I don't own a Banshee, but I've used Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 cards with a VIA C3 on i815 and Apollo Pro 133A boards without any issues at all, so I'm inclined to believe that a Banshee would work fine too. Game performance with a 1GHz Ezra is comparable to a 500MHz P3 Katmai.

I've not (yet) managed to get a C3 working on a 440BX board- at best, my ABIT-BX6 2.0 posts with a slightly corrupted BIOS screen, allowing access to the BIOS setting menus, but then freezes at the PCI device listing screen. It shows the correct voltage of 1.35V for the EZRA, but the CPU identifier is just garbled characters and pixels.

Thanks for the info.
I'm waiting for ga-6bxc r2.0 to arrive so will check slot-1 compatibility first hand. Any information regarding VRM/BIOS manipulation is helpful.

stef80 wrote on 2023-09-28, 07:33:

Thanks for the info.
I'm waiting for ga-6bxc r2.0 to arrive so will check slot-1 compatibility first hand. Any information regarding VRM/BIOS manipulation is helpful.

A bit late,
- GA-6BXC rev 2.0 works with all VIA C3 socket 370 processors, with the powerleap BIOS. I don't know about using an original BIOS with the C3s here, since there was never a reason to use those BIOS'es again.
- GA-6BXC rev 2.0 has a Coppermine ready VRM, so it can go down to 1,3 Volt.
- VIA C3 SetMul functionality does not rely on the chipset/BIOS. (unlike AMD Athlon)
- Remaining question is which slotket to use. One with a voltage clamp means it is of better quality. I used Upgradeware Slot-T or MSI MS-6905 Master.

gerwin wrote on 2023-10-16, 22:34:

A bit late, - GA-6BXC rev 2.0 works with all VIA C3 socket 370 processors, with the powerleap BIOS. I don't know about using an […]
Show full quote

A bit late,
- GA-6BXC rev 2.0 works with all VIA C3 socket 370 processors, with the powerleap BIOS. I don't know about using an original BIOS with the C3s here, since there was never a reason to use those BIOS'es again.
- GA-6BXC rev 2.0 has a Coppermine ready VRM, so it can go down to 1,3 Volt.
- VIA C3 SetMul functionality does not rely on the chipset/BIOS. (unlike AMD Athlon)
- Remaining question is which slotket to use. One with a voltage clamp means it is of better quality. I used Upgradeware Slot-T or MSI MS-6905 Master.

Thanks for the info.
Is powerleap BIOS connected to slot-1 adapter (Upgradeware) or CPU itself?
Also, is Upgradeware Slot-T really necessary ? At least for Ezra. It's Tualatin-specific adapter, while MSI MS-6905 Master is not.

stef80 wrote on 2023-10-17, 04:58:

Thanks for the info.
Is powerleap BIOS connected to slot-1 adapter (Upgradeware) or CPU itself?

The powerleap BIOS works fine without Slot-T slotket adapter. The BIOS does not interact with the slotket.
It is a modernized BIOS that recognizes more CPU models (Through their CPUID code), among other things.

stef80 wrote on 2023-10-17, 04:58:

Also, is Upgradeware Slot-T really necessary ? At least for Ezra. It's Tualatin-specific adapter, while MSI MS-6905 Master is not.

Slot-T is not necessary, but it works too. MSI MS-6905 Master is more appropriate, and probably the best choice for this C3 purpose.

sfryers wrote on 2023-09-27, 07:23:

I don't own a Banshee, but I've used Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 cards with a VIA C3 on i815 and Apollo Pro 133A boards without any issues at all, so I'm inclined to believe that a Banshee would work fine too. Game performance with a 1GHz Ezra is comparable to a 500MHz P3 Katmai.

I've not (yet) managed to get a C3 working on a 440BX board- at best, my ABIT-BX6 2.0 posts with a slightly corrupted BIOS screen, allowing access to the BIOS setting menus, but then freezes at the PCI device listing screen. It shows the correct voltage of 1.35V for the EZRA, but the CPU identifier is just garbled characters and pixels.

My MSI MS-6119 v1.1 440BX/Slot1 board works perfectly with C3 processors in a MSI MS-6905 Master slotket. Can't remember if I modified the BIOS with microcode for those, or if it's unmodified, though.

IIRC that board might also come with different VRMs, not all of them being Coppermine ready, allowing voltages < 1.8V. Not sure if the VRM can be different within the same revision, or if it only applied to 1.0 boards.

Would guess the symptoms you describe with the BX6 board are microcode related. If you got some kind of standalone EEPROM flasher, or are comfortable with hot flashing in case something goes wrong, you might want to look into that.