CPU and Motherboard Compatibility Question

[Jordanforce]

Hi everyone,

I have recently been considering upgrading my AMD athlon 1.33 ghz processor. While looking around, I ended up browsing the AMD website and looking at recommended motherboards for the high-end AMD athlon XP processors. I found that my Asus 87N8X motherboard doesn't support the XP 3200+ (400FSB) or the XP 3000+ (400FSB). It is, thankfully, recommended for the XP 3000 (333FSB) and anything below it. I suppose this isn't the end of the world, but I was kind of hoping to get the XP 3200. Why is it not recommended by AMD to install an Athlon XP 3200+ to an Asus 87N8X motherboard? Is there anything preventing me from doing it anyway/would it be a bad idea?

Thanks, Jordan

 

[endyen]

It depends what rev. of the board you have. A revision 6 board will work fine. A rev 4 board will usually work ok. All in all though, you are usually better off getting an xp-m chip. They will run at whatever combination you need to use to get xp3200+ performance (plus a bit)
The only difficulty would be finding what fsb you would need to run. Then just set the multiplier accordingly.

 

[Jordanforce]

Question about the xp-m chips. I'd never heard of them before, likely because, as I just found out, they're for mobile systems. Maybe it's my fault for not specifying, but I have a desktop system. Do the xp-m chips work on PC's too, or is there something I'm not aware of?

As well, I went digging and found my motherboard box in the basement. The manual said it supports AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and higher, so I'm assuming it is either Revision 4 or Revision 6.

Thanks for the quick response.

 

[endyen]

You can find the rev of your board by looking in between the (last?) 2 pci slots.
Yes xp-m chips also work in laptop systems. Probably almost 1/3 of the xp-m chips in use today are in laptops.
They were designated xp-m because they could be run at reduced voltages. It did not take long before people realized that that ment they would opperate at higher speeds, when given normal voltage. They have become the chip of choice because of that.
I ran one for a while @ 2.4ghz. Very nice performance.

 

[Jordanforce]

I'll make sure to ask my local computer provider about upgrading to one. I wasn't aware that you could use mobile CPU chips in desktop systems

Thanks very much for all the help endyen

 

[Crashman]

The only requirement for running Mobile XP's in desktop systems is that the board supports multiplier adjustments, because the XP-M's don't have a fixed multiplier. There is another requirement, that the board supports Barton core processors, but all new boards have for a couple years.

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