A CPU tech question

[TapeWurm]

How do you know if a processor supports a motherboards bus speed of 100 or 133 mhz, etc? Ex: I have an Athlon 1.04 ghz and have the motherboards jumper set at 100 mhz cuz I don't know if it supports 133. Did the 133 support start at a certain speed CPU? I have searched all over but am probably not phrasing my search right. I would want to jumper it to 133 if the CPU can support it. Thanks.

[Sefy]

Athlon CPU's are usualy at 133mhz, while the Duron's use the 100mhz, i'm not familiar with a 1.04, but a 1.4 does use 133mhz, but can also be set as a 100mhz (x14)

[freak_in_cage_10k]

is you type the stepping of your cpu into this site it MAY tell you your FSB:

http://mp3.zonebg.com/cpu/cpu.php

but my guess is that your fsb is 100 and your multiplier is 10 = 1000MHz.

OR you fsb could be 133 and multiplier 7.5 = 1GHz also!

you could try to increase your fsb to 133, but make sure you takle your multiplier down to 7.5 or i doubt it will work! its worth a try, check out www.futuremark.com (forums) for more info!

[TapeWurm]

Thanks for the help guys. While still not 100% sure, I'm probably going to go ahead and bump it up to 133. Hell, if it fries, I can afford a replacement as cheap as they are. Thanks again!

[mrtristan]

Before you try that, you might want to download a program like sandra. A quick google search will provide a link to their website. There is a free version and you can check the fsb of your cpu really quickly by installing the software. Better than chancing it, in my opinion.

[gmatov]

Sandra can be found at sisoft.com. But, it will tell you the stepping of your CPU, but if you have it set wrong, will not tell you so. It will only report the actual, right now, speed.
You should copy the numbers from the CPU and access the AMD site to find what it is, and what your board settings should be. I have(well,I gave it to my daughter, but same diff ) a 1200 Athlon that is 100 mhz buss, so don't listen tthose who say anything over 1 gig is automatically 133. There are 2000+ CPUs that run on a 100 meg buss. You can ONLY go by AMD's site, with the numbers on your CPU to find what the hell it is.
There are people who will tell you to OC your CPU who are short on specifics. They will tell you to just bump the buss speed, or the multiplier without reference to voltage, etc, as though it is the simplest, safest thing in the world.
I almost wish it were as difficult as it was just a few years ago, where you had to watch everything to get a successful OC.
We'd hav e fewer people telling you, oh, yeah, just bump your clock to 900mhz and you'll have a 40 ghz machine.
If you want to OC, go to one of the sites that DO this, and follow them religiously, or you WILL lose a board, and CPU.
And, cooling is of the utmost import. BoxedAMDs come with a cooler they think is adequate. All mine have the AMD supplied coolers, and all of mine run hotter than all the reports on this site.. Much hotter. Some of the guys here tell you their CPUs run at a lower temperature than normal room temperature. I think they're fulla beans.

[gmatov]

Tapeworm,
I didn't see it before, but the"hell, if it fries..." is a dumb remark. It may, as well, take your board with it. I have had CPUs burn through a layer or 2 of the board and ruin it, as well as the CPU.
If a CPU AND board are well within your budget, go right ahead.
Don't look for a pity party if you do.

[TapeWurm]

Tapeworm,
I didn't see it before, but the"hell, if it fries..." is a dumb remark. It may, as well, take your board with it. I have had CPUs burn through a layer or 2 of the board and ruin it, as well as the CPU.
If a CPU AND board are well within your budget, go right ahead.
Don't look for a pity party if you do.

Haha... I was just being light-hearted about the whole thing. Whether I could afford to buy a new one or not, I'd never dive right into something like that without knowing what's what. I just really need to get a firm understanding of the whole Frequency, clock, FSB thing. I'ze too damn po to be affording me a new MB/CPU just for the sake of a little more speed.

[gmatov]

Tape Wurm,

OK, a short course on CPUs.
First, you have to realize that every one on the market failed its tests, all the way down to what yours is marked at. They test them all at the high speeds and clocks to try to qualify them.

If they overheat at 133, or throw errors, they'll try 100, and if they don't pass, they'll drop the multiplier again till they finally get it to run stably, possibly even 1 step down, for safety's sake, so it won't burn out so quickly on small error.

They do not like to throw away a core. They'd rather get 25 bucks for a failure, more or less, even if they can't get 2 or 300 for what it was supposed to be.

For a small history lesson, back in the 486 days, Intel actually did purposely sell a crippled CPU. The 486 DX cost so much more than the SX, no math co-processor. So, people ordered so many SXs that they had to cut a few wires, crippling them.

All the chip makers TRY to make good, fast CPUs. More money in the bank.

You have a problem in that, a 1 gig can be either 100 X 10, or 133 X 7.5. Many of the other speeds can't be divided by both multipliers to come out more or less dead on

As I said, if you are comfortable with the innards of your 'puter, read the etching on the CPU and check AMD's site. I know you know enough to set the buss freq jumpers, so you probably have some smarts on the subject.

Cheers,

George