first of all, SDRAM doesn't essentially run at 100mhz. there was pc66 standard for sdram, like the intel 430tx and 440lx.
and now, if you want to run a k6-2-400, the best choice is something officially supports 100m fsb, like the ali5 and mvp3, both with agp slot. the intel 430tx will do too, it supports only 66mhz fsb and lacks agp slot and doesn't officially support k6-2, but the performance is superb among the pc66 chipsets, and you can set the fsb ratio at 2x to get it run at 66*6. 83mhz fsb is not recommended because your pci clock is also overclocked to 41.6mhz and may cause pci devices to malfunction.

Malik wrote:

Are all Socket 7 Motherboards with SDRAM slots 100MHz FSB capable? […]
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Are all Socket 7 Motherboards with SDRAM slots 100MHz FSB capable?

I'm looking for some Super Socket 7 boards that can support the K6-2 400, which I recently got hold of.

I tried the cpu in a TXProII chipset motherboard, which has no make label printed on it (must be the famous Elpina-PC Chips one 🤣).

I can get to 400MHz by moving the FSB to 83Mhz and leaving the multiplier at 3x.

(But this board is not very ergonomic - I had to make too many sacrifices in terms of adding expansion cards - the heatsink blocks two PCI slots, and when the PCI cards are moved, the 2-ISA slot get compromised.)

I would prefer a board that officially supports 100MHz FSB.

SDRAMs run at 100Mhz, don't they? So I'm concentrating on pictures of Socket 7 boards with SDRAM slots for quicker picking. But I'm stll not so sure. I think some boards with a max of 83MHz FSB also has these memory slots? I can't remember...

Thanks for any information.

P.S. I'm looking for an AT-specification board for use in my AT casing.

Edit : Socket 7 with AGP slots are fewer when compared to those with SDRAM slots, for "sniping", so I'm concentrating on these memory-based pictures.

There are 3 things to consider when answering your question:
-AGP slot,
-SDRAM slots and
-fsb

Of these 3, SDRAM was the 1st to appear, then came AGP and very shortly after AGP, the 100Mhz fsb appeared (though not all boards with 100Mhz fsb actually came with an AGP slot, usually SiS 530 boards).

*AGP is rather easy, the board either has an AGP slot, or it doesn't 😁

*SDRAM appeared much earlier then the other 2 standards, the oldest board with SDRAM slots was an i430VX board!

*100Mhz fsb is this: If a board with Socket 7 supports 100Mhz fsb (as opposed to anything lower) then it's always called a Super Socket 7 board 😉

Not all Socket 7 boards with SDRAM were Super Socket 7! As noshutdown already mentioned, most i430TX boards actually came with both SIMM slots and DIMM slots but still had the 64MB cacheable area limit!

Most later Socket 7 boards will work with a K6-2 running @ 6x66Mhz (often only unofficially though and even if officially, then only up to a certain speed (say max 300Mhz K6 supported)), BUT often the low 2.2v voltage the board had to provide to the processor stresses the board quite a bit!
It is possible for most i430TX boards to support at least the full range of K6 cpu's, including the 2.2v ones running at 266Mhz and 300Mhz. These low voltage K6's are very similar to K6-2's in practical terms.

Imo the best board a K6-2/400 could be put in, is a Super Socket 7 board, so might as well go with one of those 😉

Thanks for the the information, guys! That was really helpful.

Yeah, I don't like to use that cpu in a non-100MHz FSB motherboard. And I totally forgotten about the PCI lanes getting overclocked at the same time when the FSB is moved to 83MHz.

EDIT: Found a 100MHz+ FSB mainboard right in my own storeroom. Actually the board was destined for "recycling". I thought the motherboard was dead.

It's an EPOX MVP3C2 motherboard.

But after having got the K62-400 cpu, the markings on the motherboard triggered my interest.

I tried hotflashing it. It seems the bios chip itself on the epox board had some defect - there seems to be certain points in the chip that can't be written properly. It's a 256kb chip.

I sacrificed another 256k bios chip from a PII motherboard and flashed with the latest, downloaded MVP3C2 bios, and it worked!

Lessons learnt :
1. The wealth of information in the above posts!
2. Don't throw away good motherboards!
3. Dead motherboards may be resurrected! 😁

Or maybe good motherboards never die! 🤣

*SDRAM appeared much earlier then the other 2 standards, the oldest board with SDRAM slots was an i430VX board!

I have a PC Partner VX board with 2 SDRAM slots, but none of the sticks I have seem to work. Should PC100 or PC133 sticks work in such a board?

(I have a suspicion it might he a voltage thing...)

SquallStrife wrote:

*SDRAM appeared much earlier then the other 2 standards, the oldest board with SDRAM slots was an i430VX board!

I have a PC Partner VX board with 2 SDRAM slots, but none of the sticks I have seem to work. Should PC100 or PC133 sticks work in such a board?

(I have a suspicion it might he a voltage thing...)

The VX will only work correctly with the earliest SDRAM modules. Voltage is NOT a problem with SDRAM 😉
The VX will only correctly recognize the SS 16MB modules and the 32MB DS modules (the oldest ones with the smaller chips).
64MB modules usually were SS (8 chips, all on 1 side) and the VX will probably only recognize 16MB, if it works at all.

Ah righto. The smallest SD module I have is single sided 64MB, and with it installed I just get long beeps. Ah well, just have to hunt down some EDO sticks (it has 2x SD and 2x 72pin slots).

At least I know I haven't damaged the stick by trying it, since the voltages are the same! 😁

32mb SDRAM modules should be ultra cheap though 😉