Upgrading a pII 350

Hosha

Junior Member
Apr 29, 2002
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I am upgrading an older system to play some of my older games on.
It is a Compaq EN series pII 350 with a slot 1, small form factor, compaq motherboard based on the 440bx chipset with 100 fsb.
What is the fastest CPU I can upgrade to on this board.

From looking around, there seems to be a top end around a pIII 700. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.


 

Hosha

Junior Member
Apr 29, 2002
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The only specs I have been able to find are the chipset, 440 bx and that the motherboard is proprietary (from the compaq site). Any ideas where I can go to find out more?
 

dxkj

Lifer
Feb 17, 2001
11,772
2
81
do you know what brand the motherboard is? I believe the 440 BX chipset maxes at a PIII 550 (Katmai core perhaps?)

for example

Search this page for 440 BX



all of the 440 BX chipset of the GB support 550 max, and I believe that is the topend for that chipset. I have a board from gateway that has a PIII 500 on it and i think I remember researching and that was near the max


good luck figuring it out for sure =)
 

bacillus

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
14,517
0
71
even if your m/board voltage regulator could only supply a minimum of 1.8V then using a fcpga coppermine with a slocket set to 1.8V you should be able to run a 1GHz 100fsb coppermine p3 or celeron(non-tualatin).
 

daveqb

Senior member
Mar 9, 2002
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www.dward.us
i dont think he has a S370, but a slot 1....

so i agree on the others here, a PIII550 would be around max for the slot one

and as a side note guys run Tualatins on BX440 chipsets, its not spec and takes some modding, but theres indeed a "Tualatin on BX440" Club over on OCAU forums :)

(why i dont know)
 

bacillus

Lifer
Jan 6, 2001
14,517
0
71
Originally posted by: daveqb
i dont think he has a S370, but a slot 1....
yeah, I realise that he has a slot 1 that's why he'll need a fcpga slocket with on board voltage selector to use with the fcpga 1GHz 100fsb coppermine p3 or celeron(non-tualatin).

 

Budmantom

Lifer
Aug 17, 2002
13,103
1
81
Sometimes it's just better to get a whole now computer they had a compaq xp2000+ witha cd burner and dvd etc... for around $300 on the hotdeals forum about a week ago, that might be your best bet.
 

mgpaulus

Golden Member
Dec 19, 2000
1,112
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You can get a Powerleap Slot1 adapter (Can't remember the exact model, but it's designed for older Slot1 boards), and go up to at least a 1.4 GHz tualatin celeron, or a 1GHz+ P-III. The powerleap adapter has an onboard VRM, so it can handle those new P3/tualatin celerons.

(I put a 1.3GHz celeron in my Dell GX1, which started life as a P2-400).
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
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if it will accept coppermines, i see no reason why you can't put a PIII 1000 in it (only depends on the maximum multiplier i'd imagine) is there BIOS upgrades for Compaq computers? if it's original, i can't picture that working, but maybe you can flash it.
if not, probably a PIII 600 Katmai would be your top CPU.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
1,679
126
I'm running a Celeron 1.4 GHz Tualatin with Asus P2B BX board (from 4 years ago - used a Celeron 366 back then). I can play Unreal Tournament 2003 pretty well with a Radeon 9100. 40-110 fps on indoor maps at 1024x768x32. WinXP flies (512 MB).

Used an Upgradeware Slot-T adapter. Costs US$20. CPU was $60. The BIOS recognizes it as a Pentium III 1402 MHz. Celeron Tualatins are 100 MHz FSB unlike the Tualatin PIIIs so the the AGP bus is not overclocked.

I had to update the BIOS on the Asus P2B though, and my rev. 1.10's VRM supports 1.5 V. It may not work on older mobos with an older VRM, and it may not work with older BIOS.

OTOH, I also tried that Celly on a new Supermicro BX mobo I bought 2 weeks ago. No BIOS flash needed and I think the BIOS were several years old. Mobo cost me US$30. It was a rev. 2.0 mobo though, so maybe that helped. The BIOS only recognizes it as a 1000 MHz unknown chip, but it runs fine, and at full speed. I hear this is what happens with lots of older machines with this upgrade, but they work. YMMV. The PowerLeap adapter is an option but it might not work either, and it costs a lot of money.

Coppermine at 1.8 V is also an option that could be tried if your mobo VRM won't handle anything lower. You'd want a slot adapter with voltage jumpers, with socket chip though, NOT a Slot 1 Coppermine. That way you can choose whatever voltage you want.

If you're not willing to take the chance for a Coppermine or Tualatin, then I'm not sure I would bother upgrading it. You'd be stuck to something like a PIII 550 MHz Katmai, not necessarily the best idea unless money is really tight and you can find a Katmai cheap. Just upgrade directly to a P4.
 

NightTrain

Platinum Member
Apr 1, 2001
2,150
0
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The problem arises with certain companies and proprietary motherboards. I had a friend with a Compaq P3 450 and even after I flashed it to a standard BX, it still complained when I put a coppermine chip in it.
 

shortcircuits

Junior Member
Feb 7, 2003
9
0
0
It is better not to upgrade on your current motherboard. The price performance ratio is quite bad. Probably your best bet is buying an Athlon XP for $60-$100, a motherboard for $100 and 256/512 MB of DDR SDRAM for $35/$70 and a new videocard. On the Intel side, you'd best opt for a P4 2,4 GHz; but these already cost around $160. The Celeron is very slow for its rated speed but costs next to nothing.

So my advice: don't waste any time and money upgrading on an old school motherboard.
 

Hosha

Junior Member
Apr 29, 2002
17
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0
Thank you one and all.
I now at least know what I don't know and where to go to find out if the change is worth it. I primarly want to run older games on a win 98 se system so I can convert to XP on my p4 system. If I read you guys correctly, then I can improve the CPU performance 20 to 60 percent with an adaptor. The drawback is going to be what I can do with the graphics card. Many kudos for pointing out the effect of FSB on AGP.

A side note: I am continually amazed by the depth of knowledge combined with the desire to help that I find on this forum. Other forums have the knowledge, but it seems they have no desire to pass it on to anyone who knows less than they do.

Thanks for your help!
 

daveqb

Senior member
Mar 9, 2002
480
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0
www.dward.us
Originally posted by: bacillus
Originally posted by: daveqb
i dont think he has a S370, but a slot 1....
yeah, I realise that he has a slot 1 that's why he'll need a fcpga slocket with on board voltage selector to use with the fcpga 1GHz 100fsb coppermine p3 or celeron(non-tualatin).

ahh yes a late night post, couldnt even write what i wanted to write properly :)

(it was around midnight here, Oz)

Proprietry boards suck too !
As you may soon be finding out, Hosha :)