VOGONS


First post, by Nemo1985

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Hello, I finally found a K6-3+ they are so difficult to find and for sure not cheaps, before buy it I'd like to be sure if it will work in one my ss7 mb, I actually have a Asus P5A and an Epox EP-51MVP3E-M, I read about some issue with the asus and the k6 plus processors depending on the revision of mb, but I found nothing about the Epox, since the company is long gone there is no website anymore where to find updated bios or some info, does anyone have it?
Thank you in advance.

Last edited by Nemo1985 on 2018-06-12, 16:40. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 12, by Nemo1985

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kixs wrote:

Asus P2B is Slot-1 board. Epox one is SS7. But I don't have any info on it.

Sorry I meant P5A, Rev 1.03, Epox is with MVP3 chipset, I tried to look around someone had to buy a new bios chip to make it work with k6 plus processors...

Reply 3 of 12, by mv_cz

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Isn't it EP-51MVP3E-M board?

If so, than it has the same BIOS ID (according to this site http://www.kva.kursk.ru/bios1/HTML1/epox.html) as the EP-58MVP3C-M board and the BIOS version shloud also be the same - both motherboards listed on this site http://www.filesearch.ru/drivers/main/epox.html are linked to the identical bios file: VP300411.EXE, which is unfortunatelly not available for download from this site.
But it is listed under the EP-58MVP3C-M board on this site http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm and therefore it should have native K6-2/III+ support. I would give it a try, if your board is able to set vcore voltage to 2.0 or 2.1 volts, it should be fine.

Reply 4 of 12, by dionb

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Nemo1985 wrote:

[...]

I read about some issue with the asus and the k6 plus processors depending on the revision of mb,

So? You would have read that the issue exists with 1.05 and 1.06 revision, and you have a 1.03. So no issue. Only disadvantage to the 1.03 is that it's an early revision Aladdin V and can only cache 64MB of RAM. Which is almost irrelevant for a 3+, as the 3+ has its own cache and can cache whatever RAM is present in the system. The added value of motherboard (normally L2, now L3) cache is almost zero. Also, >64MB RAM is hardly period correct anyway.

Just flash the latest BIOS (available from Asus or on the K6Plus site) and you're good. I have a 1.04 and can confirm it works fine with my K6-3+ 400ATZ, running at 120x5=600MHz at 2.1Vcore.

but I found nothing about the Epox, since the company is long gone there is no website anymore where to find updated bios or some info, does anyone have it?
Thank you in advance.

As mentioned above, plz confirm the exact model # of the Epox board. You will almost certainly need a BIOS update and flashing the wrong BIOS is risky (although if you have an easy way to recover from a mis-flash it's more than worth trying, but only if you are confident you can de-brick a board).

Reply 5 of 12, by Nemo1985

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Thank you both, yes it is a Ep51 MVP3E-M (https://imgur.com/a/Mm7pVPQ that's not the actual picture, it was taken when I bought it) and actually I'm using the K6-2 with v2.1 so it should be good. I have updated the bios of asus to last version, so both should be capable of using the k6-3+ but the mvp3 seems to be better since I can use 128mb cachable ram, is that right?
have no way to recover from a bad flash, but I tried to flash https://www.wimsbios.com/biosupdates/large-hd … support/epox/88 this bios and so far everything is working, even if i'm not sure if I did the right thing since the MVP3E has 2 isa slots, while mine have 3.
Also the bios linked from mv_cz should be good since in the readme it says: "Model support: EP-58MVP3C-M, EP-51MVP3E-M, EP-51MVP3F-A, EP-58VP3A EP-5BVP3A, P55-VP3"

Reply 6 of 12, by mv_cz

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As long as you're using "plus" CPU, the cacheable limit is no issue, since the L2 sits on the core itself, so It is able to cache all RAM you have, as dionb wrote. The modified Epox BIOS should be based on the same VP300411 version, only the readme file is not included.
So now you have two decent super socket7 boards to use with K6-2/III+ so you can try both boards, do some benchmarks and choose the one which is more suitable for your hardware (namely graphics card) and is faster. Lucky you 😀

Reply 7 of 12, by dionb

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It's even easier if you turn it around: you have a K6-3+ with 256kB integrated L2 cache and no cachable limit, and a K6-2 without cache so dependent on the motherboard. You have one motherboard with a low cachable limit (64MB) and another with a higher one (at least 128MB). If you intend to run >64MB of RAM on both, it doesn't matter which board you use for the K6-3+. as it has its own cache, but the K6-2 needs the board to be within its cachable limits. So it makes most sense - at least in terms of RAM and caching - to give the MVP3-based board to the K6-2, with the Aladdin V rev D/E board for the K6-3+.

Of course it also depends on what you want to do with the K6-3+ system.

If you want to go for the maximal performance, the P5A can be clocked up to 120MHz FSB, and frequently runs stable there (YMMV and also depends on peripherals, but mine is fine).
If you want to use the system to clock down and go slow, the MVP3 has much more options than the Aladdin V, so you're better off on that board.

Reply 8 of 12, by Nemo1985

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So here is the deal, Ill use the Asus with the k6-3+ while the Epox Ill use the k6-2 at 500 mhz, both with 128mb of ram, I will use the k6-3+ at 500mhz, do I need to use the Epox heatsink in you opinion?
In the meanwhile I updated the bios, everything went fine, but I did flash the wrong bios on another mb (ECS P4S5A) so it's time to buy an eprom programmer, do you know where to find a cheap one?

Last edited by Nemo1985 on 2018-06-13, 21:42. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 10 of 12, by Nemo1985

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squiggly wrote:

Why do you need two k6 systems? The p5a with a k6-3+ is basically perfect anyway.

Well I already have both mb and processor (actually I ordered the k6-3+ yesterday) so why not? 😁

Reply 11 of 12, by Nemo1985

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Today I received both processors I ordered to upgrade my ss7 machines, the K6-2/500AFX and K6-III+/400ATZ, it's time to decide what heatsinks will be used!
The k6-2 have an higher voltage (v2.2 vs v2.0) so i'm going to use the bigger heatsink (Startech FAN3701U) for it while the other i'm going with a Startech FAN370PRO, no need to use thermal grease, everyone agree?

Reply 12 of 12, by mv_cz

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I would use some thermal grease, just to be on the safe side. But it's a fact, that back at the time, when I bought K6-2 CPU as new, there were no thermal compounds available in local PC hardware shop (so it works without it). Not much had changed even in the early days when I bought hot-new AMD Duron processor right after it was available in stores, where using thermal grease was a must, searching for *any* thermal compound was wery difficult.