Upgrading CPU on a K7S5A

[Bonesdad]

I have a 2nd machine with a K7S5A mobo (latest bios) with a Duron 950Mhz processor. I want to upgrade the CPU, but not sure if I should upgrade the Duron or upgrade my TBred B 2100+ (main machine) and get myself a new Barton 2500+ and stick the 2100+ on the K7S5A. Any suggestions? I know at stock, there will hardly be any diff tween the 2100 and 2500, but what about future O/C?? will the Barton paste the TBred as far as potential?

 

[Bonesdad]

^one time bumparooni

 

[Match]

K7S5A is limited in overclocking. With a modded BIOS, you can boot up to 150 fsb. Although you can set the fsb to 166 in Windows via sofware, you can't boot at this speed due to a chipset limitation. This would limit you on a Barton cpu. You could only overclock by modding your motherboard or changing the bridges on the cpu. You don't say what the motherboard on your main rig is, but if it supports more overclocking features, I'd say get the barton for that rig and move the 2100+ to the K7S5A. I can't say whether the 2100+ or the 2500+ will give you the better overclock though.

 

[conjur]

Looks like I'm picking up this board (along with an XP 2400+) as part of the Fry's Hot Deal.

What is a reasonable expectation for O/C? One drawback I know I'm going to have is the RAM. All I have available now to put in this is Crucial PC2100.

 

[Match]

Well, the K7S5A was built as a budget board, not an overclocking board. That being said, there are a few overclocking options. You can flash the CheepoBIOS from the forums at ocworkbench. This will allow you to select FSBs of 133, 143, 146, and 150. There are options for 166 and 200 as well, but these don't work because of a chipset flaw. The board doesn't support voltage changes or multiplier selection, but these can be added on depending on how handy you are with a soldering iron. These mods are available at the same forum linked to above.

You'll want a quality PSU for this motherboard. Specifically it requires a high TCO (total combined output) on the 3.3 and 5 volt rails. My Enermax PSU supplied 180 Watts on these two rails, and that was sufficient for my 1.33 GHz Athlon Thunderbird. The Crucial memory may or may not be a limiting factor. It depends on how old it is, what size it is, and random chance. My fairly new Crucial 256 MB module ran at 225 MHz (450 DDR) when I first got it. Good luck.

In answer to your question, I don't really know how the 2400+ itself overclocks since I don't have personal experience with this cpu.

 

[conjur]

Well, I've never yet had a board that allowed changes for multiplier (just FSB) and this is a replacing a Jetway + Athlon 850 slot cpu that blew some caps off the m/b. Might make it my new HTPC depending how well it works w/my MyHD card and a Radeon 8500DV (which are currently housed in a Tyan S2460 with dual XP1800+). The MyHD software hangs intermittently and don't know if that's due to the PC or just buggy tuner software.

Thanks, Match.