, no modding with the mobiles sounds great. Is there any performance difference between the mobiles and the MP's? Are they going to be just as stable? In the end $66, or even $120 isn't a lot of money if saving that amount makes the system unstable. Still.... so potentially cheap... so much processing power... [homer drool]ahhhhahahahah....[/homer drool]

Edit: What exactly are the model #'s f the Asus and Gigabyte motherboard? I was looking to get a GA-7DPXDW-P which goes for $189 at Newegg, although I just picked it cause it was the cheapest and had all 5 star reviews. I really know nothing about motherboard selection for dual processor systems.
 

aka1nas

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2001
4,335
1
0
Originally posted by: Jen
It is possible to use the mobiles in dual mode with or without modification to the processor


Asus board with 1010 bios will work with the mobiles without modification
Gigabyte board will also work with the mobiles without modification
msi k7d master l requires the processors to be modifed




The modification required for the MSI is disconnecting the third L5 bridge to disable the powernow feature also allows processor to be seen as MP


Jen

This isn't quite correct. The last L5 bridge pair needs to be connected to enable SMP. The 3rd pair controls powernow and should probably be disabled(cut) to allow proper SMP usage in most boards.
 

Mingon

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2000
3,012
0
0
Originally posted by: aka1nas
Originally posted by: Jen
It is possible to use the mobiles in dual mode with or without modification to the processor


Asus board with 1010 bios will work with the mobiles without modification
Gigabyte board will also work with the mobiles without modification
msi k7d master l requires the processors to be modifed




The modification required for the MSI is disconnecting the third L5 bridge to disable the powernow feature also allows processor to be seen as MP


Jen

This isn't quite correct. The last L5 bridge pair needs to be connected to enable SMP. The 3rd pair controls powernow and should probably be disabled(cut) to allow proper SMP usage in most boards.


No this is totally correct - mobile cpus already have the last bridge connected hence you only need to disable the mobile identification. I have used Msi k7d and asus a7m266. I quite like the asus for overclocking and am currently at 17 x 141 for a rather nice 2.4ghz :)
 

estew33

Senior member
Aug 2, 2003
535
0
0
Originally posted by: Mingon
Originally posted by: aka1nas
Originally posted by: Jen
It is possible to use the mobiles in dual mode with or without modification to the processor


Asus board with 1010 bios will work with the mobiles without modification
Gigabyte board will also work with the mobiles without modification
msi k7d master l requires the processors to be modifed




The modification required for the MSI is disconnecting the third L5 bridge to disable the powernow feature also allows processor to be seen as MP


Jen

This isn't quite correct. The last L5 bridge pair needs to be connected to enable SMP. The 3rd pair controls powernow and should probably be disabled(cut) to allow proper SMP usage in most boards.


No this is totally correct - mobile cpus already have the last bridge connected hence you only need to disable the mobile identification. I have used Msi k7d and asus a7m266. I quite like the asus for overclocking and am currently at 17 x 141 for a rather nice 2.4ghz :)

HOW DO YOU DISABLE THE MOBILE id
tHANKS
ed
 

coolred

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2001
4,911
0
0
How hard is it to cut a bridge? And is a dual CPU setup still better then a single for general multitasking? I mean I don't really use to many multithread programs that I know of, but I am constanly doing 2-3+ things at a time. SO would a dual athlon setup say 2000+-2400+ chips better then a signle A64 at 2800+-3000+?
 

coolred

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2001
4,911
0
0
What dual athlon boards are still available, and which is the best to get to pop a couple of mobiles into?