KT7 Raid CPU Upgrade

Jkiefer · Jul 25, 2003

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with 256K.

Current System:

KT7 - Raid
OS: Windows XP Home Edition SP1
CPU: Athlon T'Bird 1.4 (Running 1506MHz from WINCPUID, Setting - 14x107FSB) Mem: All Componenets 512K (2x256 PC133)
Graphics: Xtasy GeForce 4 Ti4400, 128 MB
Sound: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
HDD(Boot): Seagate 30 gig on HP 370
HDD 2: Maxtor 120 gig on IDE 1 (3 - 40 gig partitions)
Pacific Digital DVD, Slave on IDE 1
Sony CD RW IDE 2
Belkin F5D6001 Wireless Network Card
Microsoft Ethernet MN-130 (For cable modem)
Bios A9 (Paul Howland Modifed for HPT 370 V2.32)

System been running solid for about a year, but I'd like to get some more out of this old horse before the pasture. Started life as a Duron 800 with 98SE.

Thanks,

jjk2000

Mark Ryan · Jul 25, 2003

Dunno about the KT7, but here's a post from earlier and all the messing around that I've done in resent days indiates to me, the KT7, KT7A-Raid and KG7-Raid units all appear to respond in VERY similar fashion when placing these CPU's into them.

+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+

Just to let you know I dropped an Athlon XP 2500+/333 (Barton) in my KT7A-RAID 1.0 and it works OK. It runs at 100Mhz bus. My old processor was a T-bird 1.1 GHz.

I did have to update the BIOS to the latest... I think the old BIOS was
-WZ and the new is -A9. And contrary to my expectations and days of preparations, upgrading the BIOS did not destroy my RAID 0+1. Your mileage may vary.

Sysinfo list the new CPU as running at ~1250, and FreshDevices FreshDiagnose benchmarks it at 2314 MWIPS. FreshDiagnose shows comparison values of 1059 MWIPS for a Pentium 1.6Gz, or 831 MWIPS for a Duron 800.

With a Radeon 9700 Pro, with the new processor, 3dmarks 2003 went from 8842 to 9286... but there was also a change to WinXP from 2000 (XP is slower) and different CATALYST drivers (new drives are faster), so these numbers are not apples-to-apples. Not a great boost.

As a bonus, the new chip runs cooler and the retail fan from AMD is much quieter than my old fan. My system also seems more stable.

The bottom line is, if you have the chip, the 2500+ works. For me this is a half-step for my next system upgrade.

-evik

"Jkiefer" wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with 256K.

Current System:

KT7 - Raid
OS: Windows XP Home Edition SP1
CPU: Athlon T'Bird 1.4 (Running 1506MHz from WINCPUID, Setting - 14x107FSB) ...

Wes Newell · Jul 26, 2003

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:05 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with 256K.

It should work fine, but you'll need to mod it to a 13 multiplier to access the upper multipliers.

Jkiefer · Jul 26, 2003

I have never modified a CPU before but I am willing to give it a shot. I looked at the link that shows you how to unlock the Palomino multipiers (closing the L1 contacts on the CPU) at Tom's Hardware site. Is this what needs to be done to the Barton core to access the upper multipiers or is there some other proceedure for the Barton?

Thanks,

JJK2000

"Wes Newell" wrote:

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:05 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was
thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before
moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and take
advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with 256K.

It should work fine, but you'll need to mod it to a 13 multiplier to access the upper multipliers.

Wes Newell · Jul 27, 2003

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 07:36:11 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

"Wes Newell" wrote:
...
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:05 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was
thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before
moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and
take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with
256K.

It should work fine, but you'll need to mod it to a 13 multiplier to
access the upper multipliers.

I have never modified a CPU before but I am willing to give it a shot. I looked at the link that shows you how to unlock the Palomino multipiers (closing the L1 contacts on the CPU) at Tom's Hardware site. Is this what needs to be done to the Barton core to access the upper multipiers or is there some other proceedure for the Barton?

The only thing you need to do is open 2 L3 bridges. They're all closed on the 2500+ (1700+ too, both with 11x default multiplier). You will need to open L3-3 and L3-5 (the last one). Should be pictures on the web somewhere of how to do it. Just make sure you know how much to cut. It doesn't take much. Look at some of the small laser cuts on some of the other bridges. You will need a good magnifying glass and a steady hand. I used an exacto knife to cut mine.

Jkiefer · Jul 29, 2003

"Wes Newell" wrote:

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 07:36:11 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

"Wes Newell" wrote:
...
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:05 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with 256K.

...

Thanks Wes. I ordered an XP2500+ and will give it a try when I get back from vacation.

JJK2000

Jkiefer · Aug 26, 2003

(Jkiefer) wrote:

"Wes Newell" wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 07:36:11 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

"Wes Newell" wrote:
...
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 16:24:05 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Has any one run a Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) on a KT7 Raid? I was
thinking of picking one up for my last upgrade of the KT7 before
moving on. I was hoping to get this to run at 2 gig or better and
take advantage of the 512K cache rather than go to a T'Bred B with
256K.
...

The Athlon 2500+ Barton was waiting for me when I returned from vacation. Having a good rest I decided this was the time to get on with upgrading the old KT7-Raid system. I modded the CPU just like WES instructed and used the muliplier x-reference on his site.

