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What is the best cheap processor for a Slot 1 BX motherboard?

F

FPSguy

Golden Member
I have a PII 333 overclocked to 350 (100MHz bus) right now. I would like to get something faster but don't really want to spend much money -- definitely under $100, and under $50 would be nice.

Should I:

1. Get a PIII?
2. Get a Celeron and a slot 1 adapter board?
3. Get a new motheboard and a Duron?

Any thoughts or alternate suggestions would be most appreciated. If overclocking is the right solution note that I probably will need a good heatsink and fan as I probably won't remove the heatsink from the PII and I don't have a spare CPU fan.
 
a new mobo and duron would be nice, but then you need to look at ram and you will spend more
what will your bios handle?$86
 
you're really on a tight budget eh.

If you can, save up a bit of money and get yourself a PIII and a slotket. I'm sure you can find what you need from the for sale/trade forum. I see slotkets and PIII's go through there all the time. If you get a duron and a new mobo, you'll probably need new ram, because your ram might not do 133 which is what any current SDram based mobo runs at. Then again, you might need DDR too .. so your most budget oriented solution would be a PIII or a celeron, depending on prices.

Which board is it that you have?
 
On my last system I had a 533A @ 900mhz Celeron fc-pga with MSi slocket. When I first had built it, the machine had a 450mhz. The performance jump from 450 to 900mhz was really noticable. You should be easily able to get a fcpga c2 and slocket for under $80
 
The easy way out is a 1gig fcpga celeron and slotket, provided your board/bios will support it. You want the 128K cache, coppermine based celeron, not the 256K Tualatin based model. The generic "super slotket III" works fine if you're not overclocking, sometimes the high end slotkets w/ voltage adj will allow cellys to work when they otherwise wouldn't, though. The whole package- cpu, slotket, hsf, shipping should come in under $100. Check pricewatch, and reselleratings, of course.

Don't buy a 133fsb P3- not a good match for a BX board......
 
Thanks! Great suggestions. To answer some questions above, I have a Gainward 6IBA motherboard with PC133 SDRAM. The board will do 50, 66, 75, 83, 100, 112, and 133 MHz and up to 8x multiplier, so bus speed and memory speed should not be issues (as long as I don't need to switch to DDR RAM). My leaning is toward overclocking a Celeron or PIII, though the Duron seems like a real bargain (but would require a new motherboard as well). Any other suggestions for specific chips with good overclockability? Suggestions for good heat sinks, fans, and thermal paste also would be great. Thanks again!


P.S. - I see on PriceWatch I can get a Celeron 533 PPGA for about $37 shipped, or a Celeron 733 FCPGA for $55 shipped. I think I saw a PIII 667 on the FS/FT forum for $65 shipped as well. Any comments on which would be better? Do you think I could overclock the 667 or 733 to 1000? For what it's worth, I have a small fan (probably 80 or 90 mm) in front drawing in air, a fan on the power supply above the processor drawing out warm air, and a large fan (probably 120 mm) in back pulling out warm air.
 
Dont get a 533 PPGA, its not Coppermine. If you go 533. get the 533A FCPGA. I'd get a retail C900 - C1000, a slocket and overclock it with a 112 FSB.
 
Once again oldfart offers the best advice. I agree completely. I'd also suggest an MSI 6905 ver. 2.3 slotket from ElectricLegs in the F/S forum:
MSI 6905 slotkets

Hopefully he still has a few left for ya 🙂
 
<< I'd get a retail C900 - C1000, a slocket and overclock it with a 112 FSB. >>

One problem -- I think the highest multiplier available on the board is 8 (at least that's the highest I can identify -- the manual actually says it is 6 but the website shows settings up to 8). So, if I am going to get in the GHz range, I figure I am going to have to get something that will use a 133 MHz bus. The ideal solution might be a Celeron on a 133MHz bus operating by default in the 800MHz range. Is there such a thing?

Any suggestions for cooling?
 
