i850 chipset

[Phetar]

Hey, I have an old Dell i850 board with a Socket 423, but I'm not quite ready to trash it yet. I was wondering if there are any 423 ---> 478/775 socket adapters or other upgrades I can make on this, beyond RAM and video? If it were i850E, the bus would be 533, and i can use a 3.06 Northwood (?), but as it is at 400MHz and a Socket 423, the best I can do is a 2.0GHz Willamette (which I have now). Have I hit a roof of expandability and upgradability? Because I like this system, it's served me well, and it's mainly being used a family machine and some light gaming from time to time. It has the usual characteristics of an i850, i.e. ATA100, AGP 4x, PC800 RDRAM, etc etc. Thanks a lot

 

[mpjesse]

http://www.cpusolutions.com/8004744cpu/itemdesc.asp?CartId=EVEREST{4FC60BC7-5451-4C27-B945-F2ABEEC35646}&ic=478-423

There's one for $3.

Be advised that you'll have to get new RAM as well. RDRAM is no longer supported by intel (thank god). The only people who buy RDRAM anymore is Sony... for their PS2.

IMO, if you're going to spend the $$$ to get a new motherboard and new RAM, you might as well upgrade the CPU too. But if you can't afford it, that adapter will work nicely until you can. 🙂

EDIT: I lied. you can get a 478 board w/ RDRAM support. But what's the point? http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=D850MD

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

Normal availability of Socket 478 P4's with 400 bus went to 2.4GHz, so all you'd probably need is a Socket 478 adapter. Oh, there were the rarer 2.5 and 2.6GHz 400MHz bus versions, and Intel later released a 2.8GHz with 400MHz bus for the upgrade market. I believe the 2.8GHz 400MHz CPU was a special order for PowerLeap, maker of CPU adapters.