Can my motherboard support a new processor?

G

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hi there! Been the "computer guy" for my firends and family the
majority of my life, but I recently came up against a question I just
can't figure out on my own, and was hoping to get the imput of several
knowledgable types!

I built my own machine, with the idead of gaming in mind...

1533 megahertz AMD Athlon XP
ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N266VM
756 RAM
300 w. Power Source

AND used to have a Radeon 8500 (128 mb edition)...

But recently for christmas, got me a new Radeon 9800!

I'm enthused, but as anyone can see, my processor is probably REALLY
holding back my new card.

Soooo... next step, get a new processor. (And a new Power source, as
I guess a 300w probably just isn't going to cut it for much longer.)

So, got my eyes on a new AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+, a good budget
pick for a processor I think, however I believe it has a 266 FBS, and
my mobo I believe has a 133 FBS, but I could be wrong.

The problem is, that I have reached a gap in my computer knowledge...
I have NO IDEA what that means!

Soooo... do I need a new mobo? How about an ASUS A7N8X-VM/400? Or
will my current mobo be able to handle my proposed new processor? Or
should I hold out for an even better processor than that one?

I await your input!
 
G

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 9 Mar 2005 03:16:21 -0500,
RYoungOUSD@hotmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (AngelBob) wrote:

>Hi there! Been the "computer guy" for my firends and family the
>majority of my life, but I recently came up against a question I just
>can't figure out on my own, and was hoping to get the imput of several
>knowledgable types!
>
>I built my own machine, with the idead of gaming in mind...
>
>1533 megahertz AMD Athlon XP
>ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N266VM
>756 RAM
>300 w. Power Source
>
>AND used to have a Radeon 8500 (128 mb edition)...
>
>But recently for christmas, got me a new Radeon 9800!
>
>I'm enthused, but as anyone can see, my processor is probably REALLY
>holding back my new card.
>
>Soooo... next step, get a new processor. (And a new Power source, as
>I guess a 300w probably just isn't going to cut it for much longer.)
>
>So, got my eyes on a new AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+, a good budget
>pick for a processor I think, however I believe it has a 266 FBS, and
>my mobo I believe has a 133 FBS, but I could be wrong.
>
>The problem is, that I have reached a gap in my computer knowledge...
>I have NO IDEA what that means!

Mobile Athlon requires a multipler adjustment to reach it's
spec'd speed at spec'd multiplier. They start at low multi
then the board raises it, when that is supported. Your
motherboard has no way to set the multiplier, as even if the
board was hacked to provide higher FSB and you "see" a
multiplier option in the bios, the bios will discard any
user changes and revert to defaults again (an "issue" unique
to that/other boards), it'd still run at (6X?) default
mobile multiplier.
>
>Soooo... do I need a new mobo? How about an ASUS A7N8X-VM/400? Or
>will my current mobo be able to handle my proposed new processor? Or
>should I hold out for an even better processor than that one?
>
>I await your input!

Do you want to overclock?
If not, you might find that (a decent, name-brand 300W) your
currrent PSU is sufficient for a mobile XP2500 at stock
speed & voltage.

Why a A7N8X-VM/400? I mean, it has integrated video which
you dont' seem to need. Do you have a mATX (instead of full
ATX) case so you need a mATX motherboard? If not, you're as
well off getting the full ATX A7N8X, or A7N8X-Dlx, or maybe
one of the Abit NF or AN series.

Your motherboard "can" be made to run the XP2500...
What you'd need to do is get the mobile Athlon and use a
power source (for example a 9V battery) tu burn though the
"+8" multipiler bridge on the CPU. What that'll do is raise
the mobile XP's default from 6X to 14X... so it'd then run
at 14 X 133FSB = 1867MHz. A Google search should turn up
which bridge it is, offhand I don't recall.

It's not hard to burn that bridge, I happen to have an
A7N266VM with a mobile XP that I did this very thing, but
this was a while back, more of an ugrade. Today it's a
harder upgrade to swallow because moving from 1533Mhz to
1867MHz isn't all that much even considering the Mobile's
doubled L2 cache. It'll definitely increase your gaming
performance but maybe only 30% (hard to guesstimate this).

Ideally you'd replace the motherboard with one supporting
Athlon 64, unless you happened to come across a free or
dirt-cheap mobile XP which would make the upgrade more
cost-effective.