KT7A-RAID with Barton XP 2500/333 works OK

[eViktor]

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

 

[Wes Newell]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 01:50:32 -0400, eViktor wrote:

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.

The default speed of tthe 2500+ is 1.83GHz at 11x166MHz FSB. You've got it way underclocked. At least change your multiplier to the highest you can set (12above or something like that) and raise your FSB to at least 133MHz assuming you have PC133 ram. If your ram won't run at 133, change the default multiplier on the cpu to 13 and it will then boot up at 20x100 (2.0GHz). It will do 2gig easy. You're just wasting processor power now.

 

[eViktor]

Good call, thanks! Actually I dropped the processor in to see what would happen about a month ago while I was migrating the motherboard- bound RAID to a new Highpoint RocketRAID 404 so I could move it more easily, then I went on a trip, had this IRS thing, refinanced, had that Web Hosting service go out of business, not to mention the flood from the ice maker, a landscaping project from hell, the death of a hard disk, and 16 other bad things. In theory I was just going to have this setup for a couple of weeks, then upgrade, so weaning speed wasn't an issue. That's still the plan, since all I need is a case, ps, motherboard, and DDR and about $300.

I had played around with speeding things up for a few minutes back then but couldn't get anything other than 12Above at 100/33 (1250Mhz) to POST.

Following your tip and web space, I took another look. I have Crucial PC133 memory, but booting at 12Above at 133/33 (1660Mhz) will only POST once in a while, and when it does it only runs for a few minutes at best. Most likely memory problems, but possibly power supply issues (the ATI 9700Pro and 4-disk RAID make for a power sucking pig). But, setting it to 12Above at 124/31 makes it very stable and bumps it up to 1550Mhz.

In my post above I said 3DMark 2003 when I meant 3DMark 2001. The new value is 10598 3dMarks'01, a pretty good boost over 8842. 3DMark 2003 for the new system is 3755. The MWIPS goes up to 3651, and the whole system is noticeably faster.

Since I'm still planning on upgrading the motherboard, I'm not too interested in modifying the chip to change the default multiplier (12.5).

Just curious, but why would changing the default multiplier to 13 make it boot at 20 times 100? Does it unlock additional BIOS options beyond 12Above? TIA.

-evik

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 01:50:32 -0400, eViktor wrote:

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.

The default speed of tthe 2500+ is 1.83GHz at 11x166MHz FSB. You've got it way underclocked. At least change your multiplier to the highest you can set (12above or something like that) and raise your FSB to at least 133MHz assuming you have PC133 ram. If your ram won't run at 133, change the default multiplier on the cpu to 13 and it will then boot up at 20x100 (2.0GHz). It will do 2gig easy. You're just wasting processor power now.

 

[Wes Newell]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 16:30:57 -0400, eViktor wrote:

Just curious, but why would changing the default multiplier to 13 make it boot at 20 times 100? Does it unlock additional BIOS options beyond 12Above? TIA.

The board only supports 4 multiplier bits. The cpu has 5. If the default on the cpu is 12.5 or less, then the 5th bit is as the board expects it (not used). Set it high (13 or higher default), and then everytyhing changes on the settings of the first 4. See Multiplier Cross Rference in link below.