Pentiums, socklets, and Coppermine, Oh My!

Graymalkin asks: "I just put my money into a dual Slot 1 motherboard and a PIII 500. I intend to eventually get a second 500 when their price drops, but now I'm worried about the life of my motherboard. I think it will be the 650 Coppermine and up processors that will be exclusively Socket 370 because of the on-die cache. Does anyone suppose I could plug a Coppermine into a Socklet card and use it with my current motherboard? 500mhz is fine for now but I would like to expand to maybe keep this system running for a few years without having it be completely obsolete. It was a huge investment and I'd like to see it keep up and kicking for longer than my last system. "

Comments

What?

[DrZaius]

You are worried about a 500mhz pc becoming obsolete in 2 years? My 200 is 3 years old, and I haven't had a single reason to upgrade the processor. And a dual board as well. Last time I checked, 1000mhz will always be good for something; 386's make good terminals (I got my first 386 9 years ago) and 486's make excellent gateways (I got my first 486 5 years ago). 4 years from now, you will be using that as a web server or something similar.

Don't be pulled through the processor game. Your box will rocking for atleast 3 years. If trends continue, 3000mhz boxes will exist at that point, so it would be like having a 200 now.

Don't worry about it.

[tallpaul]

Are you a geek? A nerd? Well then don't worry about it. Worry about your job skills and marketability, and such. Figure out what you're going to do with your life. Forget about the processor.

2 years will pass. Surprise -- you're making more money than you know what to do with, and you're donating your still useable old dual 500Mhz system to a school or something because you can afford a 12 processor 3000Mhz system without even thinking about it.

It will serve you well

[YuppieScum]

I bought a dual Slot1 mobo from SuperMicro (P6DBS) and a P2-400 18 months ago. It is now very happily running with 2 PPGA Celeron 300a's in MSI slot one adapters - at 450Mhz each.

As long as Intel don't dick with the SMP-enablement pin on the PPGA's, you should be good for a while yet.

Voltage

[Gorphrim]

Which Slot1 mobo is it? Check the voltage range. I think the current 600Mhz PIII runs at about 2.05v, but is designed for 1.8v. Coppermine and subsequent revsions thereof could use 1.8v at first and go lower, so your upgrade options would be limited in part by your mobo/sloket voltage range. The MSI-6905 is the best from what I've read for SMP and having voltage adjustment, but I'm not sure of the range, and how a slotket's voltage range might be limited by the mobo's voltage. Anybody?

but you won't be able to keep your old processor

[bridgette]

you probably already know this, but dual systems generally require both processors to be the same speed and stepping.

since the PIII 500's are pretty new, it is conncieveable that there could be a move to a higher stepping, which would make it hard to find a match for your current processor.

stepping

[mattdm]

Actually, in real life, you can often mix steppings. Intel publishes charts of which steppings are known to coexist happily.

--

Give it up!

[Quickening]

You are already obsolete. The Athlon 650 is twice as fast and the G4 500 is 3x as fast.

If I recall, the Intel chip to wait for will be the next generation p3-coppermine for the camino chipset, and will use an entirely different socket design.

Re:Give it up!

[mattdm]

Three times as fast? Really? At what? Can you point me to the numbers?

--

G4 Specs URL

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually its 2.94 times as fast as a P3-600 on AVERAGE using INTELs tests. Using micro becnhmarks (from INTEL) its up to 7.7 times as fast. And yes you can get it in a complete system for the low low price of just $1599 direct. http://www.apple.com/powermac/processor.html

Re:G4 Specs URL - URL - URL - URL - URL

[Anonymous Coward]

I want a damn URL muthufucka

They dropped the socket 418.

[Any_doom?_a_cow_runs]

The coppermine will have a s370 version, with flip-chip packaging. Camino is due out very soon(TM) and will be slot 1 or s370 depending on who makes the board.

As for the 650 athlon, ok then. Find me a dual motherboard. OOPS, Not yet. How much is that 650 athlon? P3-500s are very damn close to $200 a pop now. Dual BX boards for $150. Single athlon boards for $200...if you can find one :P not to mention the athlon itself.

FASTEST? Who cares, I could [in theory] go out and blow a couple mill if I want fastest. PRICE VS PERFORMANCE :) is top concern for those of us who are not dreaming about being a millionare, or already are.

I'm not intel monkey. But you cannot EVER start ignoring two little things, $price tag and availability.

Anonymous Coward, get it? :)