Unlocking time!

[Wombat]

I got my new AMD chip today. It's a 1800XP, and I can see all the damn bridges are blown. There have been a bunch of different ways people suggest for connecting them over this new hurdle, so what's a good way to do it?

I'd really like to get this thing going since it's an AGOGA core, which is the same as the 2000XP.

[KvHagedorn]

There are some kits out there with all the requisite stuff.. basically you fill the gap with some non-conductive resin and then connect the L1 bridges with conductive tape.. do a google search and you will find tons of articles.

[KvHagedorn]

BTW, if your mobo can handle it (Asus A7V333 can, as can the MSI and Epox KT333 boards) go for 10x166fsb.. juicing the FSB apparently does wonders for the XP.

[Wombat]

Thanks KvH. I've already seen lots of reviews/ads for many kits. Nobody has said bad things about any of them, so I was hoping for personal testimony here.
I'll push the FSB as much as I can, but that's a separate issue

[KvHagedorn]

Might have a personal testimony about one soon, but by then I will be asking you for yours..

If the 1800 is using a 2000 stepping, that's good news, since the 1800 is dirt cheap right now. Hope the mobo I get will be compatible with Barton, though.. that's a pretty attractive looking upgrade path.. Barton might even use the Hammer core.

[Marshmallowman]

Barton will not use the hammer core

[Wombat]

Well, we have plenty of industrial-strength (safe for everything but people) contact cleaner at work, and I just bought some clear nail polish. Now I just need to find a conductor. Not too comfortable with the grease, I'd rather have something more solid.

[Marshmallowman]

automotive rear window demister repar kit?

[Wombat]

I was thinking about that. It might happen, but I hear that stuff isn't the easiest to apply, and it's expensive for a 1-shot deal. I keep thinking, "I work in a processor design lab, we've got to have SOMETHING around here." I've ruled out solder, unless I can find that heatless kind around here.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
Barton will not use the hammer core

I was under the same impression, but heard some compelling arguments to the contrary from a very well versed engineer on TMF boards. I doubt it would happen, but it's an interesting thought anyhow.

[Wombat]

Damn. My 8KTA3 isn't doing so well. I can't run this CPU with 133MHz FSB, so I'm running the CPU at 11.5x100 for the moment.

< ponder > KT333 or SiS745 </ ponder >

[Marshmallowman]

make sure the spectrum modulation is off, that caused problems on mine.

perhaps tweak the ram voltage a small tad

[Wombat]

Tried the RAM voltage already. 3.75V let me post and run for about 5 seconds, but that's it. I appreciate the suggestion though.

MSI 745 Ultra, Asus A7V333, or the Epox 8K3A?

[KvHagedorn]

Asus or Epox.. Asus being the one with more features.. The Epox was tested to do a 200 MHz FSB, though.

[Wombat]

Yup. I'm just conflicted. The KT333 stuff seems to run a little bit faster, but it's Via, and I haven't heard anything about their PCI/IDE performance. Meanwhile, the 745 seems to perform quite nicely, and have tons of throughput on the PCI side of things, for slightly slower RAM througput. But Greebe has his board running at 187MHz I think.

Too bad neither of these boards seems to have a PCI = FSB/6 option.