Upgrading PII-400 on 440bx question

[Guest]

Hello:

Looking to upgrade a 2.5 yr old pentium ii-400mhz machine.

It appears to have an Intel SE440BX motherboard. I'd like to put in a new cpu and possibly some new ram ( I have 128 mb of ram currenly ).

I've read that some people have experinced big problem putting a pentium iii ina 440bx and that certain ram won't work.

Are they any guides out there or any major things to look for ? bios versions or serial number of the motherboard make a difference ? Intel's web site basically says this motherboard supports alomost anything.

any help is appreciated.

thanks.

 

[FUGGER]

The original SE440BX was designed for pentium 2, and does not have the proper voltage for P3 coppermine.
This company provides a FCPGA to Slot 1 adapter with voltage regulator. This card will force your older SE440BX mobo to reach 1Ghz.
http://208.55.249.79/PL-iP3/index.html

The SE440BX-2 has proper voltage and with bios updates should support most P3's.

As far as RAM, PC100 ram should work fine. the cheap ram made for athlon/apollo will not work. but those ram chips are known not to work in Intel based machines.

 

[Guest]

Interesting.

Went to the site and I see an 850mhz p3 but no 1 ghz machine.

in any event, is this product one that you have used ?

the installtion seems a bit lengthy but I might do it.

anyone else here have success or feedback on using this upgrade product ?

thanks.

 

[Guest]

You gotta read what he wrote.. not what ya think he wrote he he. He saying you can buy the adapter alone for 60$. You can then use any FC-PGA PIII 100Mhz fsb processor up to 1 GHz. I had some qualms about this advice, because of bios reasons, so I went over to PowerLeap's boards to check it out. I hate people to get bad info, especially if they seem really unsure of what to do.

Sure enough on their boards ..someone recommends using the the latest P12 bios with this adapter. Now that's no guarantee (is anything ever?). But you could go over there and post a question asking if people have had success with the SE440BX, the P12 bios, and the adapter mentioned (PingEye2 yada yada ..whatever it is). No harm in waiting and doing that kind of questioning just to make sure. I can tell you to only use 100 fsb PIII processors.. now I do believe (if my memory serves.. I could be wrong) that PII 400 was made for 66 fsb and 100fsb. If you are running a 100Mhz fsb (good chance on a 440BX), you really don't have to mess with the mb jumpers and yoru memory should work as well. And really once you get the P12 bios loaded the upgrade should be by the book.

Powerleap has been making upgrades for older boards now for some time. I suppose they work for some people or they'd be out of business (probably work for a good amount of people). But there are people who aren't happy with that adapter.. I just didn't see any complaints when used on a SE440BX board.

Oh and that really is one of the only upgrade options for that board besides a PIII 450 slot one, which isn't worth it. Just the way Intel does things. They even intentionally put a check in the P11 bios (I looked) to not allow use with the slot 1 PIII 500.. (shame.. shitty Intel reeeal shitty)
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Chord on 12/28/00 03:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Chord:

thanks for all the info.

I actually went ahead and did a bios update to p12 and all seems to be working well.

Read through the powerleap board and everyone seems to have a good experience...the only negative is that when I did a deja.com search for poweleap I found 1 guy spamming every group with powerleap info ... not a good sign in my book -- but if I buy it I'll use my credit card and protect myself a bit.

Really just want a quick upgrade to hold me over until mid-2001 when the 2ghz amd or p4's are affordable, and then will require a new mb.

ya, intel uses those nasty bios tricks -- they've been doing it for a long time ...

thanks again.

 

[Guest]

aa I wouldn't worry about trolls... yeah well try it and grab a 700.. or so ..that'll hold ya.. I'm still usin a 733 on a bx. Works good for me.