Keep in mind that the higher MHz Slot-1 P3s only have half the cache, so upgrading with one of those won't make it any faster.

Slocket?

jwt27 wrote:

Keep in mind that the higher MHz Slot-1 P3s only have half the cache, so upgrading with one of those won't make it any faster.

All Katmai core PIIIs have 512kb L2 cache. If you're referring to the Coppermine core Slot 1 chips, they have 256kb just as the Socket 370 models do but still significantly outperform their predecessors thanks to the cache being full speed. Less is more in this case.

It has a jumper for FSB. However, does it have jumpers for clock multiplier? Most Slot I systems, the clock is locked to a certain setting that can't be changed.

Found some documentation and had a look at the board now.

Compaq's document lists a variety of 440BX motherboards for the EP series, the name of mine apparently indicates it's an EP model that can be tower or desktop oriented, and it originally came with a 450 Katmai [I assume that's what the K refers to] and a 10gb hard drive. Looking at the serial number on the motherboard, it's not the model listed as supporting Coppermines.

There are dip switches for setting the cpu speed but this document also says that from 300mhz upwards the cpu speeds were fixed on the cpu [by intel] and the jumpers/dip switches will be ignored. The fsb's that appear to be supported are 66 and 100, I don't see mention of 133 anywhere.

So it seems a reasonable assumption that my board may support up to a 600mhz Katmai 100mhz. But it's not clear to me whether it's capable of anything beyond that.

The 440BX doesn't support 133mhz operation. On some motherboards, people have been able to overclock the chipset but that usually results in buggy AGP. Persoally, on every board I've tried it on, there were problems so I would just stick to stock 100mhz operation.

It's possible you'll need to update your BIOS but unless there's something funny Compaq did with the motherboard, it should be able to run a Coppermine core CPU. While there were some 1ghz Coppermine chips that were made for 100mhz FSB, the fastest you'll be able to find easily will probably be something in the 800mhz range.

GXL750 wrote:

The 440BX doesn't support 133mhz operation. On some motherboards, people have been able to overclock the chipset but that usually results in buggy AGP. Persoally, on every board I've tried it on, there were problems so I would just stick to stock 100mhz operation.

That's good enough for me, thanks for the explanation, I've no interest in overclocking this so 100mhz it is.

GXL750 wrote:

It's possible you'll need to update your BIOS but unless there's something funny Compaq did with the motherboard, it should be able to run a Coppermine core CPU. While there were some 1ghz Coppermine chips that were made for 100mhz FSB, the fastest you'll be able to find easily will probably be something in the 800mhz range.

Yeah, I found an 850 but nothing beyond. Sounds like it might be worth trying this...