Dont worry about the mulitiplier. Its locked on the CPU, so you can't set it anyway. There is no such thing as a 133 FSB Celeron. Celeron 766 and below are 66 FSB, 800 and above are 100 FSB. Some can be overclocked to a 133 FSB, but you are taking your chances.
 
Oldfart speakth the truth..... I currently have one machine running an older BX based board (BH6) that officially only supports up to a 700MHz processor, running with a 900MHz celeron. Get a good adapter (like the one linked in this thread) and get a faster celeron, just make sure its not a .13 micron Tualatin based Celeron (designated by an 'A' or 256K level 2 cache) and enjoy the cheap upgrade.


Dave

Edit: I must say I am enjoying my new 'Golden Member' status.... who sent the stripper and the champagne...? 🙂
 
Giving oldfart a chance to hit 5,000:

So if I understand correctly --

(1) I want a 533A if I get a C533, but I do not want the "A" if I get a C700 or above?
(2) Also, assuming I get a C900, it is 100 x 9 multiplier, and my board with jumper positions that go to 8 probably will run it at 112 x 9 = 1008MHz?
(3) Since we're "only" talking about a 12% overclock, do I need anything special such as a slocket that allows vcore adjustments or a quality HS/F (as opposed to a generic HS/F)?

Also --

(4) Does the 112MHz bus do anything bad to my PCI or AGP cards?
(5) Finally, can I change the multiplier if I go with a P3? I guess I didn't keep up with the locked multiplier stuff since my old CPU is a PII and my new CPU is an Athlon.

Sorry for all the questions. I guess my understanding of this stuff was not complete. I am glad I asked and glad to have such experts willing to share their knowledge. Thanks everyone!
 


<< (1) I want a 533A if I get a C533, but I do not want the "A" if I get a C700 or above? >>


Intel usually uses the 'A' designation to designate differences between two processors of the same speed with different physical qualities....
With the 533, it was the end of the line for the .25 micron family of celerons and the begining the of the .18 micron family with a lower voltage requirement, and thus for the most part was not compatible with the older line, hence the 'A' designation. No other celeron between 566(?) and 900MHz had it. Another way to tell the two 533 parts apart is the older style has a PPGA designation and the newer one is FC-PGA. The 'A' desination again made a reappearance with the 1.0g and 1.1g celerons, as the speed is offered in both the older family which was .18 micron and 128k L2 cache, and the newer tualatin celerons based on a .13 micron process and 256k L2 Cache.



<< (2) Also, assuming I get a C900, it is 100 x 9 multiplier, and my board with jumper positions that go to 8 probably will run it at 112 x 9 = 1008MHz? >>


Yes, if you have your FSB set at 112, and the processor itself is capable of the overclock....



<< (3) Since we're "only" talking about a 12% overclock, do I need anything special such as a slocket that allows vcore adjustments or a quality HS/F (as opposed to a generic HS/F)? >>


As far as the slocket goes, you will need one that supports coppermine or FCPGA... and it should have the ability to adjust the voltage signal. I recommend a name brand slocket adapter if you can find one. They have become quite difficult to find, and the ones electric legs have for sale are along the lines of what you want. Generic HS/F should be fine.



<< (4) Does the 112MHz bus do anything bad to my PCI or AGP cards? >>


This will throw both the PCI and the AGP frequency out of spec... I would think it wouldn't be a problem though...



<< (5) Finally, can I change the multiplier if I go with a P3? I guess I didn't keep up with the locked multiplier stuff since my old CPU is a PII and my new CPU is an Athlon. >>


I don't believe there is a way.... but I may be wrong...

Someone please correct me if I am wrong on some of these points, most of this stuff I only casually follow and I might be off...

Dave
 
Get a retail box CPU. The included factory HS/Fan is very good. It is all you need. 112 FSB = 37.3 MHz PCI, 74 Mhz AGP. A little out of spec, but wont cause a problem. One thing is I have never worked with that board. Sometimes they can be funny. I know this setup works fine on Abit, Asus, and many other boards, but never tried that one. It has a lot of FSB settings, so it appears to be overclocking friendly. What Vcore settings does it have?
 
