cpu upgrade

[EN1GMA]

hi,
i have a gigabyte ga-7zm mobo,with a duron 750. according to the manual it says i should be able to run a 1ghz athlon or higher.
the chips ive seen advertised run at either 200mhz fsb or 266 fsb
the mobo supports 100- 133mhz systembus speeds.
this is were i confused, will one of these hips run on this motherboard.
any help would be appreciated. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

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cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

[AwARe]

Hello EN1GMA,

I tried to do a little research to answer this question for you....

According to the bios updates at gigabyte it appears this MoBo will support posibly up to a 1400mhz cpu

Its quite confusing when it comes to bus speed/cpu setup etc on this board......so I definately understand where your confusion comes from......

The cpu setup seems to be done through dip switches on that board..Yikes! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif but there also seems to be a utility called Easy Tune III that allows you to set it up via software from within windows, unfortunately all the gigabyte links to easy tune I found didnt work

All things concidered from what Ive read this morning, I would suspect that you "could" use a 1ghz Socket A Athlon on that board and it "should" work fine.

What problems you run into, I couldnt really find much info on that, but it does seem to be "posible"........

What confuses me the most is that they list the 7ZMMC as adding support for the 200mhz bus and the 7ZMMH adding support for 266 and it also says the multiplier cannot be unlocked on that board a few places I read, so its really quite a mess.......hopefully someone may be able to chime in that has some personal experience with that exact MoBo

I read some reviews that stated that in fact this was one of the 1st MoBo's that actually could run such a CPU, but the performance seemed to leave a little bit to be desired........1 site gave it a 5.5 out of 10 but again its all quite a bit confusing....

Hope you find this helpful...and Good Luck!

Check out this (http://ftp.gigabyte.com.tw/support/user_pdf/k7_socketa.pdf) file.......

[This message has been edited by AwARe (edited 06-16-2001).]

[EN1GMA]

cheers for help aware.
i'm getting closer to buying a 1 maybe 1.3 athlon but which do i choose 200 fsb or the 266. iknow the dip switches change the bus speed,
but how do i change the multiplier, when no multiplier switch is available.also are the athlons muliplier locked like the pentiums.
the more i think about it the more confusing it gets.

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cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

[AwARe]

yes this is exactly where I got confused on the issue as well.

It says in one place you "can" run a 1ghz at 10x100 but in another place it says the multiplier "is" locked and "can't" be unlocked, so it makes no sence to "me" whatsoever.......

Im sure there are alot of other people around here with alot more experience with Athlon's then me and can probably offer better information and more help. Id wait around a day and see if any of them chime in.....

Honestly though in my opinion youd probably be better off just saving your money and waiting until you can afford a new MoBo as well, by then the CPU prices should be even lower and what you end up getting could be much better. In other words Im kinda confused why you want to upgrade a 750mhz when Im running a 600mhz here at my house that is capable of running anything I want to run hehe http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif and also from what I read about the performance of that MoBo maybe the board is more the issue then the CPU is.....

Maybe if youre not happy with your system, you have another issue such as a video card that needs upgrading, that would probably do more to improve the performance of your comp then upgrading the cpu?

[yawningdog]

The chip with the 200mhz fsb will work fine. You might, I say might, be able to use the 266fsb chip as well after a couple of dip switch/jumper/bios changes if your chipset supports it. You wont see that much difference, however, as you cannot use DDR ram.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.

[EN1GMA]

Thanks for the help i know where i stand now.
If i could just trouble you once more.
ok correct me if i'm wrong these chips are exactly the same no matter where they are sold ie USA / UK.( voltage should be the same i think ).
Considering the fact that the athlon is some £40 to £50 more expensive in the UK could anyone recommend a reputable / reliable company in the USA. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

[ArtOfKicking]

Okay if your mobo supports the 266 fsb, then definetly go the higher cpu chip speed. If you mobo doesn't support the 266 fsb then the cpu being able to run that won't help. I don't know how much you want to spend, but a little searching can find an AMD 1.33 ghz cpu for $200.00 U.S. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[yawningdog]

This (http://www.pricewatch.com) is where I go to find hot deals, but remember to check warranty and return terms and keep receipts when dealing with mail-order.

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He thrusts his fists against the posts but still insists he sees the ghosts.