SMP with socket A

[homestarmy]

Well I remember when the first socket A dual boards came out... pretty much anything that was tried in there worked, so buying MP processors was a waste of money. Did AMD make it so the newer thoroughbreds and bartons will not work in MP? If so, how did they?

 

[Vette73]

People have been running Mobile AthlonXP's in dual A boards. You have to do the wire trick I think ot cut the chip, but many have done it and they have very fast systems now. Mind you they have no real upgrade path but for a current dual system it is cheap and VERY fast.

 

[homestarmy]

What is the wire trick? Where can I read about it?

 

[coolred]

I am also considering a dually rig, check out www.2cpu.com, that seems to be the site most recommend for SMP info. There are plenty of threads about the wire pin mod and all that good stuff.

Just to give you what I understand of it. The newer AMD chips are multiplier locked and even if they will work(which I am not sure of, not sure if you can still do the bridge mod on those) I thinkt hey may deafault to like 800MHz, and I am not sure if the pin mod works on those. Now the mobile AMD CPU's that sell on newegg and a few other places I have been told work in some boards with no modification at all, check the site I listed for whcih boards exactly. And they should work in other boards with slight modification. Forgive my lack of definite info as I am still learning, but from what I understand about the mods. Some chips may not require any modding in any board, as some of the early chips were actually SMP capable right out of the box, but not many you find today will be. The bridge mods usually deal with the L5 bridges. Some may need a bridge either cut or filled in. I think filling in the bridge is for the chip to be recognized as a MP chip, I think this needs to be done on standard AXP's I think some of the mobile chips require a bridge to be cut to disable Powernow. Now the pin mod sounded daunting to me when I first heard of it, but after finding out what it is, its not really all that difficult. You can find all the info you need abotu it on 2cpu, but heres the jist of it.

Basically since many of the chips will default to like 800MHz, or if you want to overclock and the BIOS doesn't have that option, you can take small pieces of wire in like a U shape, placing 1 end into a certain pin hole int he socket and the other end into another pin hole. It may require a few of these. But basically it briges those connections which correspond to the multiplier you want. I think you can also do this to increase CPU voltage, not sure though.

Like I said, take none of what I said as fact as I am just starting to learn, I was just telling you what I think I know on the subject. 2cpu is the place with all the info, if you find any other good sites, let me know, thanks.

 

[Jen]

Ocforums SMP Section


read the stickys they will explain alot of what is needed


gigabyte and asus board both will work with mobiles without modification and i been told tyan is another


i am useing two 35w 2400+ mobiles modified to MP for this msi k7d master l motherboard . due to heat in the house i am keeping them at 2600+

i also have a msi for sale in this forum along with a 2400+ modded to MP



hugs


Jenette

 

[coolred]

yeah i just recently saw your thread in the FS forums, with the first memory slot broken on that board does that mean only 1 slot is available for use with unbuffered memory.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: coolred
yeah i just recently saw your thread in the FS forums, with the first memory slot broken on that board does that mean only 1 slot is available for use with unbuffered memory.

yes that is what that means