Pentium 233 MMX Cooling?

I found an OLD computer on the street. Call me crazy but I want to bring it back to life.

It has:

- PC CHIPS motherboard - M537-DMA33 (VIA Apollo VX-Pro+ chipset)

- 120MHz processor

- ISA sound card


I do not know if it works OK because it does not have a video card. I am planning to buy a ATI All-in-Wonder Pro 8MB PCI new for $21.00. When I turn it on it shows 120 in the little LCD screen next to the power button - that is why I think the CPU is OK.


QUESTION:

If I upgrade the processor to Pentium 233 MMX (the maximum the board will support), do I have to put a heatsink with a fan? I want to keep the current passive heatsink because I plan to keep the computer on 24/7 in my bedroom. So if I do, then I guess I can not upgrade. ( On this page it says Pentium 233 MMX puts out 20W of power).

Thank you!

Hey petreza

YCNHTMC

You Can Never Have Too Much Cooling

If you ventilate the case well you should'nt have a problem.
Is that a desktop or tower?

If you ventilate the case well you should'nt have a problem.

Click to expand...

do you mean I shouldn't have a problem with Pentium 233 MMX cooled passivly?

Is that a desktop or tower?

Click to expand...

It is regular size desktop.

BUT

I will run it with the cover off and no fans. I hope that is enough ventilation.



thanks

I would recommend a fan not only a heatsink cause I have a pentium 166MMX (I'm using it to type this now ) and it does get >warm< to the touch oh and it has a fan . JMHO though



PS
Don't feel sorry for my pentium. I should be setting up my XP1700+ withing the next 2 weeks

uae a big enough heatsink to allow for enough cooling and you should be fine, i would recomend any cheep large heatsink. copper would be better though.

COOL THAT DAMN THING!

You can never have enough cooling, unless you're one of those people who can't stand to have so much as a humming noise (rediculous). What you really need to do is make that thing the best 233mhz machine anyone's seen.

Someone I know from GamersHQ took an old Pentium II 300mhz machine with a Voodoo3 2000 PCI and what he did just seemed so cool. He took his Voodoo3 and put a nice new hsf on the gpu, and a small fan behind the GPU (the card actually has mounting holes for that type of thing I've noticed) and some ramsinks... all this of matching color btw, and he got a nice new large hsf for the CPU, very sleek looking, and did all the things that someone would do with a new power air cooled system. Arctic Silver 3, cooling plates for the 256 of PC150 he put in there, rounded ATA66 cables (no idea where he got those, must be old, hehe). The case was browned like how aged cases get, and he sanded it down to get rid off all the old paint, then sprayed it jet black (properly too, lacker and sealant and everything).

Now instead of just some old POS junker lying in the corner looking sorry, it's one of the most stable and cool looking low-power machines you'll find. I think he later re-painted the monitor that went with it too, just like he did the case, and bought some a black keyboard/mouse thing for it... I just remember someone mentioning this "all-black" thing... but I mean you can make anything really cool.

The point of my blabbing is to say, if you're gonna revive it, don't just do so to say it works, and then have some old thing there with it's guts showing that everyone's going to say "what's that doing there? don't you know you could scrap that and sell the parts?" about.

-in previewing this post I noticed that I really need to update my sig, hehe

Hmm. I have a P166 actively cooled (the fan drains power directly from the zif socket ) and it is somewhat warm. My p100 is ok with an aluminum HS and no fan. My PPro 160 is running fine with a passive heatsink (although the HS gets kinda hot to the touch) but that has a giant hat spreader. So I recommend either a fan, or one of those without a fan (somewhat expensive)

Just a quick word of caution. Just because it says 120 in the little LCD next to the power button doesn't mean that the processor or even the motherboard is working properly.
Alot of those older cases have jumpers behind that LCD so you can set it to display the figure you want.
I used to have one and set it at 999 but the PC still only ran at the 133 that the cpu was .

Good luck with it though, and let us know how you get on.

<< walks into other room and cracks open the case on the server(Pentium 233 MMX)

It had a heatsink smaller than even what U1 coolers use... And it had a fan on it... Fan was dead though lol... Not gonna bother replacing the fan as the heatsink still felt semi-cool. This computer has been running consistently 24/7 since we bought it. And that was many years ago.

well ive had a pent 200 mmx pasively cooled in a case with 0 air flow going for quiet ( mp3 player ) and it runs fine , gets Fn hot though

its a green passive heatsink that i found on a pent 120 its from a gateway system ( maybe this is some what like u have )

it should work fine

thnaks guys

I didnt think cool was that big of a deal back when the cpus put out so lil watts. well if u want to spend more money then the comp is worth then why not lol.

