Athlon XP2800+ Barton on a KT333 Dragon(Black)

From what I can tell the only reason the KT333 dragon can't run Barton chips is because of it's 266MHz fsb. Thus the 266MHz mobile Bartons should work. The problem here is that Soyo has the BIOS locked with a limit of a 12x multiplier. So if I were to get the XP2500+ with its unlocked multiplier I still couldn't overclock it. 12x133=1596 That is my current CPU speed. While the 512KB L2 cache might increase performance a little, it certainly wouldn't be worth the $80 or so the CPU upgrade would cost. I have also read that the mobile XPs default to a 7x multiplier when you first start out. So then you can manually adjust upward. That leads to my actual question. If I were to spend the money to buy an 2800+ mobile Barton, would it be any different? The thing is that if Soyo's website is correct and this board can handle a Thoroughbred 2600+ at 2.13GHz, then it should be able to run a Barton 2800+ at 2.08GHz. The multiplier in this case would be set by the CPU, I'd hope. The BIOS should recognize this, correct? The problem here is if the 2800+ defaults to 7x like the other mobile processors. Then it would be pointless to dish out the extra money. At around $122 for the upgrade right now I want to be sure it would work if I'm even going to consider it. What I can't help but wonder is if the information on Soyo's site is correct. Even if the documented 14x multiplier that they mention in their manual and on the website were available in the BIOS, I still couldn't manually set it high enough to run an XP2600. This would require a multiplier setting of 16. 16x133=2128 I'm just confused on this issue and would like it cleared up. If anyone could help me, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

You can change the multiplier range to 12-24 by using the wire mod trick in the sticky thread here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=279392

The mapping of multipliers may get a little weird; you might choose 10.5 and get 23 (etc) but it works. I'm doing it on this machine, a mobile Barton on a pretty old motherboard, Asus A7V133. Bartons are not even on the compatibility list for this mobo.

You might have to use jumpers to set the multi or you might see some other little bits of weirdness ... but it works.

PS The reason Barton chips are not supposed to work on this motherboard is that the FSB has this "L-C-L" signal which isn't guaranteed to be within the specs for the Barton ... but anyhow, if it takes a Thoroughbred your board should definitely be OK with a Barton.

Thanks. That moight work. I did read in that thread that the mod wasn't working on VIA chipsets. I also have read about some type of motherboard mod that allows for the KT333 chipset to run at 333MHz fsb. That would be a better upgrade actually. 12x166=1992 It would probabably give me better performance due to the increased fsb though than if I ran at 2.4GHz at a 133MHz bus rate. At least I'd think it might. Then the memory and cpu would be in sync and the added bus bandwidth would really help. If I could use both mods, then that would really be something. I just wish I could find information on that fsb mod. Why couldn't Soyo just release BIOS that allowed for that fsb setting?

I did read in that thread that the mod wasn't working on VIA chipsets.

Click to expand...

Well, the 12-24 mod definitely works on this VIA chipset (KT133A). Of course a high FSB (or at least a high mem clock) is even better.

Here are the multis (for my board), left side is after the 12-24 mod. No idea if it's the same for you, but thought it might be some help.

15 7
16 8
16.5 8.5
17 9
18 9.5
19 11.5
20 12.5
22 7.5
23 10
24 10.5

So throw an sub-$100 XP mobile in there and have some fun with it, see what happens.

I couldn't get 133 FSB to work with this mobo, didn't try that hard however. I'm at 105 FSB and 140 mem clock. Anyhow, it's a pretty big upgrade from my 1400 Tbird. Running stable at 2.4 GHz. Some apps will be hurt by the slow mem, others won't. The 512K cache on the Barton has got to alleviate the pain a bit, I'm sure.