This is probably going to sound dumb, but I've been all over CPU sites and can't figure it out. When a company lists the FSB MHz is that the base figure you start with or is that the max you can over clock it to? I'm trying to figure it out because I want to get an inexpensive upgrade (AMD Athlon XP 2400) to my current CPU (AMD Athlon XP 1200) and my motherboard supports up to 266MHz FSB. I don't want to mess with trying to over clock a CPU up to 266MHz and would rather just get the best CPU my motherboard can support. The easiest thing to do would be to upgrade the motherboard, but then I'd also have to buy DDR ram in addition to a motherboard and CPU. I know, I know, I'm a cheap bastard, but all I really want to do is upgrade my CPU. Any suggestions? Thanks.
The FSB is the stock speed for the CPU to run at. If you go lower than that you're underclocking the CPU, unless you adjust the CPU's muliplier (which are locked nowadays) appropriately. Here's the other thing: AMD bases their FSB on a DDR eqivalent when they put it up, and this does get confusing. The parallels are like this: 100=200, 133=266, 166=333, 200=400. The problem you might run into is that the motherboard may not be equipped to deal with a newer CPU, like the XP2400+. It may not correctly recognize the CPU, even with a new BIOS. Sometimes the system will boot fine, but just tell you it can't reconize the CPU. In other cases, the system won't be able to boot at all. There's also the ability of a motherboard to supply the correct voltage to the CPU. As the CPU cores have progressed, using less and less voltage is one thing we see.
Regarding your new processor, you say you do not have DDR ram, well being perfectly honest (whilst trying not to sound like I'm a little rich geek) I would buy a new motherboard that supports DDR and get some DDR memory. a basic (but very good) motherboard would be a motherboard such as a: Abit VA-20 Micro ATX (Socket A) Motherboard - £38.00 Including Vat (this supports upto 400mhz fsb so u could go upto a 3200+ Athlon) or Asus A7V600-X (Socket A) Motherboard - £36 Including Vat (also supports 400mhz fsb, Onboard 6 channel Dolby sound card, onboard 10/100mbps network card and supports Raid - again you could upgrade to 3200+) Memory wise: GeIL 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 = £57 Includnig Vat Or Corsair 512MB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit = £59 Including Vat I suggest you get PC3200 memory (if u go for a new board) as it runs at 400mhz max (without overclocking) so you could run a 200mhz FSB cpu (ie: 3000+ or 3200+ Athlon XP CPU's. Hope this helps
Sometimes the mobo won't be able to supply enough power to the cpu. Mobos for the current AXPs have a separate power socket on the mobo for the cpu. The older athlon-based mobos won't always have them ie. Duron/lower athlons.
Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to get away with just the cost of a procesor, but oh well. I finally found the specs for my motherboard here: http://www.j-mark.com/PRODUCT/mb/830cf.html According to the manufacturer, it can support Socket-A for AMD Athlon/Duron uni-processor at 200/266MHz Front Side Bus with double data rate. But then one of their support pages with BOIS updates lists these stats, so I think I understand what Big B meant about AMD and the DDR equivalent: http://www.j-mark.com/support/support.html _________________________________________________________________ Model#.........CPU..........AMD Athlon..........AMD Athlon..........AMD Duron ...................BIOS........133MHz FSB.........100MHz FSB.........100MHz FSB _________________________________________________________________ 830 CF/CH.....A06..........Up to 1.4GHz........Up to 1.4GHz........Up to 850MHz _________________________________________________________________ 830 CF/CH Rev 3.0.........A06..........Athlon XP 2200+....Up to 1.4GHz........Up to 1.3GHz _________________________________________________________________ 830 CF/CH Rev 2.0.........A06..........Athlon XP 2200+....Up to 1.4GHz........Up to 1.3GHz _________________________________________________________________ Unfortunately, I'm not sure how current this info is since at yet another page http://www.j-mark.com/dl/dl.html#motherboard bios I was able to download BIOS version A10 and the version my board came with was A09, but they don't list stats for those, so I guess it's the same. Anyway, looks like it might be safer to just spend the money on a new mb, some ddr ram, and a cpu instead of plugging in a cpu that probably won't work with my system. Sorry about the long post. Just trying to learn the technichal aspects of building a system. The mechanical side is pretty straight forward. Thanks again for your help.
By the looks of things that motherboard be at the limits of the cpu you are thinking of getting.. In the US the boards i suggested will be cheaper.. I highly recommend that you get a board that supports upto 400mhz fsb Athlon XP (as the one's i suggested) Or: go for a: PCChips M848ALU (This supports 2xSDRAM and 2 x DDR Ram) and its around £20 including vat (which is about $34) and it supports upto 400mhz FSB.. the amount of money that board will cost u, u can pickup one that will support the best Athlon XP processor (3200+) for very VERY little extra.. Obviously it is your choice but i am trying to recommend this.. because in 1 - 3 years you should still be able to easily pickup Athlon XP CPU's (although mainly second hand).. worth while if u ask me..
All right guys you got me convinced to spend the money to do this right. It'll be cheaper in the long run anyway. Thanks for the tips. Time to surf for the best deals on parts. Newegg seems to be a popular site with the folks on these boards. Guess I'll start there. Just can't get used to how friendly these boards are. I guess I spend too much time on the SWG forums Thanks again all.
