No problemo! Absolutely no problemo!

You'd have to try something silly to make it a problem. Like an overclocked bus, and underclocked CPU.
Eg 83 x 2=166 could cause issues, but 66 x 2.5=166 will be fine.

That said... Do you want 233 if it can? What board?

Maybe higher but not lower

myne wrote on 2024-10-10, 14:48:

You'd have to try something silly to make it a problem. Like an overclocked bus, and underclocked CPU.
Eg 83 x 2=166 could cause issues, but 66 x 2.5=166 will be fine.

That said... Do you want 233 if it can? What board?

The motherboard is an Alpine v5.2A.. difficult to find any info about it.
The only related jumper I can find is for setting multiplier, and after setting it to x3 the CPU is identified as 200MHz at startup.
This is fine for me, but if 233 were possible I would happily try that 😀

Oh shit. VXpro 😵

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 14:59:

The motherboard is an Alpine v5.2A.. difficult to find any info about it.

That kinda looks like this board.

Not sure if it's the exact model you have, or just from the same manufacturer.

Actually, it depends...

At certain point, "static core" became a thing - and such CPUs indeed have no minimum clock speed, they can even be completely stopped.
AFAIK all Pentiums are "static core".

Earlier processors, however, need their registers properly refreshed - which requires certain minimum clock speed.
See eg. Intel 8088 - the max CLK Cycle Period is 500 ns, ie. the min frequency is 2 MHz.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-10-10, 15:30:

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 14:59:

The motherboard is an Alpine v5.2A.. difficult to find any info about it.

That kinda looks like this board.

Not sure if it's the exact model you have, or just from the same manufacturer.

Wow, thanks a lot for that!!
One of the pictures is pretty much identical to my board, and the manual specifies the jumper settings as well!
And even better, 233MHz is actually supported, so I can use the CPU at the designated speed!

Thanks a lot again, you just made my day!!

You can even try 75MHz, Intel 233MMX overclocked pretty well.

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 16:27:

Wow, thanks a lot for that!! One of the pictures is pretty much identical to my board, and the manual specifies the jumper setti […]
Show full quote

Wow, thanks a lot for that!!
One of the pictures is pretty much identical to my board, and the manual specifies the jumper settings as well!
And even better, 233MHz is actually supported, so I can use the CPU at the designated speed!

Thanks a lot again, you just made my day!!

You're welcome!

I have a (different) PC Chips motherboard myself, so the design of yours looked very familiar. After that, if was just a matter of searching The Retro Web. The people who update that treasure trove are the real heroes.

I already wrote in the other thread that this board is rebranded PCChips M537 v.5.2 with rebranded VIA Apollo VP chipset. It supports 233 MHz dual voltage MMX CPUs with x3.5 multiplier, just use the settings for x1.5 multi, which is interpreted by MMX CPUs as x3.5. See jumper settings here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcchips-m537#docs

For 233 MHz Pentium MMX FSB must be set to 66 MHz, so 66 MHz FSB x 3.5 multi = 233 MHz CPU.

P.S. "Alpine" is probably Elpina. I've never heard of "Alpine" motherboards, but I have another Elpina model board, which is rebranded PCChips mobo with rebranded SiS chipset.

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-10-10, 16:43:

You can even try 75MHz, Intel 233MMX overclocked pretty well.

Thanks, I might try that out 😀

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 17:10:

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-10-10, 16:43:

You can even try 75MHz, Intel 233MMX overclocked pretty well.

Thanks, I might try that out 😀

Don't do that, just use 66 MHz FSB with x1.5 multiplier (MMX CPUs will recognize it as x3.5 multi). See my previous post.

analog_programmer wrote on 2024-10-10, 16:51:

I already wrote in the other thread that this board is rebranded PCChips M537 v.5.2 with rebranded VIA Apollo VP chipset. It supports 233 MHz dual voltage MMX CPUs with x3.5 multiplier, just use the settings for x1.5 multi, which is interpreted by MMX CPUs as x3.5. See jumper settings here: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/pcchips-m537#docs

For 233 MHz Pentium MMX FSB must be set to 66 MHz, so 66 MHz FSB x 3.5 multi = 233 MHz CPU.

P.S. "Alpine" is probably Elpina. I've never heard of "Alpine" motherboards, but I have another Elpina model board, which is rebranded PCChips mobo with rebranded SiS chipset.

Thanks! Yes, that is the exact configuration I just set up (66 FSB and x1.5 resulting in 233MHz), and it works like a charm! 😀

Haha yes, I realize now that I have referred to the board with a typo all the time.. the name is of course Elpina, not Alpine 😁
Thanks for clearing that out!

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 17:44:

Thanks! Yes, that is the exact configuration I just set up (66 FSB and x1.5 resulting in 233MHz), and it works like a charm! 😀

Nice! I was sure it will run fine with Pentium 233 MMX at 66 MHz x 3.5 (x1.5 multi).

d00mo wrote on 2024-10-10, 17:44:

Haha yes, I realize now that I have referred to the board with a typo all the time.. the name is of course Elpina, not Alpine 😁
Thanks for clearing that out!

Hsin Tech/PCChips (later ECS/Elitegroup) boards came under many different names back in the '90s, Elpina was one of them 😀 And you already know - they also renamed the chipsets.

P.S. PCChips also renamed the sound chips on their mobos. For example C-Media CMI8330 goes under the name Sound Pro HT1869V+. Maybe everything with "Pro" in the name was selling better back then 😁

analog_programmer wrote on 2024-10-10, 19:20:

P.S. PCChips also renamed the sound chips on their mobos. For example C-Media CMI8330 goes under the name Sound Pro HT1869V+. Maybe everything with "Pro" in the name was selling better back then 😁

You forgot the most famous - they rebranded solid pieces of plastic as Cache on a ton of their boards 😀

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-10-11, 00:29:

You forgot the most famous - they rebranded solid pieces of plastic as Cache on a ton of their boards 😀

Yeah, there were a couple of PCChips models (certain revisions) with fake "chips" in 486 VLB times. This also applies for some of others manufacturers (for example FIC if I recall correctly). For PCChips socket 7 models I know none with fake cache.

I remember one PCChips 486 board (M919 v.2.x and later revisions) with fake cache "chips" labeled "Write Back", but it has COASt slot supporting write-back burst cache module, so this seems like stupid marketing trick to sell their own COASt modules. I have PCChips M912 board (early v.1.4 revision) with real and 100% working cache chips, but on some later revisions of this board they spared the real cache and put plastic fake "chips" - these can be replaced with real chips and the later revision boards will work just fine.

This fake cache chips trickery seems like kind of very stupid marketing cheating strategy to cut production costs, but I never owned a PCChips board with fake cache.

P.S. I still stand by my opinion that PCChips mobos were fine for their quality at low prices during '90s.

Well, on some boards the fake cache is more problematic: My M912 v6.0 has no slot for a coast module, so that is not even an upgrade option.
And to my knowledge there are some boards, which are not even traced for real cache chips, so you are really out of luck then.

Anyhow, putting fake chips on the board and even modifying the BIOS to show the cache as existant even if it is not, is a blatant lie to me, not just a marketing trick.
I have no clue how they got away with it, without being heavily sued ...

There's a reason they disappeared.
It toileted their rep.