[gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Grant]

I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if
I can.  What type of CPU should I look for?  How can I tell what will
be compatible?

Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible?

- Grant
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Jean-Marc Beaune]

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Hi,

Look at http://gentoo-wiki.com/Safe_Cflags
Then 'emerge -e system', then 'emerge -e world'.

Good luck!


On 9/7/06, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if
> I can.  What type of CPU should I look for?  How can I tell what will
> be compatible?
>
> Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible?
>
> - Grant
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 
/JM

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Mark Kirkwood]

Grant wrote:
> I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if
> I can.  What type of CPU should I look for?  How can I tell what will
> be compatible?
> 
> Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible?
> 
>

Dell have (or had last time I looked) online manuals for their stuff. So 
if you identify your system model number (prob on the chassis), try 
looking it up on the Dell support site. Last time I did this there was 
quite good info about what sort of memory and cpu the systems would take.

In addition the sites for the memory suppliers (Kingston, Micron etc) 
have memory finder apps that will help you out (once you know your 
system number!).

Cheers

Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Dale]

Jean-Marc Beaune wrote:
> Hi,
>  
> Look at http://gentoo-wiki.com/Safe_Cflags
> Then 'emerge -e system', then 'emerge -e world'.
>  
> Good luck!
>
>  
> On 9/7/06, *Grant* <emailgrant@gmail.com
> <mailto:emailgrant@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if
>     I can.  What type of CPU should I look for?  How can I tell what will
>     be compatible?
>
>     Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible?
>
>     - Grant
>     --
>     gentoo-user@gentoo.org <mailto:gentoo-user@gentoo.org> mailing list
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> /JM 

How does that help answer his question?  Did you reply to the wrong
email maybe??

You may have to look at your mobo to get a model or something and google
it.  If it is a Dell or something just google for the model and upgrade
to see what happens.  I have seen some old ones that there was not much
to upgrade.  Depends on what you can find on ebay sometimes.

Hope that helps.

Dale

:-)  :-)
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Iain Buchanan]

On Wed, 2006-09-06 at 20:54 -0700, Grant wrote:
> I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if
> I can.  What type of CPU should I look for?  How can I tell what will
> be compatible?

from memory that would be either a slot 1 or socket 370.  The slot 1
looks like a rectangular riser board, with the CPU soldered on it.
Quite often they had a heat-sink (usually a big one) and no fan.

The socket 370 is a square CPU that usually just plugs onto the
motherboard as usual.

Either way, you probably want to go for a Pentium III.  Unfortunately,
Dell do their best to make sure you can't update your hardware with
standard non-Dell parts :o, and since I've only ever done this to a
non-Dell PC, YMMV!

There is a small chance it's a Pentium-4 based Celeron, but I think they
started at the mid 1.x GHz - someone else can correct me here.

The Celeron 700 was a 66MHz FSB, at a 10.5 multiplier[1], so if your
board can do 133MHz, I think you can get a 1.3GHz PIII... not sure.
Depending on your board, frequency multiplier, etc, it may only take up
to a 933MHz CPU, or if it supports Tualatin it may go above 1 GHz (but
not by all that much).  More info needed here - look in your bios or
provide us with the dell model number.

Given that it's an older board, I'd go for the fastest CPU you can get,
which is hopefully a Pentium III 133MHz FSB.  Given that the Pentium III
600 outperformed the Celeron 700[2], I'd say a nice PIII 933 would make
a marked improvement!!

If it doesn't support Tualatin, you can get a used working 933/133
Socket 370 for about AU$25 off ebay.

You can get a used working Slot 1, PIII 933/133 for about AU$35
depending on availability at the time.

I don't know the Tualatin prices, because I never looked for one! (my
old boards don't support it)...

Anyway, you will have to go to ebay or something like that, cause I
don't know if anyone stocks them, unless you find a good 2nd hand
computer store.

> Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible?

again, more info needed.  Have a look in your bios and see what it says
about your memory.  If it was a desktop Dell, it's probably standard
SDRAM, 100 or 133 MHz.  Don't know if you can buy this stuff new anymore
- may have to go to ebay again.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors
[2] http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1264&p=6

HTH, and is accurate!
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

It's always darkest just before the lights go out.
		-- Alex Clark

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Benno Schulenberg]

Grant wrote:
> My main concern is the memory.  My motherboad supports PC100
> memory as well as a 133fsb although it's not running at that
> speed now.  I'll have to crank it up to 133fsb to support the
> Tualatin CPU, and I wonder how that will affect the PC-100
> memory.  Would it be better to buy good Kingston PC-100 memory
> and hope it can handle the extra speed,

That won't work, not reliably.

> or to buy PC-133 memory 
> for the motherboard that officially supports PC-100.

If your motherboard supports FSB at 133 MHz, then it should support 
PC-133 memory.

Benno

-- 
Cetere mi opinias ke ne ĉio tradukenda estas.
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Grant]

> > My main concern is the memory.  My motherboad supports PC100
> > memory as well as a 133fsb although it's not running at that
> > speed now.  I'll have to crank it up to 133fsb to support the
> > Tualatin CPU, and I wonder how that will affect the PC-100
> > memory.  Would it be better to buy good Kingston PC-100 memory
> > and hope it can handle the extra speed,
>
> That won't work, not reliably.
>
> > or to buy PC-133 memory
> > for the motherboard that officially supports PC-100.
>
> If your motherboard supports FSB at 133 MHz, then it should support
> PC-133 memory.

Everything I've read says it (i810E motherboard) supports 66/100/133
fsb and PC-100 memory.  I've read that some BIOSes allow you to adjust
the memory clock (fsb, fsb+33, fsb-33) but I don't have that option in
my BIOS.  Could there be a jumper on the motherboard somewhere?

