[lug] Upgrading AMD *

[Bonnell, Doug]

The answer, of course, depends on what you want to do.
You will get two things from upgrading to a K6-3 processor:

     1. On chip cache memory. Will speedup somethings, esp.
        code with tight loops. The code can stay in cache where
        the processor can get at it faster.

     2. Increased CPU speed. As you've noted, 550Mhz vs. 333Mhz.

K7 processors come in two flavors, the slot A Athlons and the new
socket A Duron/Thunderbird. If you stick with your old motherboard,
then you are limited to the Socket 7 processors, K6-2 and K6-3.

The K6-3+ is a "mobile" processor, it runs are reduced power levels,
supported by a core voltage of 2.0v or less. The regular K6-3 will
have a core voltage above 2.0v, probably 2.2v. I just installed a
K6-2 550Mhz processor with a core voltage of 2.2v.

Check you motherboard to see what core voltages it supports.

It would help to know what motherboard you have.

Hope this helps,
Doug Bonnell

-----Original Message-----
From: John Starkey [mailto:jstarkey at advancecreations.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 2:46 PM
To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
Subject: [lug] Upgrading AMD *


I'm ready to upgrade a 333MHz AMD K7-2 and have never bought a CPU
before. I was wondering if i could get some input on the best way to do
this. The way i see it is I only have one simple option. Stay with the
K7-2s. I spent an hour or so looking last night and found that it's the
only upgrade I can do with a Super Socket 7. The Athlon, Durons and K-7
IIIs are all Socket A from what I can gather. But I am getting a little
overwhelmed since this is very new territory.

So the K7-2s only go up to 550MHz. I found a 533 for $48 and I can't see
going $20 for another 17MHz on a machine that's gonna be a firewall next
year. Going from a 333 to a 533 will I need to jumper anything for the
Voltage? Is that the "core voltage" in the specs?

Anyone know of any better way to do this or any options I may have
missed?

Another thing is I have a 233 in a machine and the BIOS peak at 266.
Would a BIOS upgrade, if available, up that a little so i can use the
333MHz in there (do BIOS do that?)? If so would it bottleneck anyway? I
have switched the processors actually so i know it'll work but it seems
there were some wierd issues as a result, and I'm thinking a BIOS
upgrade may fix that?

Thanks,

john

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