Well im trying to find a slotket that gives me the most control (voltage, FSB, etc). Powerleap seem like a good option because it furthurs "the control" by having the ability of using processors in motherboards that cant support the voltage.
Like many before have said: If you're trying to upgrade you PC to get the last bit out of it, I also recommend you buy a new PC. They are dirt cheap nowdays anyways. But if you are just trying to upgrade your spare PC that you use for whatever like a webserver/firewall/fileserver and can't justify getting a new PC then by all means do what I did.
I've got 2 IBM Aptiva's here(1 webserver and 1 firewall):
2171-54U - (V66M-2Z mobo) P3 Celeron Tualatin 1.4Ghz, 2 DIMM slots with 384Mb RAM, 100W PSU
2163-580 - (V66M mobo) P3 550Mhz, 3 DIMM slots w 128Mb RAM, 70W PSU
Dont remember how or when but I got ASUS S370-DL slotket sometime 2 years ago (many other models are available for $10 on ebay just make sure they have proper voltage -> 1.5v). Naturally, I decided to upgrade my webserver to the max CPU it could handle. After exploring all the options, the fastest CPU made was the 1.4Ghz P3 Tualatin core. Since both boxes' mobos are limited to 100Mhz FSB, I had to settle for Celelon with Tualatin core (regular P3 Tualatin = 133Mhz FSB, Celerons= 100Mhz). The slotket can adjust voltage all the way to 1.5v as needed for the Tualatin core. The only problem was I needed an additional adapter coz my slotket did not support Tualatin core pin-out (its the same freaking socket but Intel decided to limit user's upgrade path and switched a few pins around ). You can either buy an adapter or there exists a mod page (I can try to find the link), but you'll need a solddering iron. If you buy slotket from Powerleap, you wont need the adapter.
Obviously I tried to cut corners on this one and attempted to mod the slotket myself -> bad idea . The funny thing is that the slotket still works after it was set on fire :P.
I got two Tualatin Celeron 1.4Ghz CPU's from Ebay (approx US$35 a piece a year ago, so they must be cheaper now) and later (after I almost destroyed the slotket and one of the CPUs) a pair of slotket adapters.
So I was able to test both mobo's with 1.4Ghz Celerons. Test involved booting to linux, and windows. Worked fine.
Two points to watch out for with Aptivas.
- Power supplies:
Aptiva's PSU's - to put it lightly - they suck.
I had a spare Geforce2 MX400 w/ 64Mb and TV-out and for a while I considered making a media player box. So decided to try it out along with 1.4Ghz Celerons. Notice that I put the max PSU power above in the specs for a reason. Well 2171 model with 100W PSU, worked fine, booted into windows and I played some 3D-intensive games (cant remember which). Whereas 2163 model with 70W PSU had difficulties POST-ing up. Disconnecting CDROM, extra fans, HDs would allow it to POST some of the time. After plugging in a 200W PSU, it posted perfectly every time. That 70W PSU didn't have enough juice to power all the peripherals. Specs on 1.4Ghz Tualatin say it takes something like 35-40W so thats half of 70W right there. GeF2 Vid card must take another good chunk, HDs spinning up also take something like 10W each... Add it all up and you've got a problem. Unfortunatelly you CANNOT fit a standard-sized PSU in an Aptiva. So u better watch out right there as well.
- Memory:
I had a stick of 256Mb SDRAM (double sided) and borrowed another one of 256Mb (single sided). Well the double sided worked with both MOBO's(able to boot to win/linux). The borrowed stick didn't work almost at all. One box (cant remember which one) saw only half of it, the other saw all of it but kept crashing while booting to win/linux. Must be the chip density issue, coz I had similar problem with a stick of 128Mb PC133 that only had 4 chips on the stick(boxes either saw half of it or crashed on OS boot). I recommend 128Mb sticks with no less than 8chips for single sided ones. My double sided 256Mb stick has a total of 16chips (8 per side). So you must be careful with picking RAM for your Aptiva. I'm pretty sure that the V66M-2Z (2171 model) can have as much as 512Mb of RAM, unfortunatelly nobody I know has another double-sided stick of 256Mb. V66M with its 3 DIMMS slots saw 512Mb (256 + 2x128) and I have a feeling it can take 3x256Mb.
A few annoying things about Aptiva's BIOS:
-With the 1.4Ghz CPU in, BIOS complains with error 5555 BIOS CPU Mismatch or some such. CPU is detected as 200Mhz in BIOS but both linux and windows see it correctly as 1.4Ghz.
- Aptivas can't run headless (no keyboard or mouse), BIOS displays POST errors and waits.
- With any kind of POST errors (like no keyboard, CPU mismatch crap) the BIOS waits for you to press enter to continue... so having to go to the basement (where my servers are kept) is quite annoying whenever I need to reboot or if there's a power outage.
