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Best Pentium III for this Epox EP-6VBA (and other upgrades)

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First post, by nztdm

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Hello!
Have made use of this forum a lot in the past.
Made an account to post this (and helped someone else on the way past).

My current retro rig is:
Pentium III 550 SL3FJ (Katmai, FSB100, 512KB L2 Cache (slower cache than the Coppermine's 256KB I guess?))
Epox EP-6VBA (Rev0.6) (Edit: VIA Apollo Pro+ (693)) (Slot1)
1 x 64MB PC100
NVIDIA VANTA 16MB
3com PCI Fast Ethernet
40GB Seagate 7200.7 IDE
ASUS Beige DVD DL Writer IDE
2 x 3.5" floppy
Aywun 420W (22A 5V)
Windows 98SE, Windows XP, Linux (need more RAM really)

What I have coming to try:
NVIDIA FX5500 256MB ($15)
3 x 512MB PC133 (new, Chinese) ($22)
3 x 256MB PC133 (16-chip modules) ($15)

What I'd like:
Best CPU I can fit
Opinions (or facts) about the following.....
(While I wait for the parts)

(Edit: I don't have the VIA Pro133, I have the Pro+)
The VIA Apollo Pro 133 apparently supports 3 x 512MB modules.
The board came out in 1999, and its manual says it supports 3 x 256MB modules as maximum. In 1999, were 512MB modules a thing? Do you think the 512MB modules will work?
Not a worry if they don't; I'll sell them and use the officially supported 256MB modules.

Running the FSB at 133 will cause the 5.5X-locked 550MHz CPU to jump to 731MHz; think this'll work? If not, I think the CPU allows lower multipliers.

My board has the latest BIOS: 09/13/00.
Board supports 137GB HDDs max.
FSB is set with jumper from 66 to 150.
Multiplier is set with DIP switch.
Apparently you can set RAM clock to FSB minus 33, or plus 33. But in the BIOS I can set RAM to FSB, 2/3FSB, and 4/3FSB.
There is also a Autodetect DIMM/PCI Clock option. I don't know what this does. Enabled by default.
And I can't figure out what this option does: "CPU Host Clock (CPU/PCI)". The CPU Clock is simply multiplier times FSB no? I thought PCI was decoupled from FSB.
See the video here for intra-BIOS clock settings: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pb4qoe1QX21pDBfA2

Are there any clues as to what the max processor is that this board will take?
Could I get a P3 1GHz FSB133 (SL4BS) and turn the multiplier down if needed? Or if it's not compatible, it just won't work full stop?

Otherwise, I can get:
800MHz FSB100 SL457 (how much would this OC? If I set FSB to 133, I imagine I can drop the multiplier a couple notches to keep it stable if it's not stable at 1064MHz ?

There's also:
700MHz FSB100 SL3XM

In the Recommended Processor List, my board is there, but only in 1.0 revision, not 0.6. I wonder what changed...
In an older Recommended Processor List, my board but Rev0.2 was listed, with much lower compatibility (and older BIOS alongside it). Maybe the only thing that changed with revision was factory shipped BIOS?
"Recommended" processor list. I wonder what that means too..

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  • Filename
    Epox EP-6VBA.pdf
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    926.38 KiB
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    Motherboard manual
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  • Filename
    EPOX Processor List 2002.pdf
    File size
    40.72 KiB
    Downloads
    72 downloads
    File comment
    "Recommended" Processor list from Epox
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by nztdm on 2018-03-02, 14:44. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 9, by 7retro2000

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Hi,
Just a quick question regarding your issue - what do you intend to do with your rig.
I mean what is your purpose to squeeze the last drop of overclocking?
Another aspect: why don't you just buy a bunch of processors and test the thing - they are very cheap and it worth the fun!

Reply 2 of 9, by nztdm

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7retro2000 wrote:
Hi, Just a quick question regarding your issue - what do you intend to do with your rig. I mean what is your purpose to squeeze […]
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Hi,
Just a quick question regarding your issue - what do you intend to do with your rig.
I mean what is your purpose to squeeze the last drop of overclocking?
Another aspect: why don't you just buy a bunch of processors and test the thing - they are very cheap and it worth the fun!

The purpose is to make this the best ~2000 machine I can, for fun. And play around with things such as seeing what the most up to date OS I can run is, and benchmarking. It's a fun learning experience in computer history and electronics.

The reason I don't buy a bunch, is that it'd be over $100 for those three CPUs above, and I don't have that much to spare at present.

Reply 3 of 9, by PARKE

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The purpose is to make this the best ~2000 machine I can, for fun. And play around with things such as seeing what the most up to date OS I can run is, and benchmarking. It's a fun learning experience in computer history and electronics.
>>
>>
As far as I can see the board that you have there is an Apollo Pro version with northbridge VT82C693, the predecessor of the Apollo Pro "A" with VT82C694.
If so your board does most likely not run on 512MB RAM sticks and it will also not be in the league of 'best 2000 machines'. You can theoretically run every Coppermine fsb 133 up to 1Ghz on your board but every combination will be somewhere between 10% and 20% slower than on an average Apollo Pro "A" board.

