P-3 650EB with pc 100 ram

[GPo]

Does anyone know if there would be a problem
running a P3 - 650EB 133 bus CPU with PC 100 ram. Does the 133 CPU reffer to a option of the CPU running at the 133 bus, or does it have to run at 133 to reach the 650 speed ?
GPo

[krusty the klown]

The '133' is the front side bus (FSB). The memory usually runs at the FSB speed. On some mobos, you can run the memory clock at FSB speed - PCI speed, so for example, you could run a 133MHz FSB and clock the memory at 100MHz. This is useful if you have PC100 memory and want to run a 133MHz FSB and you don't want to ditch the memory.

Some PC100 memory will run at 133MHz - try it and see! To achieve this, you may have to run the memory at CAS3, not CAS2 and/or set the memory timings to 'normal', not 'fast'.

I know that VIA133 chipsets have the FSB-PCI option (e.g. Soyo SY-6VBA 133). I'm not sure about the BX boards.

Are you considering buying a P3? Do you want to overclock?? If so, get the P3 600E, which are designed to run at 100MHz FSB. To overclock, run the FSB at 133MHz and the fixed 6X multiplier will give you 800MHz and a big smile on your face http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[GPo]

Thanks Krusty,
I'll check the soft menue on my BH6 to see if I can set the memory to 100 and the bus to 133, I don't recall this option, but I'll see. Haven't picked up my new cpu yet, still running my Cel 300A.
GPo

[krusty the klown]

I'm sure there are plenty of people with BH6 boards that will be able to help you out.

It might be worth asking in the OC and CPU forum whether anyone's run a P3 in that board and what there experiences were.

[AuraEdge]

Socal will move this when she sees it, but I'll continue to respond;

The 600e will have no problem at default speed, but say a 600EB or 667B or any B processor will have major problems at default.

The BH6 is a BX board, and the memory on that board must run synchronous with the FSB.
You should, under no circumstance with your current hardware, get a PentiumIII B processor, because chances are it wont even boot with it in. I would suggest getting a Celeron2, Because your speed cap is at 100Mhz FSB.

The Celeron2s come default at 66Mhz (say the 533a and 566), and can easily clock to 100Mhz FSB about 100% of the time. That means you can have a nice 800Mhz or 850Mhz Celeron 2 processor for about half the price of the Pentium 3 600e.

If you get the Pentium 3, chances are you wont be able to overclock at all, because it comes default at 100Mhz FSB, which is your top speed because of your RAM.

In your case, I would have to strongly recommend a FCPGA Celeron 2 and a 'slocket' adapter for your board that will make it accept FCPGA processors.

[krusty the klown]

Yep, that's got my vote!

You could get the celeron2 533 / 566, run it at 100MHz to give 800+MHz and save a bit of cash http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[GPo]

Thanks people.
I hear that the L2 cache is not the most desireable in the Cel 11's, but only noticeable in some very large applications.

GPo

[krusty the klown]

The celerys have 128k of on-die (i.e. running at core speed) L2 cache. The coppermine P3's have 256k. As you say, only certain apps will suffer with the smaller cache (some business apps and CAD, that sort of stuff - so I've read on this 4rum!).

Remember when the celeron A chips came out, with their 128k of full speed L2 cache?? Almost all benchmarks placed them within 5% of the P2 with 512k of off-die half speed cache (when comparing a P2 450 with an OCd cel 300A @ 450MHz).

The things that made the celery 300A such a sweet little chip was that most could hit 450MHz, they were cheap and you could get the performance of an expensive P2 450.

Just something else to consider B4 parting with your hard-earned!

[Roy]

You might get some insight from my "Intel's Little Secret" thread in Overclocking & CPUs. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum3/HTML/006932.html

The same info applies to the FCPGA family.

[This message has been edited by Roy (edited 06-08-2000).]

[BBA]

GPo...

I ran a P3 600/100 FC-PGA at 800/133 on my BH6 rev 1.1 for a long time...no problem at all!

My BH6 Rev 1.0 did not like 133 at all either...so it depends on which BH6 you have.

Now...on to the second thing...there is no 650EB processor. The EB designates a 133MHz FSB CPU, of which 650 is not a valid frequency. ( could you mean 667? )

Anyway, for the bucks and/if you do have the original BH6 R 1.0. go for the celery-2, but if it's a rev 1.1 board, go for the P3...because the P3 at 133MHz FSB has a kick **** memory bandwidth! ( and the 133MHz on a BX chipset blows any AMD memory performance away...big time ).

So, find what rev BH6 you have!

The easy way is to look in bios for how many FSB selections you have...the rev 1.1 goes up to 155MHz available and the rev 1.0 only goes to 133 ( it has a sucky 1/3 PCI ratio, where the 1.1 has a 1/3 and 1/4 ratio)


[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 06-08-2000).]