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Questions about Slotkets

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First post, by DustyShinigami

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My mind has been blown. Only just learnt that Slotkets are a thing. Though I'm confused - how do you know if your Slot 1 motherboard supports one? Are they only for specific Slot 1 motherboards? Would a Pentium Pro in a Slotket work on my motherboard, which is an ABit AB-BE6-II?

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abit-ab-be6-ii

Is there anything else I should be aware of? Thanks.

OS: Windows 98 SE
CPU: Slot 1 Pentium III Coppermine 933MHz (SL448)
RAM: Kingston 256MB 133MHz
GPU: Nvidia 16MB Riva TNT/128MB Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Motherboard: ABit AB-BE6-II Intel 440BX
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value CT4670

Reply 1 of 7, by cyclone3d

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The slotket for Pentium Pro originally came with a special BIOS for the board it was meant for. I do have one somewhere but don't remember the exact specifics.

As for regular S370 slotkets, they are pretty universal as-in not meant for only specific boards.

However, there are different types with different levels of compatibility.

The best ones are the ones that have the jumpers for voltage and multipliers as those are generally way more compatible with more boards and CPUs.

Also, the older slotkets were made for PGA (older Celeron) and the newer ones are for fpga CPUs.

There are also ones for Tualatin CPUs and there are fewer boards that support those.
You can also get s370 Tualatin adapters or mod the motherboard or socket yourself

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 7, by wierd_w

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From my increasingly unreliable memory:

Slotket capability for a motherboard is mainly a factor of these things:

Motherboard chipset support for the s370 cpu in question

An updated bios that has the correct ID bits in it

The slotket itself is appropriate for that S370 cpu (things newer than coppermine have different voltage and clock requirements that the slotket needs to have available)

Reply 3 of 7, by DustyShinigami

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Hmm. I see. As I understand it, the i440BX supports 370s, right? My CPU is a Coppermine, I believe. As to the BIOS, I’m not sure about its ID bits. I have updated it to the latest available.

OS: Windows 98 SE
CPU: Slot 1 Pentium III Coppermine 933MHz (SL448)
RAM: Kingston 256MB 133MHz
GPU: Nvidia 16MB Riva TNT/128MB Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Motherboard: ABit AB-BE6-II Intel 440BX
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value CT4670

Reply 4 of 7, by wierd_w

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Cross your fingers and hope for the best!

(Bios support is mainly about making sure chipset timings and the like are correct for the processor stepping and execution flow of that processor. 'Close enough' can sometimes happen if the cpu is not exactly identified correctly --lists some other cpu identity on post-- but is still 'good enough' to initialize the board correctly. IIRC, there were also community bios patchers/patches for some popular boards.)

Reply 5 of 7, by DustyShinigami

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I haven't found any online as of yet and I understand they're a bit rare, too. If I come across one for a reasonable price, I might take the gamble. Thanks.

OS: Windows 98 SE
CPU: Slot 1 Pentium III Coppermine 933MHz (SL448)
RAM: Kingston 256MB 133MHz
GPU: Nvidia 16MB Riva TNT/128MB Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Motherboard: ABit AB-BE6-II Intel 440BX
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value CT4670

Reply 6 of 7, by Beerfloat

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Also, not all slotkets support SMP or dual CPU mode. Doesn't matter for your purpose but hey if you're looking for value added features.
I used to have like 8 different brands and types of S370 slotkets. They evolved quickly from the basic first ones to having extensive jumper options for frequency and voltage and SMP.

Not sure if Pentium Pro is worth the effort, though? Any native slot 1 Pentium II was already better at almost everything except some niche tasks for those PPros with the massive 1MB L2 cache.
Whatever you would put in an S370 slotket would outclock any PPro massively.

Reply 7 of 7, by DustyShinigami

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I was just curious about them for those few CPU-sensitive games. But yeah, hopefully a Pentium II will do the trick. It seems to on 86Box anyway. 😀

OS: Windows 98 SE
CPU: Slot 1 Pentium III Coppermine 933MHz (SL448)
RAM: Kingston 256MB 133MHz
GPU: Nvidia 16MB Riva TNT/128MB Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Motherboard: ABit AB-BE6-II Intel 440BX
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value CT4670