Reply 4 of 9, by nztdm

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PARKE wrote:

As far as I can see the board that you have there is an Apollo Pro version with northbridge VT82C693, the predecessor of the Apollo Pro "A" with VT82C694.
If so your board does most likely not run on 512MB RAM sticks and it will also not be in the league of 'best 2000 machines'. You can theoretically run every Coppermine fsb 133 up to 1Ghz on your board but every combination will be somewhere between 10% and 20% slower than on an average Apollo Pro "A" board.

Oh I don't mean the best ~2000 machine ever. The best I can reasonably make without buying every single part (starting with this old machine I have).

And I have been mistaken this whole time, since I thought this board had the Apollo Pro 133 (VT82C693A), since it supports 133MHz RAM, but that's just using the 1.3X RAM multiplier option in the BIOS; 133MHz FSB is unofficially supported.
This made me think I can fit 1.5GB. now apparently the limit is 1.0GB. I have 3 slots. How is this achieved? Does it support only 4 "banks" which can correspond to a side on a DIMM? So maybe 1 x 512MB And 2 x single sided 256MB?

I was fooled into this because the southbridge I had (which isn't under a heatsink), is the VT82C686A, which is meant to be paired with the Pro 133, not the Plus.

Right now I am looking for better boards on ebay to see if I can find anything affordable.

Reply 5 of 9, by PARKE

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On page 2.1 in the manual attached to your first post it reads 'supports up to 768MB of DRAM. Even if some manuals of certain VIA Apollo boards claim support for larger amounts of DRAM than 1GB you cannot trust that all 512MB sticks are recognized. I have an Aopen that does not recognize mine, but f.e. an ASUS P3V4X works fine with 2GB here.

Reply 6 of 9, by nztdm

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Ended up finding the following:
More like ~2002 than 2000. But there's something neat about those PIII-S 1.4 chips...

$85: Bundle; all unused: SuperMicro P3TDDE, 1 x 512MB PC133, 1 x PIII-S 1.4GHz + cooler.
$24: PIII-S 1.4GHz
$5: Socket 754 cooler; it might fit
$22: 3 x 512MB PC133 (brand new, unbranded chinese, compatible with KVR133X64C2/512MB; we'll see how they go)
$12: 2 x 250GB IDE WD 7200
$10: Geforce4 Ti4200 64MB
$6: IDE DVD-RW
$5: 3.5" floppy drive
$4: USB2.0 PCI card
$8: Sound Blaster Live Value CT4830
$--: ATX PSU with plenty of 5V, and Aux-Power connector
$--: Beige ATX case with apparently juuuust enough room for that Extended-ATX board
$30-40: Proxy postage to New Zealand

Reply 8 of 9, by nztdm

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PARKE wrote:

Nice !
Only things missing = 4x 1Gb sticks 😉

Can always sell the 512MB sticks... There are none in NZ's largest trading site.

Need to find some compatible 1GB modules.
The P3TDDE manual says: "Four PC133 SDRAM sockets support up to 4 GB of PC133 unbuffered, registered SDRAM. ECC type memory is supported." ((Unbuffered and registered? I thought registered literally meant buffered?))
THIS is a verified module for this SuperMicro board. With HYB39S256400CT-7.5C2 WVV0S chips onboard.

Might get 4 of these. Pretty cheap.
The HP/Compaq 1GB DIMMs I linked above, are these:
163902-001.jpg
And they have 9 of THESE ICs on each side: 16M x 4 bits x 4 banks; the same arrangement as the ICs on the verified module. Looking good so far.
Both the verified module, and this module I'm looking at buying, have the same amount of ICs on the front side. I can't find a pic of the rear side of the verified module.

Last edited by nztdm on 2018-02-21, 14:14. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 9 of 9, by nztdm

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Thought I'd add to the wealth of knowledge that is this forum.

The Epox EP-6VBA (Rev0.6) motherboard officially supports 768MB via 3 x 256MB modules.
The chipset (VIA Apollo Pro+ (693)) officially has a 1GB limit.
Yet I put 3 x 512MB modules in, and 1.5GB was recognized, usable by XP, and passed MemTest86+ (needed failsafe mode to start though). (One of the 512MB modules is ECC. All are unregistered.)

Sandra 2001SE benchmarks poorly, no matter the memory installed. Under half the performance of PC133 on KT133A. Little over half the performance of VIA 694X.

Probably just the crappy old VIA chipset, and/or the fact that this setup is:
100MHz FSB (jumper)
4/3 Memory multiplier to make 133MHz (BIOS)

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