Athlon XP Mobos and Processors

[drebelx]

I was looking at an MSI KT266 PRO2-RU motherboard on the MSI web site. It states the the maximum CPU is an Athlon XP 1800 (Palomino). Is this out of date? Could I possibly use and Athlon XP 2000 on this motherboard? Both processors are Palominos and the both have an FSB of 266Mhz. Is there something missing from this equation?

[saphalline]

Yeah, the KT266/A chipset is out of date in the sense that it can't handle the latest AthlonXP's. Since then, we've had the KT333, and are now on the KT400 chipset! :eek:

Check this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=22&manufactory=1312&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1) out, a list of all mobo's from MSI (Newegg's site - my fav), including the KT400 ones. As you can see, the first two (KT4VL & KT4 Ultra) are both less than $100 so you can't beat the price! The main benefit of a KT400-based mobo is that you can run things at a 266MHz fsb or the new 333MHz fsb for the AthlonXP 2700+ and 2800+. That's just a bit further than the 1800+, eh? :p

Looking down, you can see MSI's NForce2 mobo, the K7N2-L for only $105. The NForce2 chipset is killer and totally self-configuring for it's dual-DDR set-ups. Just something else to look at...

By the way, Palominos are old news! We're on the T-bred B core now! *sigh* Technology moves so fast... :rolleyes:

[drebelx]

Thats great. Some of those new motherboards are pretty cool and so are the processors.

But I found this web site that used an XP 2100 on the MSI K7T266 PRO2-RU

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mjc1LDI=

The web site compares it to a Pentium 2.4.

So I guess my question is answered in that if the FSB and the Socket on the motherboard match up with the processors specs, than it's a match.

[drebelx]

If I'm wrong with my assumptions, please tell me so.

Thanks for the help.

[saphalline]

I have a KT266A chipset-based mobo, and it could originally handle up to an AthlonXP 1800+, also. Since then, a BIOS upgrade has enabled it to climb up to a 2200+. This is pretty exciting, actually, because when I got my mobo, the AthlonXP 1800+ had just barely come out. In all honesty, I could probably put a 2600+ in it without many hiccups, but my mobo manufacturer (Asus) does't guarantee that it will work under most/all system configs so they don't claim it will.

Considering that currently my system isn't say, 3 years behind the curve, it's probably not worth it for me to take that risk (if I were buying a 2600+ I would also get a new mobo). But for an older system like a PII, pushing the mobo's limits can pay off big time!

The main thing that holds back these types of processor upgrades is a CPU core upgrade (or several in this case). The original SocketA Athlon & Duron used the Thunderbird core up to 1.1GHz and 1.4GHz respectively, with later versions of the Duron using the Morgan core up to 1.3GHz. The AthlonXP started out on the Palomino core up to the 2100+. Then came the Thoroughbred A core up to the 2200+ (rather short-lived :rolleyes: ). Finally came the Thoroughbred B core up to the latest 2800+. Next comes the Barton core, which is rumored to have a 400MHz fsb. The main point is that although the Duron 600 and AthlonXP 2800+ and the yet-to-be-made Bartons all share the same SocketA interface, you always need the latest mobo in order to take any one of them because of the changes that have graced the SocketA interface. Core architectures improve, micron processes go down, voltage requirements plummet - that's a lot for the BIOS to keep track of! And no previous chipset has the capabilities to handle all that, specifically the northbridge.

[Ichabod]

Go to the AMD site and check their configuration info. Tells what boards go with which processor. Also memory and lots of other good poop. And Newegg is definitely a good place to buy stuff.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/

Ichabod

[drebelx]

This tells me that I could put in an Athlon 2000 XP if I upgrade the BIOS

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/cpu_support/cpu/spt_cpu_detail.php?UID=29&NAME=MS-6380%20Ver2.0

I'm not sure what the deal is about version 2.0. If I were to buy this board, how would I know that it is version 2.0?

Thanks for the all the help.

[saphalline]

It should say right on the board. If not, it's either in the manual or even in the BIOS. MSI is pretty good about that, tho. My parents' PC has an MSI mobo, version 5.0 of whatever it is, can't remember exactly (i815et chipset I think) but it says "version 5.0" right on the PCB (in between some PCI slots).

[BigBlue66]

I believe the "Pro2" in the model name signifies that it's version two. I'm running that board in the wife's machine. Will look at the PCB tonight to see if it's silkscreened anywhere on it. But I'm pretty sure it's version two. They did have a regular Pro version at one time.

[drebelx]

Sorry that I neglected this posting, but it makes so much sense that the "2" in PRO2 would mean version 2.

Thanks for all the help.

BigBlue, did you find out what version you have?

[killercow]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?description=13-135-102

get a 1.53 gh tbred retail

[drebelx]

Tbred start at 1.8Ghz with the 2200. 1.53Ghz is still Palomino

[saphalline]

They replaced all the Palominos and Tbred A's with Tbred B's, the only thing being that the older inventory had to be sold out first. By now, tho, all AthlonXP's should be Tbred B's, especially from Newegg.

[drebelx]

Hey no kidding! Thats right. I was going by pricewatch.com. All the 2000's and 2100's listed say they are Palomino, but some more searching unveiled some Tbreds.