Athlon Xp on 100 Mhz mobo's [Archive]

View Full Version : Athlon Xp on 100 Mhz mobo's

Ferg

10-12-01, 08:51 PM

I have an old Abit KT7 that only has a 100 Mhz fsb. Since the XP is locked and it seems that it will be very hard to unlock am i just gonna to be running this thing even lower speed than it already is?

Ferg

10-13-01, 05:38 PM

bump

Angry

10-14-01, 01:47 AM

i would just get a DDR board, the Athlon XP is NOT made for Sdram, its data prefetch is made for DDR i belive. no point in underclocking a XP and Abit probably will not makea BIOS to support it

Ferg

10-14-01, 09:37 AM

why should i waste $150 on a motherboard and ram when i dont neccisarily have to. Its not like it will give me a large difference in performance. Certainly not one worth $150 and many hours of my time setting up. If there is a way to put a Athlon XP in an Abit KT7 without underclocking it then im gonna figure it out.

Fanman

10-14-01, 07:30 PM

You're going to need a new mobo if you want to run an XP, because the KT7 (regular flavor) does NOT support it.

It's still in doubt if the KT7A supports it either.

Go out and get one of those pimpin new Epox KT266A mobos (forget the name).

Then slap an XP into 'er

Ferg

10-14-01, 08:31 PM

what about the KT7 does not support it? Other than the frequency, but i can fix that as long as i can unlock it. I just hate the philosphy that most overclockers have. If it doesnt work then throw some money at it until it does.

minoukat

10-14-01, 08:50 PM

Even if they use the same socket A, the pin assignment is different : the AthlonXP has some new pin assignments, like for the thermal diode, and other stuff. If they don't put out a new bios update, you won't be able to run this baby on it.

nihili

10-14-01, 09:02 PM

Originally posted by Ferg
why should i waste $150 on a motherboard and ram when i dont neccisarily have to. Its not like it will give me a large difference in performance. Certainly not one worth $150 and many hours of my time setting up. If there is a way to put a Athlon XP in an Abit KT7 without underclocking it then im gonna figure it out.

DDR boards can be had for as low as 55 or 60 bucks. 256 meg of DDR ram is 33. Good ones can be had for 90. I'm a novice and I could swap out a mobo in less than an hour and have the new machine up and running. The bus speed is far more important than the clock speed, so even if you don't underclock the XP in terms of mhz, you'll have hamstrung it in terms of performance. If that's what you want, you should have gotten Intel. ;)

Seriously. If you've got an XP, you should be looking towards a mobo and ram upgrade as the next thing. Sure, you can run it on your current system until then, but it will always be underclocked, even if you get the mhz up.

nihili

Winterhawk

10-14-01, 09:35 PM

'Nother ultra newbie wandering in.. Well.. haven't checked on the Abit bios situation, so wish you luck with that..., but we're going the same route with an original Asus A7V.. the newer bios support the palomino core, and it's been tried with some success already (http://www.a7vtroubleshooting.com/articles/palomino/index.htm). We have an XP1600+ and a Swiftech MCX370 on the way (and the requisite arctic silver II..)- even locked, it'll scoot along at 10.5 X 109 for 2 or 3 months till they work out the bugs in the 266A boards- and that's gonna feel pretty sweet compared to our old 650 duron..

Winterhawk

10-15-01, 12:23 AM

Hmm.. ah.. er.. well, don't shoot the messenger...
Just found this on Abit's site (http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/faq/qa/2001/2001101201.htm):
Statement:
ABIT KG7 / KG7-RAID mainboard is hardware compatible (ready)
and can support AMD Athlon XP processor via BIOS update.
ABIT KT7A / KT7A-RAID V1.3 mainboard is hardware compatible
(ready) and can support AMD Athlon XP processor via BIOS update.
ABIT KT7 / KT7-RAID / KT7E all version and KT7A/KT7A-RAID V1.0/1.1/1.2
cannot support AMD Athlon XP processor.

ABIT has release BIOS for KG7 and KT7A V1.3 to patch
the CPU model name. If user did not upgrade to the latest bios,
users can also manually set the suitable working frequency for
AMD Athlon XP processors in SoftMenu BIOS.
As for KT7 and KT7A old version mainboards, which launched earlier
than AMD Athlon XP processors, they are not hardware compatible
with new CPU.

Life's like that sometimes..

:(

wild_andy_c

10-15-01, 02:04 AM

stompah

10-15-01, 02:28 AM

WHy waste more than that amout on a CPU that will never reach its potential?Originally posted by Ferg
why should i waste $150 on a motherboard and ram when i dont neccisarily have to. Its not like it will give me a large difference in performance. Certainly not one worth $150 and many hours of my time setting up. If there is a way to put a Athlon XP in an Abit KT7 without underclocking it then im gonna figure it out.

