600MHz slot 1 on a Biostar M6TZA is not that bad.

I have 500MHz modified (?) P2 processor that is present as PIII 500MHz. I mean there is sticker from P3 but I've read it's more P2 than P3.

Get a Katmai 600Mhz for a 20% speed upgrade. That's the least you can do without risking anything. My PIII 900Mhz is mostly useful for late games like Return to castle wolfenstein, Fifa 2003, Nhl 2003.

Thanks, I'm not sure I'll upgrade this particual PC this way but surely 600MHz sounds better. What should I buy? It's a complete slot1 processor or s370?

haker120 wrote on 2022-08-09, 19:01:

Thanks, I'm not sure I'll upgrade this particual PC this way but surely 600MHz sounds better. What should I buy? It's a complete slot1 processor or s370?

Katmai is Slot 1 only (as it has external cache chips). Note that there are four (!) versions of 600MHz P3. The only one that should work regardless, is the Katmai 100MHz FSB version. The P6-300B is Katmai 133MHz, which your board can't support (it will run at 450MHz), the P3-600E is Coppermine, so newer core with unsupported voltage, the P3-600EB is both Coppermine and 133MHz FSB. Check the S-spec of any CPU you are considering. If it has 512kB L2 cache and is designed for 100MHz, it's the one referred to.

It's kind of crazy that coppermine slotkets cost more than a socket 370 motherboard.

smtkr wrote on 2022-08-10, 03:56:

It's kind of crazy that coppermine slotkets cost more than a socket 370 motherboard.

Upgrade stuff almost always ends up costing more than regular things, because so many people want to put max possible on their boards.

That said, I don't think they're that expensive - the most expensive on eBay cost more than the cheapest motherboards, but if you compare a iWill Slocket-II on eBay with an Asus CUBX on eBay, I suspect the CUBX will still cost a lot more 😉 Being more creative with search terms I'm seeing a lot of 7 slockets with at least one CuMine-capable one for half the price of the iWill, and locally I'm seeing a nice MSI MS-6905 1.1 for EUR 25. Not completely free anymore, but by no means insane. Yet.

But do I lose anything? This build has Voodoo 2 SLI 16MB and GeForce 4 4200. 😀

PARKE wrote on 2022-08-09, 14:51:

The 370SP 2.0 photos that I have come across are all from around week 40 of 1999 and as far as I have seen these are all Mendocino dedicated. If they were able to run Coppermines out of the box they would not need this mod:
Sloket A bottom.jpg
Slotkets have become expensive enough attract scam artists, or so it seems.

This mod will also not work in all mainboards and may cause instabilities.
Its only a "Half Mod"

haker120 wrote on 2022-08-10, 09:34:

But do I lose anything? This build has Voodoo 2 SLI 16MB and GeForce 4 4200. 😀

The fps of the Voodoo SLI may increase by +/-5% when you upgrade to 600/700 Mhz.
The Gf4 ti 4200 is seriously underpowered in combination with such a cpu - it starts to shine a bit above 1HGz and up.

PARKE wrote on 2022-08-10, 14:46:

haker120 wrote on 2022-08-10, 09:34:

But do I lose anything? This build has Voodoo 2 SLI 16MB and GeForce 4 4200. 😀

The fps of the Voodoo SLI may increase by +/-5% when you upgrade to 600/700 Mhz.
The Gf4 ti 4200 is seriously underpowered in combination with such a cpu - it starts to shine a bit above 1HGz and up.

Second that. I have a V2 SLI + Ti4200 with P3-1400S and definitely feel CPU limited there too.

So what about Voodoo 3500 with P3 1GHz?

That combination is better balanced; the sweetspot of the V3 3500 sits around +/-800MHz - in my experience slightly higher than the V2 SLI.

So I don't have stronger P3 for V2 SLI + GF4 Ti 4200 and I'm glad V3 build is rather ok. 😁

I am not sure if there are disadvantages of running a TI 4200 on an early PIII cpu but many folks here combine that sort of cpu with Geforce 2 MX 400 or Geforce 4 MX 440 which is more in balance. They are readily available and relatively cheap. The TI 4200 belongs in a more powerful system but it is in the end a matter of taste. When it works for you, it works.

Well, it does and I'm glad it runs all games I want smoothly. 😀