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First post, by Stevogamer

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Hello,

I was wondering if anybody has manuals or documentation about the Melco Buffalo HP6-MX800. The only information I could find was that it has the HP6-CCR chip and it comes with a Coppermine Celeron 800.

Buffalo no longer provides the manuals and software online anymore.

Thought it was a bit of an oddity.

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Reply 1 of 17, by flupke11

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It looks like it has some voltage convertor onboard, so you'll be able to run coppermines on every slot-1 board even if the VRM has no way to deliver the required 1.7V. It's about halfway the Powerleap Tualatin adapter, so I wouldn't mind having one of these in my collection. You will need to connect a power cable next to the fan connector.

Reply 2 of 17, by Stevogamer

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flupke11 wrote on 2021-03-31, 18:48:

It looks like it has some voltage convertor onboard, so you'll be able to run coppermines on every slot-1 board even if the VRM has no way to deliver the required 1.7V. It's about halfway the Powerleap Tualatin adapter, so I wouldn't mind having one of these in my collection. You will need to connect a power cable next to the fan connector.

From what I saw from Japanese articles that seems to be the case. I have VH connectors on order to make a power cable.

I'll make an update on it when it arrives. I ordered it from Japan just as an interesting piece of hardware. Apparently a company called IO-Data also made similar adapters although I haven't seen any for sale.

Reply 3 of 17, by perhenden

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Stevogamer wrote on 2021-03-31, 20:35:

I'll make an update on it when it arrives. I ordered it from Japan just as an interesting piece of hardware. Apparently a company called IO-Data also made similar adapters although I haven't seen any for sale.

Did it arrive? I just got my Melco Buffalo HK6-MD366-N2 adapter. Also looking for documentation. There is a DIP switch with two levers on mine.

Reply 4 of 17, by PARKE

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Stevogamer wrote on 2021-03-31, 20:35:

Apparently a company called IO-Data also made similar adapters although I haven't seen any for sale.

Yes, they produced a range of Celeron adapters: PPGA 466/500/533 & FCPGA 566/667/733
Here is a recent offer for one:
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k1020547890
And a photo example of a later one that was, I believe, developed for NEC.

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Reply 5 of 17, by perhenden

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Here is the product page
https://www.buffalo.jp/product/detail/hp6-mx800.html
Unfortunately it is now empty ("end of support"). Registration at Buffalo and also searching at archive.org did not bring me any results for this model/series.

Reply 6 of 17, by Horun

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Yeah no luck on archive .org for the HP6-MX800. Tried the original website too (Melcoinc and then buffalo.melcoinc.co.jp then just buffalo.jp)
Only original page for a HP6 cpu found was the HP6-MX533A but no manual....
https://web.archive.org/web/20001006220620/ht … hp6-mx533a.html
Did find the original page for the HK6-MD366-N2 at Melcoinc.com but again no manual.
https://web.archive.org/web/20000616033547/ht … 6-md366-n2.html
also they have pages showing other cpu adapters (some links do not work) by using the wildcards and then filtering..
Will dig around a bit more later.....

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 17, by Stevogamer

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perhenden wrote on 2021-12-16, 17:12:
Stevogamer wrote on 2021-03-31, 20:35:

I'll make an update on it when it arrives. I ordered it from Japan just as an interesting piece of hardware. Apparently a company called IO-Data also made similar adapters although I haven't seen any for sale.

Did it arrive? I just got my Melco Buffalo HK6-MD366-N2 adapter. Also looking for documentation. There is a DIP switch with two levers on mine.

Hello perhenden,

Sorry for the late reply. Mine did eventually arrive, but I haven't gotten the chance to test it out since I'm in school right now. But I've built the power cable for it and will test it later this month on my BH6. It seems to have the same power cable pinout and connector as the Powerleap. Mine supposedly uses a chip onboard to do some controller magic.

Last edited by Stevogamer on 2022-02-07, 19:00. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 8 of 17, by Stevogamer

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Thank you everyone for your input.

I'll hopefully have time to do some tests and make an update later in the month during my midterm break.

Again my apologies for not being able to answer recently. But I'll try to check in every now and then. School has gotten me quite swamped ahaha.
The community here has been quite helpful for me on my journey to rebuild an improved version of my first computer.

