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AMD Duron Compatibility

Hen_Dawg

Hen_Dawg

Hen_Dawg

Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2006
Posts
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Location
Brisbane, Australia
I want to upgrade the CPU in my parent’s machine. It’s a very very slow AMD Duron 700Mhz.
I know the Durons go up to 1800Mhz and I’d guess getting one of those or even a 1600Mhz would be a noticeable help, and they only cost £20.

My main question is do all Durons work on the same motherboards? Or is it possible a faster 16/1800Mhz chip will be incompatible with the old Compaq mobo they currently have?
Also would they still be OK with the same tiny Heatsink?

Thanks :)
 
I would have thought that the only limiting factor would be the speed of the RAM, as you say it is a 700MHz CPU, the memory might only be compatible for that speed.

Any ideas what speed the RAM is?
 
The latest Applebred Durons support 133Mhz FSB only therefore you need to make sure your motherboard chipset supports FSB133 as well as your RAM.

You can still use it in older mobo but at reduced speed (FSB100) I think:

1.35ghz (100*13.5) instead of rated 1.8Ghz (133.33*13.5)

Use CPU-Z to tell what chipset your mobo is using, if it's KT133A and above or the Nvidia Nforce 2 then it will take FSB133 CPUs.
 
Some early socket a mobos wont support tbred based chips (i.e. applebred durons) given that the current CPU is a 700MHz Duron I would say the mobo is from a similar era and may only support upto 1400mhz tbird athlons but to be sure download cpu-z or si soft sandra and find out what motherboard is in the system then google for the fastest cpu it can support.

I have a kt133a mobo (Gigabyte GA7ZXE) which is pretty old and takes sd ram but it also works with tbred cpus and even overclocks to 150mhz fsb. Ive had socket a motherboards that wont take a tbred based cpu, like an asus a7a266 which even with a bios update wouldn't take tbred based cpu's (early revision mobo) topped out at officially supporting tbird 1400s max.

All durons 1400mhz, 1600mhz and 1800mhz are applebred, ones before that from 1300mhz downwards are either morgan or spitfire cores.
 
Oh yeah forgot to mention that....they can get upto 75c even with a modded 7v delta screamer and a big copper heatsink...mine ended up frying from running it such hot temps for a few years 24/7.
 
Thats a good point about the temp, i had an old thermalright Heatsink with 60mm Delta 5000dB fan and it ran at about 52 degrees stock with a 1400MHz T'Bird.
 
Here is the PC in question? Can I fit an Athlon XP in there? Basically I looking for the best CPU i can put in there without further upgrading. Expect the PSU is fine but I've got a spare anyway.


 
this often depends on which revision the motherboard is though...Id get a program called belarc advisor and find out the name of the motherboard as quite a few have that southbridge.

I did a bit of googling too though, is it a Compaq Presario? if it is I read that most are fitted with a FIC AZ31 motherboard that has a KT133 chipset...if yours has this mobo then it wont be good for any Athlon XP (only 100MHz FSB will work) The KT133a chipset supported 133FSB chips but unfortunately the kt133 non a didn't....they tended to max out at 112FSB iirc.
 
Yep max i ever got out of a KT133 board was 115MHz i think :( Also some boards don't support Tbred or Barton/Thornton chips either, even later DDR boards.. i.e won't boot even with latest BIOS.. had a few Acorp boards like that.
 
so if your board cant support tbreds or bartons then the fastest processor that'll work will be a athlon t-bird 1400 which as previously mentioned run very hot, even the rarer 100fsb models then it might not support the 14x multiplier..
 
ghgh said:
so if your board cant support tbreds or bartons then the fastest processor that'll work will be a athlon t-bird 1400 which as previously mentioned run very hot, even the rarer 100fsb models then it might not support the 14x multiplier..
Click to expand...

Not necessarily his board not supporting Tbreds/Bartons, however most SDR SDRAM boards i've played with support Palomino cpus. If the chipset is really a KT133 though then yep, 1400MHz T Bird is the best bet though he might be able to get a Palomino 2100+ really cheap for example and run it at 1300MHz, drop the core voltage significantly if the BIOS supports it and have a cool running quiet rig, even at stock volts it'll run much cooler than a 1400 T bird and performance would hardly be different.
 
yeah thats true..sorry for the miss information.....a 1300mhz palomino would probably be as fast as a tbird 1400 anyway if not faster on the same bus obviously...due to the extra instruction set that the palomino has...I think the XP range are marked as their speed how they'd perform against the tbird range such as the xp2100 would require a 2100mhz t-bird to be as fast.
 
ghgh said:
think the XP range are marked as their speed how they'd perform against the tbird range such as the xp2100 would require a 2100mhz t-bird to be as fast.
Click to expand...

Thats what AMD said publicly, we all know its crud though and was really against PIV speed :D. I think clock for clock anything that dosen't involve SSE would be close to equal with a T bird and Palomino.
 
Yep had a Gigabyte GA-7ZX with KT133 chipset in my first custom built PC and the fastest chip I ran on the board was the Morgan core Duron 1.3Ghz with 100FSB.
 
Thanks all for the knowledge.
It is some kind of compaq presario, not too hopeful bout compatibillity cos it really feels old. The 3:05 min 1M Super-Pi score it got shows it's speed :p
I'll get a look at the PC as soon as I can with belarc advisor.

And thanks for the MM spot meatloaf
:)
 
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