Want add a second CPU. Is there any requirments for the second CPU?

[nabla]

I want to add a second CPU to my GW6400 computer. My current CPU is INTEL PENTIUM III 933/133MHZ.
Is there any other requirments for the second CPU? Any compatible problems?
Thanks!

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

must be same core speed, bus speed, and you'll have to check intels site to see if the steppings are compatible.

 

[nabla]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
must be same core speed, bus speed, and you'll have to check intels site to see if the steppings are compatible.

What do you mean about "if the steppings are compatible"?
The stepping should be same?
And most CPU are sold without marking the stepping. What should I do?

 

[dszd0g]

Everyone says that the steppings should be the same. I have not heard of anyone having any issues if they are not. That does not mean you won't, but I doubt you will.

I have even put a faster processor into a dual processor board and the BIOS clocked it down to the speed of the slower processor (It was an HP Kayak something). It worked fine, but I don't guarentee that will work on all mobos. It's what I had lying around and I thought it was worth a try, turned out to work without issue. I couldn't find any errors anywhere and that system ended up having uptimes of over 60 days a couple times when I put off patching it.

 

[Sunner]

The biggest problem I've had with mixing different steppings was when I put a second Xeon into a Compaq Proliant, it wouldn't work even though I got the CPU from Compaq, so I gave their support a call, and it turned out I simply needed to flash the BIOS, after the flash, no problems, still going strong.

 

[dszd0g]

Originally posted by: Sunner
The biggest problem I've had with mixing different steppings was when I put a second Xeon into a Compaq Proliant, it wouldn't work even though I got the CPU from Compaq, so I gave their support a call, and it turned out I simply needed to flash the BIOS, after the flash, no problems, still going strong.

That doesn't sound like a problem with using different steppings, just that that BIOS didn't support that stepping. Sometimes new stepping require microcode updates in the BIOS.

 

[Sunner]

Yeah you're right, my post wasn't really meant to imply that the problem was with mixing, it was more of a "general problem with steppings" post.
In hindsight I should have a made the post more clear...

 

[techfuzz]

The Intel P3 Specification Update is a good place to start looking. Most often it is said as long as the processors run at the same speed core/FSB then you'll probably be ok. Same steppings usually guarantee that they will work together in a dual configuration. I have only seen 1 or 2 instances when different steppings caused problems and the specification update usually pointed that out.