Reply 9 of 17, by Stevogamer

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Just wanted to post an update. I was unable to get the HP6-MX800 to work. Had a no POST condition on the BH6. Motherboard posted with a Powerleap IP3/T V.1.1 but still ran fairly unstable. Other slockets were the same problem with only my 300A working properly.

I'm going to recap the board and see where it goes. Although for now most of the caps will be general purpose caps except for six 6.3v 1000uf FJ caps on the VRM. Hopefully, I can redo it with solid caps or all higher quality caps in the summer.

Reply 10 of 17, by Stevogamer

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perhenden wrote on 2021-12-16, 17:12:
Stevogamer wrote on 2021-03-31, 20:35:

I'll make an update on it when it arrives. I ordered it from Japan just as an interesting piece of hardware. Apparently a company called IO-Data also made similar adapters although I haven't seen any for sale.

Did it arrive? I just got my Melco Buffalo HK6-MD366-N2 adapter. Also looking for documentation. There is a DIP switch with two levers on mine.

I finally found information for this adapter. Since I just purchased a HK6-MD366-V2 to play around with. Seems like there isn't much you can do with the adapter in terms of multipliers since the picture is gone. But voltage control is still possible with resistor mods or a dip switch.

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~kume2/geta/index.cgi

Reply 11 of 17, by perhenden

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The documentation you linked to says something about removing the CPU to access 6 dip switches. I wonder how that can be done. I only see the 2 dip switches on the vrm board of the adapter.

Reply 12 of 17, by Stevogamer

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perhenden wrote on 2022-06-24, 13:13:

The documentation you linked to says something about removing the CPU to access 6 dip switches. I wonder how that can be done. I only see the 2 dip switches on the vrm board of the adapter.

I think you're looking at the page for the IO Data adapter which does have DIP switches in the centre of the socket.

For the Melco adapters at least the ones we're looking at, the most relevant article seem to be these (if you translate the page to English)
Melco-N2 / N2000 / V2 / N3 core voltage change
Melco-N2 / N2000 / V2 / Voltage variable modification of N3 ★ Provisional release

Reply 13 of 17, by perhenden

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Thanks! That's well written documentation.
My takeaway is that switch 1-2 can be used to underclock the CPU, and overclocking it requires a hardware mod. Also, replacing it with a k6-iii or CPU using <2.2v requires hardware modding.

Reply 14 of 17, by Stevogamer

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perhenden wrote on 2022-06-25, 07:51:

Thanks! That's well written documentation.
My takeaway is that switch 1-2 can be used to underclock the CPU, and overclocking it requires a hardware mod. Also, replacing it with a k6-iii or CPU using <2.2v requires hardware modding.

Yes indeed. At least from what I understand for the multiplier, you can get away with setting the 2 switches and removing the 0 ohm resistor as needed for the multiplier.

For the K6-III if you have a 2.4V version which unfortunately is all I could find 🙁 (my XA100 non-plus only supports the 2.2V), you can either install the DIP switch to have variable voltage switching, or you can simply move the 0 ohm resistor from position 2 to position 1 using the first article "Melco-N2 / N2000 / V2 / N3 core voltage change".

It's pretty neat I must say.

Reply 15 of 17, by Stevogamer

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Although the adapter is capable of putting out the voltage. Most of the adapters that are for the K6-III are two phased VRMs with 2 chokes. My guess is any of the adapters with K6-III's (ex. The io data PK-K6HX400) that have 2 chokes would be the 2.4V variants. And the ones with one choke were the 2.2V variants. Since the 2.4V variants also were higher wattage.

So I'd be weary of running a 2.4V K6-III on the K6-II adapters due to the difference in current.

That being said, unless you're running full load, I doubt you'd max out the amperage.

Reply 16 of 17, by perhenden

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I was able to clock it down to a 4x multiplier my 366 device (goes up to 5.5x) using the DIP switches. With at 50MHz FSB, it runs at 200MHz in an old Socket 5 motherboard 😀

Reply 17 of 17, by Stevogamer

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perhenden wrote on 2022-10-18, 17:56:

I was able to clock it down to a 4x multiplier my 366 device (goes up to 5.5x) using the DIP switches. With at 50MHz FSB, it runs at 200MHz in an old Socket 5 motherboard 😀

Great to hear 😁
The oldest thing I have that can take socket adapters right now is a iWill super socket 7 board. I got power leap and a k6-II and III adapters which I’m going to be testing out at some point. Definitely not as fun as dip switches tho haha