Oh and BIOS version is 3.2 (dated 03/03/2000) for both MOBO's. If you see a newer one somewhere, give me a shout.
As you can see I spent a lot of time with these two aptivas . Hope this info helps you.
The only problem was I needed an additional adapter coz my slotket did not support Tualatin core pin-out (its the same freaking socket but Intel decided to limit user's upgrade path and switched a few pins around ).
Another solution is to go with slockets that have Tualatin sockets on them. I like my Upgradeware Slot-T's . They also offer complete kits. My boss asked me to do this for two of the Dell machines at the office and for some reason those Tualatin Celerons are getting more pricey; the going rate for the 1.4GHz model is up around $50 now (used to be able to get them for $20)
yeah the aptiva PSU's do suck, and it is pretty small. hey ive got the same vidcard as you, GF2 MX400.
I remember getting a "CPU BIOS Update Code Mismatch" error, with a 733/133 processor. I was unable to press enter and get past it. That probably happened coz my mobo cant handle 133, only 100. Either that or it can only handle Katmai-type processors.
I dont know exactly what BIOS version ive got, but im pretty sure its the same as you (march 2000), not sure about the day, though.
Another solution is to go with slockets that have Tualatin sockets on them. I like my Upgradeware Slot-T's . They also offer complete kits. My boss asked me to do this for two of the Dell machines at the office and for some reason those Tualatin Celerons are getting more pricey; the going rate for the 1.4GHz model is up around $50 now (used to be able to get them for $20)
-drasnor
The reason why I didn't recommend Upgadeware's Slot-T is coz they're way overpriced compared to any generic slotket + tualatin adapter pair (on Ebay at least). But if you can find one cheap -> HELL YEAH!
Better watch out what DELL's u are upgrading. The one dell I tried (Dimmension v400 with A08 BIOS) would not run with any P3 period. The BIOS detected a pair of CPU's I tried (P3550 and 1.4Ghz Celetin) and would stall with a warning about P3 not being supported(BULLSH*T!). DELL pretty much does not want u to upgrade -> yet another reason I no longer buy DELL.
Well mines actually an IBM Aptiva, not a Dell. But it could be a similar problem, but i managed to run a pentium 2 processor in my motherboard so im pretty sure it was because the other processor was a coppermine type.
The one dell I tried (Dimmension v400 with A08 BIOS) would not run with any P3 period. The BIOS detected a pair of CPU's I tried (P3550 and 1.4Ghz Celetin) and would stall with a warning about P3 not being supported(BULLSH*T!).
Yeah, I know. I ran into this problem on my sister's Dell V400 but it wasn't a big deal since I had another machine that would take the upgrade. The problem is that the vXXX series Dells are actually Optiplex machines (Optiplex BIOS) and Dell likes to lock those down. I seem to remember reading about a guy getting his to work by downgrading the BIOS to like rev A05 but that machine was real flaky anyway so I didn't try it. The machine I have at home is an XPS R350 and it did just fine on the latest BIOS. The machines at work are XPS T500 (Pentium 3 500MHz) and reports are that they work too.
I like the Slot-T because it is the cheapest of the only three adapters designed for Tualatin cores I'm aware of (the others being the Powerleap SlotWonder and Powerleap PL-iP3/T). Stacking adapters is an acceptable solution if you have that much clearance between your CPU slot and your memory but keep in mind many machines don't. Going that route also can get you in trouble since there are differences in the logical signal levels for Tualatin processors vs Coppermines (see AGTL vs AGTL+ and you'll know what I mean). A properly-designed slocket will address these issues.
Comments
Like many before have said: If you're trying to upgrade you PC to get the last bit out of it, I also recommend you buy a new PC. They are dirt cheap nowdays anyways. But if you are just trying to upgrade your spare PC that you use for whatever like a webserver/firewall/fileserver and can't justify getting a new PC then by all means do what I did.
I've got 2 IBM Aptiva's here(1 webserver and 1 firewall):
2171-54U - (V66M-2Z mobo) P3 Celeron Tualatin 1.4Ghz, 2 DIMM slots with 384Mb RAM, 100W PSU
2163-580 - (V66M mobo) P3 550Mhz, 3 DIMM slots w 128Mb RAM, 70W PSU
Dont remember how or when but I got ASUS S370-DL slotket sometime 2 years ago (many other models are available for $10 on ebay just make sure they have proper voltage -> 1.5v). Naturally, I decided to upgrade my webserver to the max CPU it could handle. After exploring all the options, the fastest CPU made was the 1.4Ghz P3 Tualatin core. Since both boxes' mobos are limited to 100Mhz FSB, I had to settle for Celelon with Tualatin core (regular P3 Tualatin = 133Mhz FSB, Celerons= 100Mhz). The slotket can adjust voltage all the way to 1.5v as needed for the Tualatin core. The only problem was I needed an additional adapter coz my slotket did not support Tualatin core pin-out (its the same freaking socket but Intel decided to limit user's upgrade path and switched a few pins around
Obviously I tried to cut corners on this one and attempted to mod the slotket myself -> bad idea
I got two Tualatin Celeron 1.4Ghz CPU's from Ebay (approx US$35 a piece a year ago, so they must be cheaper now) and later (after I almost destroyed the slotket and one of the CPUs) a pair of slotket adapters.
