Processor swap?

spud17

My PC, mostly from skips/scrounged has been playing up lately, but I'll start another thread about that.

I currently have a Gigabyte GA-7vkmls mainboard, fitted with an AMD AthlonXP2400.
Over the weekend I was given a case fitted with a Mercury KOB740FDMx mainboard, complete with AMD Duron 1.3 (?), and no HD.
The cpu fan would run but it wouldn't boot, so I swapped the psu for an old spare 200w psu and it booted up, threw in a Puppy linux cd and it surfed the net just fine.

Both are Socket A, the Mercury manual says it supports AthlonXP, but the website,which doesn't have much info says it has AMD 2200pro.

Will it be safe to swap the Athlon XP to the Mercury?

DatabaseError

is the gigabyte board borked? if not, I'd be happier with that

fwor

It should be safe, in that they should be pin-compatible, and neither board nor CPU should come to any harm as long as you put an adequate heatsink on.

However, you need to look into the spec of the CPU in more detail, as if the FSB clock rate is wrong it may just not boot, or it may boot but not run at the quoted clock speed.

If you read the full CPU code from the label (like AXDA3000DKV4D) then you can see what FSB and other specs are here:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/TYPE-Athlon%20XP.html

spud17

DatabaseError wrote: »

is the gigabyte board borked? if not, I'd be happier with that

See my other lengthy (sorry) thread.

Baldur

The Mercury motherboard supports 266MHz FSB, which was the highest used by XP2400+ CPUs from memory - above that, the FSB was 333MHz or 400MHz, so it should support a 2400+ with no problem, as long as the RAM is compatible (as the Duron 1300 was 100MHz FSB).

spud17

Baldur wrote: »

The Mercury motherboard supports 266MHz FSB, which was the highest used by XP2400+ CPUs from memory - above that, the FSB was 333MHz or 400MHz, so it should support a 2400+ with no problem, as long as the RAM is compatible (as the Duron 1300 was 100MHz FSB).

Thanks for that, the Gigabyte originally had a similar Duron, the only difference is the old one used SDRAM and this Mercury uses DDR.
Both 266MHz FSB, had to up it through jumper and BIOS.

fwor

Thanks for the link, I'm sure everything will be OK, the full CPU code is AXDA2400DKV3C.
Checked here
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%20XP%202400%2B%20-%20AXDA2400DKV3C.html

spud17

DatabaseError wrote: »

is the gigabyte board borked? if not, I'd be happier with that

It looks to be, I don't mind old, it's unreliable I don't put up with. If the Mercury board turns out to be no good, I can see me having to fork out.

If you knew me, you'd know how difficult that is to say.

I'll be back here looking for advice.

Dual Core E5200 seems more than adequate, and good value, but choosing a motherboard would be more problematic.

DatabaseError

E5200=epic win!
any socket 775 board will do, p35 chipset is a great one (and cheaper than the new p45), but the p31 is still pretty good and boards available for around £30..including a pretty good gigabyte one
Processor, with decent cooling, should overclock to 3Ghx+

spakkker

Gigabyte G31M-S2L - I think the current version is g31m-es2l -poor memory dividers but can get e5200 to 4ghz.
I think there's an asrock board p43de which will o/c - just google the board and overclock.
My e5200 is major improve on e2180 which was major improve on 3.2 pentium.
Treat yourself -http://valid.canardpc.com:80/show_oc.php?id=553406

spud17

Thanks guys, but I've got no intention of getting into over -clocking. :eek:

I'm going to try the Mercury board and take it from there.

I don't play games, just want something boring, but I'd seen and heard good things about the E5200 so used that as a starting point.

My e5200 is major improve on e2180 which was major improve on 3.2 pentium.

Interesting because a workmate bought a Dell / Vista Business machine about a year ago with the E2180.
It had been flagged up on here somewhere as being decent, I pointed him to it and he got the tower only, delivered for £182, and he's really pleased with it.

Percy1983

Well an E5200 is 2.5ghz standard which will be a massive improvement, if overlocking I wouldn't expect 4Ghz, not many have made it that far, the last one I overclocked would not go past 3.72ghz and it does seem that is quite average.