If keeping the same board is an issue go out and buy a 1.4athlon for less than $110(note that was the price 2 weeks ago) It will gain the same performance that you would gain with the XP since you would be bottlenecking the CPU via the FSB.

If you had plans on the 1.53XP but definitely do not wanna buy a new MB you money would be better spent on a 1.4g Athlon, ECS DDR board and some Crucial DDR RAM. Total price on said products are about $200 without shipping. Much less than the 1.53XP and likely quicker than the 100fsb board/XP combo.

Now if you have burned your AMD chip and want to buy the XP and plan to upgrade the MB later I suggest you buy a duron. It will have the 100fsb and be more than adequate for computing needs. With the little price you pay for the duron you can have your system up and running. While you wait for finances/time the XP price will have dropped dramatically. Allowing you to buy the XP , MB and RAM. And even save $ after you consider the price of the 'holdover' duron.

Good Luck

Angry

10-15-01, 06:18 AM

Man we realize you like that board, but come on it the company that orginaly made it doesnt support it then what makes you think you can get it to work?
I have a Kt7A my self what version I have no idea, but I am building a Epox 8KHA+ system with a thunderbird. Then when prices for XP come down im getting one and building another system based on the Kt7A because i really liked the board and feel that it can still be a good midrange level board now in terms of performance. But hey 2 DDR and 2 Sdram setups? I cant wait...
Also..with an XP processor it has been proven, you WILL see a large difference in performance with DDR memory.

SickBoy

10-15-01, 11:40 AM

Well, you're never going to have "official" AXP support on the KT7. If you can manage to get it unlocked, it will probably work. Keep in mind though, the BIOS will see it just as a regular Athlon and not a AXP, hence you won't have SSE.

Performance issues aside, I bet you can make it work with the newest KT7/KT7A bios from Abit.

But honestly, these other guys are right. Putting a capable CPU on a board that cannot take advantage of it seems kinda pointless. Platforms have a useful, supported life and the KT133 platform has seen its practical life as a high performance platform disappear. If you honestly can't afford the $95 for a good KT266A motherboard (AK31A), consider this: say you drink two 20 oz bottles of Mountain Dew every day at work or during class or whatever. Give it up for a month, drink water instead. Put those $2/day in a jar and label it "New Mobo". After a month and a half you've got enough cash for that mobo. And for that month and a half, overclock every little bit out of your old system. And be happy. In that month and a half, the price of AXP's will come down as well, making the whole proposition that much cheaper.

SickBoy

Angry

10-15-01, 03:12 PM

Now this guy knows what he talking about ^^^^^
That aside if you get a new board or XP, I wish you good luck with that setup...I currently have 3 1ghz setups in the process...building up budget...

Ferg

10-15-01, 07:49 PM

Originally posted by SickBoy
If you honestly can't afford the $95 for a good KT266A motherboard (AK31A), consider this: say you drink two 20 oz bottles of Mountain Dew every day at work or during class or whatever. Give it up for a month, drink water instead. Put those $2/day in a jar and label it "New Mobo". After a month and a half you've got enough cash for that mobo. And for that month and a halfSickBoy

Ill keep my mountain dew. I wasnt aware that the problem went beyond a bois update. Ill get a 1.33 AHJYA and save myself a lot of money. I dont need that much out of a computer anyway. I dont like to spend too much money on my computers so i only get a new motherboard every 2 to 4 years and then start with a slow processor and then get the fastest processor when I can. After that proccessor can no longer support my needs i get a new motherboard. Since I should be able to get a 1.6 Ghz out of the 1.33 AHJYA then that will hold me for at least another year and prolly 2.

SickBoy

10-15-01, 11:00 PM

You only get up to x14 multipliers on the new bios

So you're looking at 1.54 GHz max, assuming you can get an extra 10 MHz on the fsb, which is par for KT133

Ferg

10-16-01, 06:55 PM

I can get 115 on the fsb but i usually run it at 107 for increases stability. your assuming that a newer bois wont come out that will allow me to use the higher multiper. Anyways 1.5 Ghz is pretty blazin, I dont need anything better than that. And what about an MP could i use one of them on a KT7?

minoukat

10-16-01, 08:38 PM

I don't think that'll change anything ! Both AthlonMP and AthlonXP have the same core (palomino), so if one board doesn't support one processor, I don't see why it would support another one that has the same core

funnyperson1

10-16-01, 08:59 PM

get an ECSK7S5A its only 60 bucks and from what ive seen is a nice board....

Ferg

10-16-01, 10:07 PM

maybe its a nice board for ECS but its def. not near Abit quality. Then i still have to upgrade to DDR memory. Im gonna have to upgrade to a better HSF anyways, prolly an Alpha 8045 so thats $50 with fan and then the processor. It all adds up. If I wait a couple months I get a 1.33 AHJYA and Alpha 8045 for not much more than $100, thats value.