Processor Upgrade on Intel 440BX AGPset

[quiksil903]

I have a Dell XPS T500, with the Intel 440BX AGPset chipset....


What processor can I upgrade to and have it work with this motherboard? I figure with the phasing out of Pentium III's there might be some deals to be had, but I don't know wha to look for and if it is possible/worth it.


So, any advice? How high can I go? Will it make a noticeable system improvement, or is this cost-saving measure stupid and if I want to really increase processing speed, should I buy a new system?

any advice is welcome and appreciated

thanx

 

[Zim Hosein]

quiksil903, what current PU do you currently have in that Dell rig?

 

[oldfart]

Here

 

[JamesDax42]

What a conincedence(sp). I ordered the Powerleap PL-iP3/T 1200C Celeron(Tualatin) earlier this week and recieved it this morning. I'll be installing it this evening and will come back with benchmarks and impressions afterwards.

 

[quiksil903]

Where did you pick up the hardware, JamesDax?

Just my luck. I'm anxious to see your specs

 

[JamesDax42]

Ok, so here goes. First the MB I have is a BCM QS440BX with the latest BIOS rev. 2.10. It's about 2 years old but has been rock solid. Anyway, what I had on this board was a P3 600Mhz(katmai). Installation of the PL-iP3/T Celeron(Tualatin) 1.2Ghz was a piece of cake. Once installed I booted up and of course the BIOS reading was all wrong. It was seeing a P3 176. Strange but not to worry, the PC booted into windows with no problems and windows, PCMark2k2, 3DMark2k1se, and CPUID all saw a 1.2Ghz Celeron. Cool. So I ran off some quick benches to get an idea of where I was so here they are.

PCMark 2002(cpu scores only): 600Mhz P3(katmai) - 1524 / 1200Mhz Celeron(tualatin) - 2977

3DMark 2001se(c/ GF3 Ti200 @ 215/460): 600Mhz P3(katmai) - 3713 / 1200Mhz Celeron(tualatin) - 5512

Well, thats it. I'm very happy with my investment.

quiksil903, you can purchase this online Here. The cost was $157.95 shipped. Not to damn shabby.

 

[quiksil903]

Thanks for the update, JamesDax42.

Was this a dell you were improving? What model?

So, you're happy with your marks? Is there a noticeable improvement performancewise (outside of just the benchmarks)?

 

[JamesDax42]

No, not a Dell. Mine is a CompUSA PC. The case however is one used by Dell(well, used 2 years ago). And yes I'm very happy with the benchmarks. I'm sure that I can tweak things a bit for even more performance. And yes, everything is noticeably faster. And if you checkout Madonion you'll see that my 3DMark score ranks along side of of 1.4Ghz P4s using the same graphics card.

Yep, it was a damn good investment and I'm as giddy as a school girl.

 

[ringl0rd]

I Just put a Cel 1G in a 440BX an old Abit BH6 slot 1 and it worked fine(used a 370 to slot converter card, asus smart sloket). Just make sure your mobo supports 1.75 volts through to 2.0+ for some of the stuff out there. I think it should work on your board, check dell to see what they say as well, or even ask you local geek shop.

 

[NucEm]

Has anyone looked at what a Gateway 4000264 (440BX) MBwill take? I've replaced the 400 P-II with a 600 P-III and it works just fine. I'm wondering if it will take a 1000 P-III? The core voltages on the 400 and 600 are about the same but the core on the 1000 is lower about 0.3 Vs. The FSB for each of the processors is 100 MHZ.

 

[FPSguy]

Here is an AnandTech FAQ that answers part of your question.

Here is a thread in which I basically asked the same question and got some very good suggestions from people. I can't get oldfart's link to work but my advice is to listen to what he has to say. He seems to know this pretty cold.

 

[NucEm]

Thanks for the response. The links were informative.

I believe that the MB is an Intel OEM BX440 flavor. I should have a boxed 1ghz P-III today to try. I am concerned about frying the processor. I have another MB that can take the processor if the Gateway MB doesn't.

 

[NucEm]

The 1 GHZ P3 is installed and working just fine! I got a 41% improvement on the 3DMarkSE score over the 600 MHZ P3.