CPU Upgrade Question

[Alakath]

Hello everyone... In my search for information on upgrading my CPU I stumbled across several conflicting stories on exactly how much I can upgrade my CPU. First, my system stats.

CPU= Pentium II 400
BIOS= Phoenix 4.0 Release 6.0 03/26/98
Motherboard= Intel 440BX
RAM= 192MB PC100
Video Card= ATI Radeon 64MB VIVO DDR
Sound Card= SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold
Network Card, 32x CD-ROM, 4x4x32x CD-RW, 56k Modem, etc.

Now, according to Micron (My system manufacturer), the most I can upgrade to seems to be a Pentium III 450, which seems hardly worth my time. According to Evergreen Technologies, I should be able to upgrade up to their PerformaIII 850 processor which is a Pentium III 850 on a Slotket (it looks like an IWill, but I'm not sure). Since Pentium IIIs are clock-locked, it seems to me like I could just slap in a Pentium III 800E 100mhz FSB and it'd work just fine, especially since a Pentium III 850 on a Slotket should work. It seems that I should be able to buy any 100mhz FSB Pentium processor and just stick it in (with or without a slotket adaptor, depending on the model) and not have any problems. Does anyone have any clue as to what the fastest processor that I can get that will work with all of my other system components is?

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Alakath

[fshanda]

I believe Evergreen is using the fcpga chip on a slotket so that the voltage to the processor can be reduced. Your board probably dosn't support voltages low enough for an 850 mHz P3. The slotket should have voltage adjustments and fsb adjustments using jumpers. I have an abit slotket3 and it has the jumpers on the card. If you just slap in a P3 slot 1 processor you will only be able to adjust the voltage on the board which probably dosn't go down to 1.65v. Get a slotket and an fcpga chip, later if you want to upgrade your board you can get a socket 370 board. Good luck with the upgrade.

Fshanda

[EastSt]

If I'm reading your system correctly, the BIOS is 3 years old. Often when you update the BIOS, you also get support for faster CPUs. Being an Intel mobo this might not be applicable, but its worth a trip to Intel site and see if they got.

[Szech]

I have a 440BX motherboard, and I used to have a PII 400 in it. When it wasn't hacking it anymore, I got an Abit Slotket !!!, and a Celeron 566, and it's running happy at 850. The only thing, is that my motherboard won't do any voltage lower than 1.8, so I am feeding it more volts than specification. Of course, with good cooling, this shouldn't be a problem at all.

[ewoliver]

I am going through a similar situation at the moment...I have a similar machine: P2, SE440bx-2 intel mobo. the only sure way to find out which chip you can upgrade to, is by locating the "fcc" number on the back of the motherboard (assuming that it's an Intel motherboard), go to intel's site and plug it in. I havent done it yet so i dont have any advice on that part http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif(

I do however know, that on the intel site, there is usually a page that shows upgrades for particular boards...this can be misleading. since there are numerous versions of the actually board itself, the only way to be sure is to match the fcc number up. Micron does not keep them on file either http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif( .....