If I plug in the new CPU and something goes wrong, is there a way to
tell if it's because my PC-100 memory can't handle the 133 fsb or
because my motherboard isn't compatible with Tuatalin CPUs?

- Grant
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Mick]

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On Friday 08 September 2006 17:59, Grant wrote:

> My main concern is the memory.  My motherboad supports PC100 memory as
> well as a 133fsb although it's not running at that speed now.  I'll
> have to crank it up to 133fsb to support the Tualatin CPU, 

In that case, you should buy as much 133MHz memory you can and install it 
after you set the jumpers on your MoBo for 133 FSB.

The 100MHz RAM will work but drag everything down with it to 100MHz.  That 
said I am not sure if the speed difference is worth the cost of the faster 
memory.  You can google for some vintage hardware reviews to see what's the 
performance difference.  When I looked into upgrading my PIII 600MHz 
Coppermine, I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to buy a faster 
machine from Ebay complete with memory and all.  Most of these upgrades make 
sense if you find a box with a totalled disk, RAM, CPU and use what's working 
and suitable for your needs.  The alternative can be false economy.  On the 
other hand there are IT fairs and back yard sales (depending where you live) 
where you could pick up a bargain - a mate won't let me forget that he picked 
up a 2.8GHz P4 from the streets of London two years ago and the only thing 
wrong with it was a jammed CD in the CDRW drive!!!  Lucky guy!

Good luck.  :-)
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Mark Kirkwood]

Grant wrote:

> 
> I'm going to try a Tualatin P3-1.26 in my i810E motherboard.  I did a
> ton of research and I think my motherboard will support it.  It comes
> down to whether or not it's a revision B board.  lspci -v just says
> (rev 3).  eBay has it for $31 shipped and guaranteed not DOA.
> 
> My main concern is the memory.  My motherboad supports PC100 memory as
> well as a 133fsb although it's not running at that speed now.  I'll
> have to crank it up to 133fsb to support the Tualatin CPU, and I
> wonder how that will affect the PC-100 memory.  Would it be better to
> buy good Kingston PC-100 memory and hope it can handle the extra
> speed, or to buy PC-133 memory for the motherboard that officially
> supports PC-100.
> 
>

One thing that comes to mind is that the Tualatin P3-1.26 is a server 
cpu and does not work in many desktop boards (I have *heard* that it 
requires motherboard/memory ECC). If you've done the checking, and the 
board is suitable then cool.

Assuming that is the case :-), I would hunt PC133 memory on ebay - there 
is a lot of it, and provided the Dell does not require rare or odd DIMM 
layouts, it should be cheap. Again - check if you need to buy ECC memory 
due to the choice of cpu (that will make it more expensive!).

With respect to the question "yeah - but is it worth upgrading?" - I 
think there is plenty of life left in PIII machinery - I run one of these:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/P3/VIA/P3TDDE.cfm

and it is just great!

Cheers

Mark
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Grant]

> One thing that comes to mind is that the Tualatin P3-1.26 is a server
> cpu and does not work in many desktop boards (I have *heard* that it
> requires motherboard/memory ECC). If you've done the checking, and the
> board is suitable then cool.

It sounds like you're talking about the Pentium III-S.  Are you sure
the Pentium III-S has specific motherboard and memory requirements?
The one I got was advertised as Pentium III, not Pentium III-S, but
I'll send an email about that now.  Good call.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_III#Tualatin

"Tualatin performed quite well, especially in variations which had 512
KiB L2 cache (called the Pentium III-S). The Pentium III-S variant was
mainly intended for servers, especially those where power consumption
mattered, i.e., thin blade servers."

> I would hunt PC133 memory on ebay

So you think PC-133 should work in a motherboard that only officially
supports PC-100?

> With respect to the question "yeah - but is it worth upgrading?" - I
> think there is plenty of life left in PIII machinery

Yeah, I should be able to get a *lot* more power out of my MythTV
system (also a wireless router and firewall) with a $31 CPU upgrade
and ~$35 memory upgrade.  That's just plain worth it. :)  Plus, I
figure I can start saving the parts I upgrade for another (slower)
system.

- Grant
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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} New CPU for my motherboard

[Mark Kirkwood]

Grant wrote:
>> One thing that comes to mind is that the Tualatin P3-1.26 is a server
>> cpu and does not work in many desktop boards (I have *heard* that it
>> requires motherboard/memory ECC). If you've done the checking, and the
>> board is suitable then cool.
> 
> It sounds like you're talking about the Pentium III-S.  Are you sure
> the Pentium III-S has specific motherboard and memory requirements?
> The one I got was advertised as Pentium III, not Pentium III-S, but
> I'll send an email about that now.  Good call.
> 
>

Right - but they are not always labeled with the trailing 'S' - so you 
need to check the Sspec no. for the cpu you are buying (e.g SL5QL). As 
for am I sure - no, just the warning "These parts are intended for 
server design applications, which will not work on a standard desktop 
board" - e.g :

http://www.asisupport.com/intel_server_tualatin.htm


>> I would hunt PC133 memory on ebay
> 
> So you think PC-133 should work in a motherboard that only officially
> supports PC-100?
> 

Oops - I must have mis-read your original posting - sorry. The i810E 
*chipset* supports 133 Mhz operation as far as I can tell... interesting 
that the Mobo does not. So... err all bets off for PC133 memory - it 
*might* work ok, but I guess you won't get as much benefit from the new 
cpu...

Hmm - when I got stuck in a situation similar to this, I ditched the 
vendor PC mobo (an HP in my case) and bought a new one on ebay - for 
about $50, that fitted in the case and supported what I wanted to run 
(IIRC it was 1Ghz PIII and PC133 memory).

Cheers

Mark
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