http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/list.aspx? … ge=en&m=P5A&p=1

To say the truth, I'm also surprised by finding this info directly from Asus.

tayyare wrote:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/list.aspx? … ge=en&m=P5A&p=1

To say the truth, I'm also surprised by finding this info directly from Asus.

Haha, yeah, decent list, but largely jibberish to me 😜

RavenholmDX wrote:

tayyare wrote:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/list.aspx? … ge=en&m=P5A&p=1

To say the truth, I'm also surprised by finding this info directly from Asus.

Haha, yeah, decent list, but largely jibberish to me 😜

A K6-2 450 or faster is the logical (cheap) choice. If you find the K6-2 too slow then you could get a K6-3 but those often cost $20 or so.

Only some revisons of these boards will run the K6-2+ or K6-3+ and I never remember which ones.

Skyscraper wrote:

RavenholmDX wrote:

tayyare wrote:

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/list.aspx? … ge=en&m=P5A&p=1

To say the truth, I'm also surprised by finding this info directly from Asus.

Haha, yeah, decent list, but largely jibberish to me 😜

A K6-2 450 or faster is the logical (cheap) choice. If you find the K6-2 too slow then you could get a K6-3 but those often cost $20 or so.

Only some revisons of these boards will run the K6-2+ or K6-3+ and I never remember which ones.

I've read that this is the revision that can use the mobile chips (but can only cache 64MB of RAM). There's a decently priced K6-2+ 500Mhz for sale locally. Should I jump on it?

I would personally go straight for the K6-III+ 400Mhz 1.6v or 450mhz 1.7v chips and not look back.

blank001 wrote:

I would personally go straight for the K6-III+ 400Mhz 1.6v or 450mhz 1.7v chips and not look back.

I would, but they seem relatively hard to find. At least I couldn't find any on eBay with a quick search.

EDIT: I found an APZ model, but it's about $60 shipped to Ireland, which is a bit much.

RavenholmDX wrote:

I've read that this is the revision that can use the mobile chips (but can only cache 64MB of RAM). There's a decently priced K6-2+ 500Mhz for sale locally. Should I jump on it?

The K6-2+ is not much slower than the K6-3+. If the CPU is cheap enough you should buy it, you can always look for a reasonable priced K6-3+ later.

RavenholmDX wrote:

Haha, yeah, decent list, but largely jibberish to me 😜

useful stuff:
Good reading for people new to retro computing
Good reading for people new to retro computing

In particular it links Redhill which is good fireside reading when you want to get the basics of an era squared.

1.04 does support the + CPU's and will cache 128mb.
Perfect ss7 boards, good choice.

RavenholmDX wrote:

blank001 wrote:

I would personally go straight for the K6-III+ 400Mhz 1.6v or 450mhz 1.7v chips and not look back.

I would, but they seem relatively hard to find. At least I couldn't find any on eBay with a quick search.

EDIT: I found an APZ model, but it's about $60 shipped to Ireland, which is a bit much.

I'm not sure if this a good seller, but it's cheap http://www.ebay.com/itm/190425127486?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

RavenholmDX wrote:

• What's the absolute fasted CPU I could throw in this thing?
• What's the best/most-versatile CPU I could get? (Faster isn't always better IMO).

The fastest CPU is eighter the + or non+ edition of the K6-III. The only advantage the + has over the non+ is that it's cooler running and you can change it's settings on the fly. Using software. According to phill. Never tried that my self.

The non+ is as said running hotter than the +. And you will have trouble fitting a cooler like this:
Because of where Asus decided to implement the ATX power connector.


I have tried. And it is fitting beautifully on a GA-5AX and a FIC PA-2013. Just not the P5A.
Don't get me wrong on this. It's an extremely good cooler, mooving 30cfm of air. (Startech proclames that, on their site)
I can't test those numbers out, as I don't have any equipment for it.
What I do notice about it. Is that it is cooling so much, that it's not even hand-warm, when a K6-III-400 is running UT99.
Or other software titles, like NFS-2000 or any benchmark for that sake. And it is quiet enough not to be of any trouble.
Finally... It was really cheap.

On the P5A, the board have been rumoured to get unstable at clockfrequencies over 500mhz. Don't go higher, to be shure.

For memmory amount to cache, try checking this page.
http://www.amd-k6.com/cacheable-ram-on-socket-7-platforms/
As far as I remember, the 1.04 has chipset rev. G (I am really unshure about this)

One final note. The last BIOS for this board, is an BETA version. And should allow for higher clocked CPU's

brostenen wrote:

RavenholmDX wrote:

• What's the absolute fasted CPU I could throw in this thing?
• What's the best/most-versatile CPU I could get? (Faster isn't always better IMO).

On the P5A, the board have been rumoured to get unstable at clockfrequencies over 500mhz. Don't go higher, to be shure.

There's good data on overclocking the K6-III+. A member here gathered the data on overclocking to 600Mhz. My analysis found an suggestive difference (pvalue=0.056) between the lower vcore and higher vcore K6-III+ chips. I think there's good reason to get the lower vcore and stably overclock it.

original data here: K6-3+/450 overclock tourney: ACZ vs APZ

The data (I didn't input the 2.2+ category, so it's conservatively assuming those two that can't do 2.2 can do 2.2):

1> x
2 [1] 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.9 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.2
3> y
4 [1] 1.9 1.9 2.0 2.0 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2

It looks like there's almost a p-value < 0.05 difference between the two:

1> t.test(x, y)
2
3  Welch Two Sample t-test
4
5data:  x and y
6t = -2.002, df = 25.02, p-value = 0.05624
7alternative hypothesis: true difference in means is not equal to 0
895 percent confidence interval:
9 -0.140448347  0.001986808
10sample estimates:
11mean of x mean of y 
12 2.030769  2.100000 

smaller variance on the APZ voltage

1> mean(x)
2[1] 2.030769
3> mean(y)
4[1] 2.1
5> sd(x)
6[1] 0.07510676
7> sd(y)
8[1] 0.1069045

Well... I was just refering to old techsites, reporting that the Asus P5A it self are getting unstable over 500mhz.
Wether it was K6-2, K6-3, K6-2+ or K6-3+ It's not the CPU. It's the board. And why I won't recommend anything
past 500mhz on the Asus-P5A.

tayyare wrote:

To say the truth, I'm also surprised by finding this info directly from Asus.

Someone high up at Asus might be a member of Vogons.... 😳

(Just kidding... It's a joke)