luckybob wrote:

No, but that isnt the point.

Also, if you decide to continue the heretic life, at least put a terminator in the 2nd slot.

But seriously, it looks awesome.

Sorry about my previous post. What does a terminator actually do? I looked up on Google "Slot 1 terminator" and I saw terminators with their own frequency, like this one:
http://www.pcandserverstore.com/Dell-100Mhz-S … 03E_p_1152.html

Does this mean anything?

Honestly, I'm surprised it works without it.

EILI5: Dual cpu systems need both slots occupied. To not do so, can cause system instability. This is mostly an issue with slot 1/2 and socket 370 setups.

Thankfully these terminators are very cheap. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sac … =p2045573.m1684

That said, I think its so much cooler to have 2 cpus running. Get the S-spec off the top of cpu1 and get a 2nd. ^.^ (processors need to match)

luckybob wrote:

Honestly, I'm surprised it works without it. […]
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Honestly, I'm surprised it works without it.

EILI5: Dual cpu systems need both slots occupied. To not do so, can cause system instability. This is mostly an issue with slot 1/2 and socket 370 setups.

Thankfully these terminators are very cheap. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sac … =p2045573.m1684

That said, I think its so much cooler to have 2 cpus running. Get the S-spec off the top of cpu1 and get a 2nd. ^.^ (processors need to match)

That's interesting to know. I haven't experienced any system instability as of yet. In fact, the system runs great! I just don't see the need for it if the system already works and works well.

On a side note, I know that I had issues with the board before, but that was due to my own stupidity. I had all the system memory shadow options turned to "Cached".

Well, Intel SMP systems prior to i7 generation Xeons share the FSB which is why you need termination in the second slot or socket. Athlon MP systems can deactivate the bus of the missing CPU (although I've never tried this).

gdjacobs wrote:

Well, Intel SMP systems prior to i7 generation Xeons share the FSB which is why you need termination in the second slot or socket. Athlon MP systems can deactivate the bus of the missing CPU (although I've never tried this).

Here's the interesting part...I don't have a terminator card in the second CPU slot and the system works just fine. There have not been any BSODs or hangs at all...even with the weird RAM amount. Should I worry about this or should I not try to fix something that's not broken?

luckybob wrote:

only one cpu in a 2 cpu motherboard? […]
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only one cpu in a 2 cpu motherboard?

Anyway, setting aside that I'm running 1 CPU on a Dual CPU motherboard without a terminator card, how is the rest of the system otherwise?

nanospark wrote:

Here's the interesting part...I don't have a terminator card in the second CPU slot and the system works just fine. There have not been any BSODs or hangs at all...even with the weird RAM amount. Should I worry about this or should I not try to fix something that's not broken?

Likely a happy accident. In fact, it might not work with a CPU in the other slot and it's likely limited in terms of FSB performance potential.

gdjacobs wrote:

nanospark wrote:

Here's the interesting part...I don't have a terminator card in the second CPU slot and the system works just fine. There have not been any BSODs or hangs at all...even with the weird RAM amount. Should I worry about this or should I not try to fix something that's not broken?

Likely a happy accident. In fact, it might not work with a CPU in the other slot and it's likely limited in terms of FSB performance potential.

I'm actually not worried about it. All I know it that it works in MS-DOS and in Windows 98 without problems (and quite well, might I add).

nanospark wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

Well, Intel SMP systems prior to i7 generation Xeons share the FSB which is why you need termination in the second slot or socket. Athlon MP systems can deactivate the bus of the missing CPU (although I've never tried this).

Here's the interesting part...I don't have a terminator card in the second CPU slot and the system works just fine. There have not been any BSODs or hangs at all...even with the weird RAM amount. Should I worry about this or should I not try to fix something that's not broken?

What we do here in general is, first, creating our own problems by trying to fix something that's not broken, and then trying to solve the newly created problem. This is what we call our hobby. So you should start fiddling with it as soon as possible. 🤣

nanospark wrote:

I'm actually not worried about it. All I know it that it works in MS-DOS and in Windows 98 without problems (and quite well, might I add).

Fair enough. I'm just trying to make clear for other readers that proper termination is important and they shouldn't expect stability without. If it works without in your case then you're all set, but it's definitely not what your board manufacturer had in mind.

gdjacobs wrote:

nanospark wrote:

I'm actually not worried about it. All I know it that it works in MS-DOS and in Windows 98 without problems (and quite well, might I add).

Fair enough. I'm just trying to make clear for other readers that proper termination is important and they shouldn't expect stability without. If it works without in your case then you're all set, but it's definitely not what your board manufacturer had in mind.

To be honest, I never knew that CPU terminators existed until I came to this forum. I knew that Rambus memory needs a terminator to function at all if you don't fill all the RAM slots...but that's another topic for another thread. Thankfully, I never had to work with Rambus either. 😜

nanospark wrote:

To be honest, I never knew that CPU terminators existed until I came to this forum. I knew that Rambus memory needs a terminator to function at all if you don't fill all the RAM slots...but that's another topic for another thread. Thankfully, I never had to work with Rambus either. 😜

It's like any other electrical communications line. If you don't match impedances, you get large attenuations and other large problems.

nanospark wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

nanospark wrote:

Here's the interesting part...I don't have a terminator card in the second CPU slot and the system works just fine. There have not been any BSODs or hangs at all...even with the weird RAM amount. Should I worry about this or should I not try to fix something that's not broken?

Likely a happy accident. In fact, it might not work with a CPU in the other slot and it's likely limited in terms of FSB performance potential.

I'm actually not worried about it. All I know it that it works in MS-DOS and in Windows 98 without problems (and quite well, might I add).

1) You don't need two CPUs for DOS / Windows 98SE. It does not support SMP! The other CPU would never be used in that OS.
2) There is nothing wrong with using only one CPU in a dual CPU system. It is an option to save cost and have the possibility to upgrade in the future.
3) Having 1 or 2 cpus in a slot 1 system does not affect the performance of the FSB of the first CPU.

I would be just happy if it works 😀

I agree, the CPU will not be used and the fact that it's missing will not affect performance so long as the bus has proper termination.

End of the day, your PC your choice.
My Asus duel slot 1 board happily works without the terminator. Hate how I know that as I had the original terminator all those years then lost it 3, 4 years ago.

BUT

Maybe not right away but do come join us in the SMP club, Win2k will play almost all you 9x games as well
Plus its where the real men hang out 😉

Recently I acquired a Pentium II 400MHz CPU (thanks oeurve for sending that to me! It is much appreciated! 😀 ). Unfortunately, I discovered that (due to chipset limitations) I can only run it at 333MHz with a 82.8MHz FSB. Also, I discovered that running PC133 RAM is pointless because of this limitation. I downgraded the RAM to PC100 with the same amount (320MB total). With that said, I have some CPU-Z screenshots to show off the specs:

CPU

Motherboard

RAM Slot 1

RAM Slot 3

RAM Slot 4

Glad you got it quickly. Happy retro computing.

I really like that case. I've always been a lian-li fanboy sin the P4 era, but there are so many high-quality options now.

As far as I'm concerned, I would call this system complete...unless anyone thinks I should upgrade the video card at some point and if so, what video card should I put in here?