VOGONS


First post, by flux1270

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I've been looking for a CPU upgrade for my Dell XPS T500, which currently has a PIII 500/512Kb. I've read varying reports that it will or won't take anything faster than a P3 600E.
It's a 100MhZ FSB board so that does limit my options pretty heavily. I would love to track down a 1Ghz 100MhZ Slot 1 P3 for it, but they seem nearly impossible to find online.

Does anyone have experience/suggestions for a CPU upgrade on Dell's SE440BX-2? Even a P3 700 would be a huge upgrade, as I'm running Bryce 3D and it's struggling hard with just the 500.

Thanks!

Toshiba Tecra 510CDT (133MHz P5, 48MB RAM, W98SE)
Compaq Armada E700 (500MHz PIII, 512MB RAM, W2K Pro)
Macintosh Classic II (16MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, System 7)

The Fleet

Reply 1 of 20, by keenmaster486

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I've put an 800 MHz Coppermine in my R500 for whatever that's worth.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 2 of 20, by flux1270

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Hmmm alright. I guess I'll start watching eBay for either an 800 or 1.0 that isn't $250.

Toshiba Tecra 510CDT (133MHz P5, 48MB RAM, W98SE)
Compaq Armada E700 (500MHz PIII, 512MB RAM, W2K Pro)
Macintosh Classic II (16MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, System 7)

The Fleet

Reply 3 of 20, by Grem Five

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I have a T600r Dell board and it took a 1.0 Ghz processor on a slotket. Is it a BX-2 board (2 ISA slots) or a BX-3 board (1 ISA slot)... Mine is a BX-3 and it works.

Reply 4 of 20, by flux1270

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Grem Five wrote on 2025-07-26, 22:49:

Is it a BX-2 board (2 ISA slots) or a BX-3 board (1 ISA slot)... Mine is a BX-3 and it works.

It must be a BX-3, there's only one ISA slot.

Toshiba Tecra 510CDT (133MHz P5, 48MB RAM, W98SE)
Compaq Armada E700 (500MHz PIII, 512MB RAM, W2K Pro)
Macintosh Classic II (16MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, System 7)

The Fleet

Reply 6 of 20, by Errius

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These things were super common circa Y2K and several came to me for upgrade early 2000s. They all got bigger hard disks, Windows 2000/XP, 768 MB RAM, GeForce 4 MX, and 1.2-1.4 GHz Tualatin Celerons on PowerLeap PL-iP3/T adaptors.

Unfortunately the PowerLeaps are stupid expensive now. Plus they need recapping.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 7 of 20, by chinny22

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It'll work fine, I've got a 1Ghz in my T500 for good few years now.
Dell makes surprisingly good retro PC's

Only "issue" you get is cosmetic where post screen will display the model as @00

As you've noticed Slot 1 prices increase dramatically once you reach 600Mhz, S370 CPU's are a bit cheaper and an option if you can find a good price on a slocket adapter.

Reply 8 of 20, by Jasin Natael

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Yes it should.
I had one in mine. It's currently running a Nehemiah.

Reply 9 of 20, by H3nrik V!

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IIRC, my Intel SE440BX-2 is too old to run Coppermines - the VRM doesn't have the right voltages for it. Might be an issue on the Dell board too ..?

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 10 of 20, by flux1270

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 04:10:

IIRC, my Intel SE440BX-2 is too old to run Coppermines - the VRM doesn't have the right voltages for it. Might be an issue on the Dell board too ..?

Yeah that's what I had been seeing too. I need to get the case lid off and see if it's 100% a BX-2 or not. Everything I had read up until I made this post suggested it was only compatible with up to the Katmai 600 chips.

Toshiba Tecra 510CDT (133MHz P5, 48MB RAM, W98SE)
Compaq Armada E700 (500MHz PIII, 512MB RAM, W2K Pro)
Macintosh Classic II (16MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, System 7)

The Fleet

Reply 11 of 20, by shevalier

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Usually, Intel's motherboards (oem for intel/ by intel) can't work with nothing, which no in CPU support list
It's only bios protection feature ( or issue)

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Audigy 4 SB0610
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value SB0400
Gigabyte Ga-k8n51gmf, Turion64 ML-30@2.2GHz , Radeon X800GTO PL16, Diamond monster sound MX300

Reply 12 of 20, by H3nrik V!

