P4 2.4GHz upgrade on older Intel motherboard OK?

[lorlabnew]

Hello all,

I've got about 10 months old Intel D850MVL rev.AA A56423-202 motherboard (as on the box barcode sticker), BIOS rev. MV850.10A.86A.0038.P15 - the latest one, with P4 1.6A (Northwood) CPU (400FSB); system is running great (with 512megs of Samsung PC-800 RDRAM).

Now, I'd like to upgrade the CPU to the mentioned/desired 2.4GHz (533/400 FSB); when checking the Intel's website whether my MB will support this CPU, the information there is a bit unclear; it says that my board revision won't support neither Northwood (the website is updated on July2002, so dated quite a bit). It's obviously wrong since it runs with my 1.6A OK since I bought it. I would think that t should be compatible upgrade (would run the 2.4 CPU at 400 FSB only though)...but wanna be sure before will spend $200 (found a great cpu/mb combo for boxed 2.4 & MSI mb; would like to swap my old 1.6A CPU to the combo's board ( PC2100- DDR RAM based only), and put new 2.4A in my rock-solid, fast, tested & tried system)...

Can anyone who owns this board (D850MVL) advice on this? Other suggestions welcome

thx
Dave

 

[RanDum72]

Check for BIOS upgrades and look at their release notes. It should mention the new features each BIOS revision has.

Edit: Well, I checked and only boards with revisions ending in 300 and up supports CPU's higher than 2.0ghz. Yours is revision 202
But again, Intel is kinda conservative in their warnings. I have a an 850E board from them and the board revision says it will suport 533fsb CPU's but not PC1066. Well, I got some PC1066, plugged them in and got a warning whether to continue or not. I went ahead and it has been rock stable ever since. That was almost a month ago. The only way for you to check is if you can buy an OEM 2.4ghz, 400mhz FSB P4 locally (as long as you can return or exchange it if it doesn't work).

 

[lorlabnew]

Thx for reply, RanDum72

yes, I checked the same info on the BIOS revision; it seems like "official" (5 month old or so) Intel's information suggests it's not possible..I also checked boards revision pdf's; again, they say the same. Then again, my board shouldn't be running 1.6A neither (and it does, I bought it with that CPU from knowledgeble local dealer)... it's kinda frustrating incorrectness from Intel.

Do you think that I could damage either cpu or board if I'd try to put P4 2.4B (533/400fsb) in my Intel D850MVL board revision? If it wouldn't work for any reason, I could still use the combo deal as it is, since MSI board is 533/400FSB ... not the best board, but would find a use for it.

Dave

 

[Athlon4all]

A 400fsb should work perfectly fine. It clearly supports Northwood and as a general rule, if the Intel CPU motherboard supports
1. the Required Core Voltage (ie supports the Core, like does it support the Northwood)
2. The CPU's fsb (your mobo likely won't run at 533fsb, but 400fsb will be fine)

If your board supports these 2 things, which it does, then I see no reason why your mobo wouldn't support the 2.4. Even if it didn't work, I doubt it would damage the board.

 

[lorlabnew]

Originally posted by: Athlon4all
A 400fsb should work perfectly fine. It clearly supports Northwood and as a general rule, if the Intel CPU motherboard supports
1. the Required Core Voltage (ie supports the Core, like does it support the Northwood)
2. The CPU's fsb (your mobo likely won't run at 533fsb, but 400fsb will be fine)

If your board supports these 2 things, which it does, then I see no reason why your mobo wouldn't support the 2.4. Even if it didn't work, I doubt it would damage the board.

Thx for reply too.

Well, I think I'll give it a shot then; if it won't work on my Intel board, I'll then use the bundled MSI's 645e MAX (rev. 1.x I think) ...it supports even 533FSB of this CPU.

dave