Had a bit of trouble, not with the processor though. After clearing the CMOS the system posted at 2000MHz. So far so good, then when Windows XP began to load, big problems! I received corrupted file error messages. Well just to let everyone know, I first got to Windows XP Home Edition by upgrading from WIN 95B OEM to WIN 98SE (Upgrade) to WIN XP HE (Upgrade). Tried many things and couldn't get it to work so decided to start with fresh install of the OS meaning going all the way back to WIN 95B. Found out that WIN 95B can't handle Athlon's faster than 1.1 gig unless you insatll patch files from Microsoft site. You will get a Windows protection error and you can't continue to laod the OS. Applied the patch according to the instructions and was able to load WIN 95B by setting clock speed of Athlon XP to 1.5 gig (7.0X in BIOS = 15X). Any faster and I would get windows protection error again when Windows begins to load for the first time after install. Anyway loaded WIN 98SE upgrade and then Windows XP upgrade. Cranked the multipier up to 7.5X (22x) and system posted at 2200 MHz. Not to bad for a 2500+ speced to run at 1.8 gig. Win XP loaded no problem. Need to have Vcore = 1.70 V to be stable. I tried to go a higher clock but no luck at this voltage. CPU is running about 48C (VIA Hardware Monitor)in current system and I don't want to try any higher voltage now. System is running much faster than the old Athlon 1.4 gig. I'm using the coolermaster heat sink and fan from my Athlon 1.4 on the XP.

Wanted share my expriences using the Barton on the KT7-Raid with A9 Bios (HPT v2.32 version) in case any others have taken the long hard road to XP like I have and need to do a fresh install on a fast Athlon system. When I did my original upgrade to XP I was already at WIN 98SE with 900 MHz Duron. So I did not get the WIndows protection error.

Now I am quite happy with the system and can get another year out of it! Thanks for all the great advice and info on your site Wes.

JJK2000

Wes Newell · Aug 27, 2003

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 20:41:20 -0700, Jkiefer wrote:

Wanted share my expriences using the Barton on the KT7-Raid with A9 Bios (HPT v2.32 version) in case any others have taken the long hard road to XP like I have and need to do a fresh install on a fast Athlon system. When I did my original upgrade to XP I was already at WIN 98SE with 900 MHz Duron. So I did not get the WIndows protection error.

Now I am quite happy with the system and can get another year out of it! Thanks for all the great advice and info on your site Wes.

You posted some excellent stuff about the windows problems. I don't run win so I wasn't fully aware of the problems. Hopefully it will help others. Thanks.

Derek Turner · Aug 27, 2003

On 26 Aug 2003 20:41:20 -0700, (Jkiefer)
wrote:

Well just to let everyone know, I first got to Windows
XP Home Edition by upgrading from WIN 95B OEM to WIN 98SE (Upgrade) to WIN XP HE (Upgrade). Tried many things and couldn't get it to work so decided to start with fresh install of the OS meaning going all the way back to WIN 95B.

I may be missing something here, but ISTM you went to a lot of trouble for nothing! I took the same upgrade route as you. To do a clean fresh install just bung in the XP CD and follow the instructions. When it says it can't find a previous installation swap XP for the 95b CD, after a short fondling session with 95b you're asked to swap back and installation procededs as normal. That way you get a clean install with no nasty legacy from the older versions. The 'previous install' does NOT need to be on your hard drive! If you've two optical drives just bung 95b in t'other when asked - even easier. If 95b came on floppies (not sure if it ever did?) then bung disk one in the FDD.

Chris (6) · Aug 27, 2003

Derek Turner wrote:

On 26 Aug 2003 20:41:20 -0700, (Jkiefer)
wrote:

Well just to let everyone know, I first got to Windows
XP Home Edition by upgrading from WIN 95B OEM to WIN 98SE (Upgrade) to WIN XP HE (Upgrade). Tried many things and couldn't get it to work so decided to start with fresh install of the OS meaning going all the way back to WIN 95B.

I may be missing something here, but ISTM you went to a lot of trouble ...

I agree, it is pointless to re-install all your Win versions. Another way round is to just create a boot floppy in win98 (must be win98 as has real mode CDROM driver built in), copy over format and fdisk to the floppy. Then boot the machine from the boot floppy and do a system format (A:\format /s /u) of the HD (doing any partition changes you require with fdisk beforehand). This will just be a command-line version of win98, but enough to satisfy win XP so you can install the new OS from here.

Jkiefer · Aug 27, 2003

Chris wrote:

Derek Turner wrote:
On 26 Aug 2003 20:41:20 -0700, (Jkiefer)
wrote:

Well just to let everyone know, I first got to Windows XP Home Edition by upgrading from WIN 95B OEM to WIN 98SE (Upgrade) to WIN XP HE (Upgrade). Tried many things and couldn't get it to work so decided to start with fresh install of the OS meaning going all the way back to WIN 95B.

...

I'm not a Windows expert and I don't claim to be one, but was glad to get my system back and functioning and to share my experience with others. I did try starting from the XP CD but could not get it to work, I kept getting errors during the install. I never got to the point when XP setup was looking for previous version of Windows. Maybe I screwed something else up. I did not think of the method using the Win98 boot floppy, that may have worked. I appreciate the information and suggestions and will definitly try these techniques if I ever have such a problem again. All said and done, I don't think that my effort was pointless since I accomplished my goal, maybe I wasted some time but it's my time to waste and I did learn some new information about Windows from the expeience. Now I can be smarter about it.

JJK2000