<< What Vcore settings does it have? >>

I am pretty sure vcore is adjustable but I am not sure what settings it has and don't have access to the machine now or this evening. This all sounds like a reasonable way to go, though. Is there anything wrong with this slocket for $12 shipped? Also, this page on NewEgg lists a C900 for $62 plus $7 shipping. Right below it is a Celeron 1 GHz "A" designation for $1 more. People are saying not to get this "A" version even though it has a larger cache. I am curious why. It seems to me the larger cache would be helpful and the potential for overclocking would be greater. I could probably run it without an overclock and it would be faster than the overclocked C900. Thoughts?
 
"A" version is a Tualatin. You cant use it in your setup. You have to use the Coppermine 128K flavor. They also have the 1.0 Coppermine version for $70, the 950 for $65. All are retail.
 
"A" version is a Tualatin. You cant use it in your setup. You have to use the Coppermine 128K flavor. They also have the 1.0 Coppermine version for $70, the 950 for $65. All are retail.
 
Just curious why the Tualatin won't work.

Coming back around to Jhhnn's original recommendation (but now with a much greater understanding), is there any reason why the retail 1.1GHz Coppermine wouldn't work? An extra 200 MHz (potentially 224 overclocked) for $8 is tempting.
 
Tualatin uses different voltages and pin config that a normal slocket doesn't support. A 1.1 Celeron would probably work just fine. 112 FSB would be 1232 MHz. That may be getting close. ~ 1200 is usually where Coppermines top out depending if you get a good chip or not. One of the kids PC's is a BH6 with a C1000 @ 1120. Runs pretty nice.
 
Like Oldfart said, yeh. Be sure that your board's bios can be updated to accept fcpga celerons before you spend any money. Issues of voltage detection can get tricky with some boards, so if there's any doubt get the recommended msi slotket- some boards will require the voltage be set manually to 1.8v, not possible with some of the generic slotkets.

I think that one of the faq's from Andy Hui about Asus boards deals with this, can't seem to find it at the moment....
 
I am not sure whether the board will be able to detect the correct voltage. If I can set vcore to 1.8V in the bios does it matter what slocket I get?
 
I have really learned a lot in this thread. Thanks everyone for your help and time. I think I have settled on a Celeron 1.0 GHz or 1.1 GHz and a slocket. I have not yet settled on the type of slocket.

In case others are reading this thread and are curious, there are two good FAQs that explain some of the unanswered questions (and some of the answered questions, too 😱). They are:

What is the fastest processor I can use on an ASUS Slot 1 motherboard?

and

Are Tualatins compatible with my motherboard?

Also, there is a solution to running a Tualatin on a Slot 1 motherboard, but it's a little pricey. Check out http://www.powerleap.com/.

Thanks again Anandtech'ers!
 
yeah you should really consider that powerleap tualatin adapter if you are a gamer or need lotsa power, almost the 1.0A celerons run at 1333 (mine runs at 1400) and they are a very good chip. ( i get 5000+ in 3dmark 2001 with a geforce 2 ti)

On my slot 1 board i had a celeron 566@850 on a slocket, it was 100% stable, and on my new board i had it up to 1046. All for $35!

Personally i would go for a coppermine cele and overclock it till it wont go any further, theyre so cheap its silly. I have seen lots of cele 900 @ 1200 etc. That will be enough for most applications by far. It all comes down to how much cash you want to spend.

~ShiFty out~
 
Oldfart had a good suggestion. However, you said your motherboard and Ram supported a 133MHz fsb speed. I would get a slocket and a Celeron 800. It is almost a sure overclock to a 133MHz fsb everytime. This will give you 1066MHz on a 133MHz fsb which will give you a noticable boost over a 1GHz Celeron at 1120MHz on a 112MHz fsb. Make sure you get a slocket that allows core voltage adjustments if your motherboard doesn't offer this. The 800 is as good at hitting a 133MHz fsb as the old 533a and 566 were at hitting 100MHz.
 
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