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flux1270 wrote on 2025-07-30, 04:20:
H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 04:10:

IIRC, my Intel SE440BX-2 is too old to run Coppermines - the VRM doesn't have the right voltages for it. Might be an issue on the Dell board too ..?

Yeah that's what I had been seeing too. I need to get the case lid off and see if it's 100% a BX-2 or not. Everything I had read up until I made this post suggested it was only compatible with up to the Katmai 600 chips.

Yeah, and maybe get a look on the VRM chip to see if it's even <2.0 Volt capable

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 13 of 20, by shevalier

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Coppermines voltage incompatibility can be solved either by moving the jumper on the adapter (if there is one), or by one wire wound around the two processor pins.
Yes, 1.8 V differs from 1.7 V by the VID1 signal, which needs to be grounded.
Wow, 6% overvoltage...
Most likely, in AMI (which no one has really learned how to modify) in the BIOS from Intel there is a frequency/family ID detection by the processor and a forced halt of system.
Even if this is not the case, the lack of microcodes and the initialization cache errors for unknown processor have also not been fixed by anyone for AMI.
There are no public automatic BIOS modding tools for Pentium 2/3 motherboards with AMI BIOS.
Only if someone disassembled and made changes, which is extremely unlikely.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Audigy 4 SB0610
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value SB0400
Gigabyte Ga-k8n51gmf, Turion64 ML-30@2.2GHz , Radeon X800GTO PL16, Diamond monster sound MX300

Reply 14 of 20, by Jasin Natael

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 04:10:

IIRC, my Intel SE440BX-2 is too old to run Coppermines - the VRM doesn't have the right voltages for it. Might be an issue on the Dell board too ..?

I have a SE440BX-2 and mine works with Coppermines just fine. I did have to upgrade the BIOS though and the post screen doesn't always pick up the correct clock speed.
Also works with Tualatin and Nehemiah chips with the appropriate slocket/modded pins.

Reply 15 of 20, by flux1270

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Ironically this thread pretty much sums up what I had seen online about the SE440BX CPU compatibility beforehand - a mix of yes and nos.

Toshiba Tecra 510CDT (133MHz P5, 48MB RAM, W98SE)
Compaq Armada E700 (500MHz PIII, 512MB RAM, W2K Pro)
Macintosh Classic II (16MHz 68030, 4MB RAM, System 7)

The Fleet

Reply 16 of 20, by old school gamer man

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Errius wrote on 2025-07-28, 11:21:

Unfortunately the PowerLeaps are stupid expensive now. Plus they need recapping.

the solder on ones are supper cheap and still for sale.

Last edited by Snover on 2025-08-02, 04:57. Edited 1 time in total.
Reason: derailing

Reply 17 of 20, by shevalier

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flux1270 wrote on 2025-07-30, 18:02:

Ironically this thread pretty much sums up what I had seen online about the SE440BX CPU compatibility beforehand - a mix of yes and nos.

Intel and Siemens-futjitsu made great boards - simple and stable.
But you couldn't get anything out of them that wasn't in the specification.
But the boards are just magical.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Audigy 4 SB0610
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value SB0400
Gigabyte Ga-k8n51gmf, Turion64 ML-30@2.2GHz , Radeon X800GTO PL16, Diamond monster sound MX300

Reply 18 of 20, by Cbb

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The issue with non-working CPUs higher 600MHz may be related to BIOS version. On my DELL GX1 I was forced to flash A07 (not latest) BIOS in order to run 800+ MHz CPU.
I think that it is connected with TDP rising along the frequency and the platform was not able to run VRM at that power or heatsink/airflow was not enough to manage that increased heat amount. So producer decided not to get compains from the end-users about instability issues adn in new BIOS versions there's a check if CPU installed is certified for the system.

Also on GX1 I was not able to downclock any P-III to run at 66MHz FSB. System just doesn't POST. P-IIs do downclock no problem.

Reply 19 of 20, by shevalier

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This is Intel as it was.
But the motherboards themselves are is a standard.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Audigy 4 SB0610
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value SB0400
Gigabyte Ga-k8n51gmf, Turion64 ML-30@2.2GHz , Radeon X800GTO PL16, Diamond monster sound MX300