So I was able to test both mobo's with 1.4Ghz Celerons. Test involved booting to linux, and windows. Worked fine.
Two points to watch out for with Aptivas.
- Power supplies:
Aptiva's PSU's - to put it lightly - they suck.
I had a spare Geforce2 MX400 w/ 64Mb and TV-out and for a while I considered making a media player box. So decided to try it out along with 1.4Ghz Celerons. Notice that I put the max PSU power above in the specs for a reason. Well 2171 model with 100W PSU, worked fine, booted into windows and I played some 3D-intensive games (cant remember which). Whereas 2163 model with 70W PSU had difficulties POST-ing up. Disconnecting CDROM, extra fans, HDs would allow it to POST some of the time. After plugging in a 200W PSU, it posted perfectly every time. That 70W PSU didn't have enough juice to power all the peripherals. Specs on 1.4Ghz Tualatin say it takes something like 35-40W so thats half of 70W right there. GeF2 Vid card must take another good chunk, HDs spinning up also take something like 10W each... Add it all up and you've got a problem. Unfortunatelly you CANNOT fit a standard-sized PSU in an Aptiva. So u better watch out right there as well.
- Memory:
I had a stick of 256Mb SDRAM (double sided) and borrowed another one of 256Mb (single sided). Well the double sided worked with both MOBO's(able to boot to win/linux). The borrowed stick didn't work almost at all. One box (cant remember which one) saw only half of it, the other saw all of it but kept crashing while booting to win/linux. Must be the chip density issue, coz I had similar problem with a stick of 128Mb PC133 that only had 4 chips on the stick(boxes either saw half of it or crashed on OS boot). I recommend 128Mb sticks with no less than 8chips for single sided ones. My double sided 256Mb stick has a total of 16chips (8 per side). So you must be careful with picking RAM for your Aptiva. I'm pretty sure that the V66M-2Z (2171 model) can have as much as 512Mb of RAM, unfortunatelly nobody I know has another double-sided stick of 256Mb. V66M with its 3 DIMMS slots saw 512Mb (256 + 2x128) and I have a feeling it can take 3x256Mb.
A few annoying things about Aptiva's BIOS:
-With the 1.4Ghz CPU in, BIOS complains with error 5555 BIOS CPU Mismatch or some such. CPU is detected as 200Mhz in BIOS but both linux and windows see it correctly as 1.4Ghz.
- Aptivas can't run headless (no keyboard or mouse), BIOS displays POST errors and waits.
- With any kind of POST errors (like no keyboard, CPU mismatch crap) the BIOS waits for you to press enter to continue... so having to go to the basement (where my servers are kept) is quite annoying whenever I need to reboot or if there's a power outage.
Oh and BIOS version is 3.2 (dated 03/03/2000) for both MOBO's. If you see a newer one somewhere, give me a shout.
As you can see I spent a lot of time with these two aptivas
Great info, welcome to Short-Media!
-drasnor
I remember getting a "CPU BIOS Update Code Mismatch" error, with a 733/133 processor. I was unable to press enter and get past it. That probably happened coz my mobo cant handle 133, only 100. Either that or it can only handle Katmai-type processors.
I dont know exactly what BIOS version ive got, but im pretty sure its the same as you (march 2000), not sure about the day, though.
Better watch out what DELL's u are upgrading. The one dell I tried (Dimmension v400 with A08 BIOS) would not run with any P3 period. The BIOS detected a pair of CPU's I tried (P3550 and 1.4Ghz Celetin) and would stall with a warning about P3 not being supported(BULLSH*T!). DELL pretty much does not want u to upgrade -> yet another reason I no longer buy DELL.
Hope it works out for u.
I like the Slot-T because it is the cheapest of the only three adapters designed for Tualatin cores I'm aware of (the others being the Powerleap SlotWonder and Powerleap PL-iP3/T). Stacking adapters is an acceptable solution if you have that much clearance between your CPU slot and your memory but keep in mind many machines don't. Going that route also can get you in trouble since there are differences in the logical signal levels for Tualatin processors vs Coppermines (see AGTL vs AGTL+ and you'll know what I mean). A properly-designed slocket will address these issues.
-drasnor