Need a PIII

Okay not really sure if this should go in here or in the motherboard section.

Currently have an ABit BX-133 Raid with a Celeron 900. Had it overclocked to about 1113 but have been running it at 900 for awhile now. Anyway I wanted to upgrade a bit but I just don't have the money for a motherboard and processor so I was just looking to see what else I could toss onto the motherboard.

Went to Abit's site and waded through their broken english. The latest bios they have for that board states it offers support for Celeron/PIII's up to 1.1ghz but not the Tulatins. It also has in parenthesis 100 which I assume they are saying 100 FSB. Looked at the FAQ for the board and there is a question in there about not being able to run stable at 133 FSB.

I've checked on pricewatch and first thing is I can't find a PIII 1.1ghz that isn't a Tulatin. I also can't find a PIII 1ghz that runs at 100 FSB that is Socket 370. I did see one that was 1ghz 100FSB but it was slot 1 which I don't have.

Starting to think this should have gone into the motherboard section since I guess I'm asking if anyone has a clue what to get for this board. Basically I'd want the fastest available PIII that will go on the Abit BX-133 Raid.

I'm happy with the Celeron 900 really but according to the Everquest II information, they say you'll need a minimum of a PIII and a Geforce III card. Now I know many people manage to run games below minimum specs but I don't want to go out and get the game when it comes out only to find out I can't play it right then because of my cpu.

Thanks for any help you could offer.

I'd try to play the game first if I were you. I doubt you'd see much of a difference between those 2 CPUs. If you're low on cash you might want to check out a 1600+ which usually hit about 1.8 GHz. The chip itself is $50, and you can get a board for around the same price. That would kick the sheet out of a P3, for around the same price as a P3 chip. If you don't like AMD, then I'd say wait until you can afford a P4.

try getting a tualatin celeron working on that board. newegg has a 1.2 for about $55. It will hit around 1.6g.

Is that one of the few socket 370 BX boards? If it is a slot 1 you could do the mod to support the tualatin. You could get a Powerleap adapter. My advise is to forget about getting a P-III Coppermine, unless you find one dirt cheap or free. There isn't enough of a performance gain to make it worth your while. I'd run that Celly 900 at 112 FSB to pop you over 1 gig and call it good until you can afford a better system. For gaming, if you're on a tight budget, your money is better spent buying a good vid card and making sure you have plenty of RAM.

Everquest 2? Bah

Seriously though if your planning to play that game you have loads of time before it comes out, so quit worrying. By that time you will be able to pick up a cheaper card which performs better than a GF3, and you may even find a really good computer for good cash.

First of all I want to apologize for posting this at all. The format of the board had changed since I had last used it and I had been unable to find any info to help me out so I posted. I then searched around a bit more and found several posts basically asking the exact same question of what was the biggest fastest you could put on that specific board. But thanks for the help guys.

Yes I realize EQ II doesn't come out for a long time. I just hate to keep redoing my computer over and over again and it gets expensive. After I built my last computer, I purposely stopped coming to this board and searching around on the internet about computers because it was basically costing me to much money. I'd get something up and running and then decide I wanted the next best thing. That's kind of why I just want to stick with the motherboard. Sure I can go out and get a new motherboard and cpu but then it's time to get new RAM probably. And of course if I get a much faster processor then I have to get a new fan and heatsink to keep it cool. The stuff just builds up.

The reason I was looking for the PIII instead of just sticking with or getting a slightly faster Celeron was basically because 1gig Celeron vs 1gig PIII I figure the PIII is still basically the better chip. Granted I'd pay double for it but heck when I got my Celeron 900 I payed almost 100 dollars for it so now a 1gig PIII for 100 dollars doesn't sound so bad. And of course even if the Celeron would play EQ II or other games that say you need a PIII, I still might be missing out on a bit of performance that I could have easily gained. Not sure if many of you play Dark Age of Camelot, but if you do then I'm sure you know what happens when you get lots of toons in a small amount of space. Everything goes crappy. Now if just moving from my Celeron to a PIII would fix that then I'd jump right on it. In DAoC's case, that won't fix it, but I might as well try to avoid any problems in the future with the upgrade. Might help and might not but at least I tried. Another reason for the PIII is because from what I've heard, you really don't get as much of a performance gain by going to a Geforce III card if you are using just a Celeron as you would if you had a PIII or P4(maybe it was just the P4) I'd heard this about.