I think you just found another use for a Intel Boxed CPU heatsync and fan- my friend just found a PII 266 on the side of the road :-D
Spyder

Hey, I have the same PC Chips board. It was my first big "upgrade" from my first computer, a 486DX33.

Got it running right now with a P233 as a mini server on my home network. If you plan on bringing it back to life, I still have (a slightly trashed) manual for it and can scan it for you so you can see all the jumper settings. I've checked the PC Chips website before, and could no longer find any information on the board, no docs, driver, updates, etc. But Win98SE will identify the chipset and install the appropiate drivers. If you use an OS prior to 98SE, you may need to install the chipset drivers on your own (I know you have to for 95). I know I have the older drivers on one of my cdr's, but the VIA drivers will work with them as well. I forgot which drivers exactly, but if you do a search on Google.com for vx-pro+, theres a website that tells which drivers you can use with a link to them.

Hope the board still works. It'll make a good server, or at least a good old gaming comp to play all those old DOS games you may have laying around (if your old enough to remember DOS.)


[Edit] I just ran across this website you might want to check out. http://www.zarniwoop.force9.co.uk/ Has info on how to get more performance outta the board. I think I might try the voltage mod and pins mods and throw in a K6-2 into the board. [/Edit]

Mpegger,

that is the site that I was also looking at. The last time it has been updated was 10/August/2000 so I do not know if the guy still takes care of it. (may be he forgot to shut it down)

Thanks for offering to scan the manual. I appreciate it. However, it is already scaned and posted on the same web site so unless yours has some additional information not posted you do not have to bother.

I have Win98 plain - not the Win98SE. I am not sure if it will have the drivers. I might also try Win2K if it is not too much for this computer.

(I do remember DOS games. The first games I have played were on a friend's XT computer. But DOS games were almost extinct by the time I could afford a computer. Favourite - Dune2 - still have it.)

The first thing I plan to do is to see if it is working at all. To do that I have to receive the ATI All-in-Wonder Pro 8MB PCI video card that I bought on eBay. I also got a 3Com 3c905B-TX network card for it. If the motherboard does not work I do not consider buying these two things a waste of money because I could easily put them to use later on.
Then I will consider upgrading the processor. On the same page it shows that with AMD K6-2 processors people have gone up to 500MHz. If I could squeeze a 400MHz or even 350MHz that would be quite respectable. ( I guess this will be my first rig on which I will play overclocking. ) Of course it says that to get the most out of a upgrade you will have to use a utility named SetK6 for which I found an explanation here but it is completely beyond me. Conosidering that a K6-2 costs arround $20-30 these days it should be worth upgrading.
Finally, I want to upgrade the memory from the current EDO to SDRAM. But I got to be carefull because the motherboard will accept only certain types of memory sticks as explained here .

So if you are interested in my upgrade endevors and you decide to upgrade too then may be we can keep in touch through PMs if that is OK with you.

Would be nice. But finding a K6-2 is getting very hard.

Only place I know of that has any is TigerDirect. But they have the K6-2+ 450, and the K6-2 500. Niether of those chips show up as tested on the page, and from what I read, the K6-2+ had some additional instruction sets on it that may not be usable on the board. If you have any idea where to find K6-2 chips, please pass it along. I really wouldn't mind give that old board an extra bump in speed.

Mpegger,

I hope that you will agree that the nature of this thread has changed now. I think it is a good idea to start a new thread for the problem at hand. The reasons for doing so are that this thread stops from jumping up to under the stickies and people trying to help me with cooling while we are discussing upgrading. Also having a new thread with an appropriate title could help us by having other members posting.

The new thread is here.



If you see something that you think I should have not typed there please PM me or post and I will edit it out.

K6-2 chips are on ebay ALL the time, pretty sure you could pick up a 450 for $20 + shipping. And if you wanted to passivly cool you 233 I wouldn't see a problem as long as you used a BIG heatsink, Dell sold a LOT of PII 266 and 300's with passive cooling and I'm pretty sure the PII puts out more heat. I have a 200MMX and it ran overclocked to 233 wtih passive cooling no prob but now that I have it oc'd to 300 it has to have quite a bit of cooling.