The ZX chipset and coppermines, (help puhleeze)

[hymy]

I have a Soyo tek 6ZE+ slot 1, and as you may know they have decent boards and a hopelessly outdated support site. This board has up to a 8.0x multiplier, and auto voltage. What I want to know is if if will support coppermines. Does anyone know? Previous experiance tells me that if I ask Soyo tek, they will tell me to read the quick start guide, and then promptly ignore me thereafter. Also Is there anyway to find out if it even has the ability to provide the right voltage.

 

[Pennstate]

ZX supports coopermines. I know tekram's zx board does. The voltage is independent of the chipset. You can set the voltage on the MB to auto and set the voltage on the slocket.

Here's more info:
http://www.soyousa.com/faqs1_cpu.html

It says the ZX soyo boars doesn't support Cumine, but the ZX chip is capable.

 

[hymy]

well my board isn't even in that list. I don't think soyo has any intention of testing the possibility. They want everyone to buy a new board.

So you think I'd have to use a slotket? Couldn't I just slap in a secc2 slotted piii-800? Another Thing I've been wondering is if the locked multiplier would overide the limit of 8.0x and allow a higher one.

 

[AndyHui]

In a locked multiplier CPU, it will ignore whatever the motherboard send it and use its own, regardless of the maximum the motherboard actually has settings for.

 

[hymy]

andyhui,

thanks man, maybe I should just wait for that slot 1 1ghz piii then.

 

[Jhhnn]

Careful here, Hymy. If your board does not support the lower coppermine voltages, one of the adapters with voltage adjustments may be the only answer, if any. We don't want to let the magic smoke out, do we?

 

[hymy]

Jhhnn


That gets back to my original question, It has auto voltage detection. How do I find out if the MB supports coppermine voltages. Do coppermines use the same scheme as the katmais do? I guess if nobody knows then I could look it up. I don't think the manual says what the voltage range is. I think if they used a different scheme for voltage detection I would have heard about it, though.

 

[Jhhnn]

Somebody else who has more experience with slotkets will have to answer that one. anyone? Don't be shy!

 

[hymy]

Well the motherboard manual doesn't have crap on voltages. I'm almost certain a slotket will allow the use of flipchips. But I guess I'll have to try a slot coppermine to find out if it will support them.

 

[Eug]

Uh. If there is no BIOS support you may be out of luck. But who knows, it may still work.

"one of the adapters with voltage adjustments may be the only answer"

Well, a voltage jumpered adapter does not compensate for an incompatible board for two reasons.
1) The board might not support Cumine period, even though the ZX chipset can support Cumine.
2) The board's voltage regulator may not support voltages that go low enough. The board will probably not boot if the adapter is jumpered to a voltage lower than what the board can support. As for slockets with their own voltage regulator... There were supposed to be two out last month but I've seen no sign of them.

 

[hymy]

Thanks eug, and thanks to all.

Now that I understand all this, I think I'll attempt to drag some technical info outta someone at soyo. Failing that I guess I'll have to find out the hard way.

 

[hymy]

Well It looks like soyo is giving me the silent treatment. Is there anyway I can find out the voltage range on this MB. Think I could look of the voltage regulator?

 

[Eug]

Well, I dunno... but just remember that you don't know if your specific BIOS support Cumine either. Gotta make sure of that too, or else your shiny new PIII might just gonna be a very expensive paperweight. Big risk - are you prepared to shell out for a new mobo also?

 

[hymy]

yeah, I know. But you gotta take it one factor at a time. What I need is a way to find out before I buy the paperweight. But Soyo ain't much help. Maybe I can find a phone number for soyo. In any case I feel that soyo doesn't know either. I'm very tempted to try anyway, just cuz I wanna know. You know curiosity killed the cat.

 

[cajun]

Visit the Soyo USA site
www.soyousa.com

And look up that MB. You will see in the specs that it does NOT support Coppermine chips. And it is "discontinued" -- and the last BIOS upgrade was in 1999. Afraid not much hope here. Probably time for a new MB.

 

[hymy]

Cajun,

Been there done that, If you had bothered to look yourself you would realize that there isn't any info on cpu support at any soyo site. The only thing there is the quick start guide. That doesn't definitively prove anything except that soyo is as clueless as everyone else.

The whole point of this thread is alternative ways of finding out.