Oh well. Enough of my rambling. Thanks for the responses guys. Waiting isn't a problem for me right now, but I just don't think I'll be switching out a perfectly good mobo for another one. I'd end up spending more money to get a new case and whatnot so I still use the old mobo and then I'd have 3 computers sitting around me.

Oh and someone mentioned something about the Slot 1 board, well the BX-133 is a Socket 370. My old BE6-II that I have running a celeron 700 is a slot 1. I figured I'd just get a PIII and then move the 900 down to the BE6-II assuming it would recognize the 900. I'd then take the 700 and put it in my son's computer that I built for him that has a Celeron 500 in it. No clue what I'd do with the old 500.

typhoonmike said:

First of all I want to apologize for posting this at all. The format of the board had changed since I had last used it and I had been unable to find any info to help me out so I posted. I then searched around a bit more and found several posts basically asking the exact same question of what was the biggest fastest you could put on that specific board. But thanks for the help guys.

Yes I realize EQ II doesn't come out for a long time. I just hate to keep redoing my computer over and over again and it gets expensive. After I built my last computer, I purposely stopped coming to this board and searching around on the internet about computers because it was basically costing me to much money. I'd get something up and running and then decide I wanted the next best thing. That's kind of why I just want to stick with the motherboard. Sure I can go out and get a new motherboard and cpu but then it's time to get new RAM probably. And of course if I get a much faster processor then I have to get a new fan and heatsink to keep it cool. The stuff just builds up.

The reason I was looking for the PIII instead of just sticking with or getting a slightly faster Celeron was basically because 1gig Celeron vs 1gig PIII I figure the PIII is still basically the better chip. Granted I'd pay double for it but heck when I got my Celeron 900 I payed almost 100 dollars for it so now a 1gig PIII for 100 dollars doesn't sound so bad. And of course even if the Celeron would play EQ II or other games that say you need a PIII, I still might be missing out on a bit of performance that I could have easily gained. Not sure if many of you play Dark Age of Camelot, but if you do then I'm sure you know what happens when you get lots of toons in a small amount of space. Everything goes crappy. Now if just moving from my Celeron to a PIII would fix that then I'd jump right on it. In DAoC's case, that won't fix it, but I might as well try to avoid any problems in the future with the upgrade. Might help and might not but at least I tried. Another reason for the PIII is because from what I've heard, you really don't get as much of a performance gain by going to a Geforce III card if you are using just a Celeron as you would if you had a PIII or P4(maybe it was just the P4) I'd heard this about.

Oh well. Enough of my rambling. Thanks for the responses guys. Waiting isn't a problem for me right now, but I just don't think I'll be switching out a perfectly good mobo for another one. I'd end up spending more money to get a new case and whatnot so I still use the old mobo and then I'd have 3 computers sitting around me.

Oh and someone mentioned something about the Slot 1 board, well the BX-133 is a Socket 370. My old BE6-II that I have running a celeron 700 is a slot 1. I figured I'd just get a PIII and then move the 900 down to the BE6-II assuming it would recognize the 900. I'd then take the 700 and put it in my son's computer that I built for him that has a Celeron 500 in it. No clue what I'd do with the old 500.

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Yea you should wait. Unless of course, you have $168 to spend just on a PIII 1.1GHz here. The perfomance gain is definately not worth the price.

Another option for you is to get the powerleap socket adapter w/1.2 Cel-T in it for $149. Sounds a little expensive, but you don't have to upgrade anything else in your rig and they show success with the BX133 and a Celeron 1.4 on their compatibility page.

Just a thought for you.