Computers.........Swapping out the Chipset?

Factual Questions
1

I have a PII - 350 MH chip in my current desktop. I have stumbled across (removed from damaged computer at work) a PII - 400 MH chip. I realize that 50 MH is probably not even a noticeable upgrade, but 50 MH is 50 MH.

The question is this. Can I just swap out the chipsets and turn the thing back on again? Or is there some excersize I have to do in the bios to make the change work? I`m hoping that the change will be an “auto recognize by the bios” type of thing.

And how do you overclock such a chip?

Thanks in advance.

2

You cannot just swap out a chipset and expect it to work. In fact, I have never seen a socketed chipset, so it is not possible.

A processor usually is socketed but swapping one out does not necessarily mean it will go faster. The chipset and motherboard must support the new speed as well. Will yours work? Trying it to see should not harm anything*. (*Not a guarentee)

Overclocking involves either a jumper or chipset register change and is different for every motherboard.

3

Don’t confuse “chipset” with the CPU.

4

I have a newer MB and the lit. says it can handle a 933MH chip.

bernse I thought the chipset was the cartridge that contained the cpu and the cache, etc…
what am I missing here?

The two cartridges are identical exept for the denotaion on the outside. One is coded for a 350MH and the other is coded for a 400MH.

5

Howyadoin,

The BIOS should be able to ID the faster CPU and adjust the motherboard clock multiplier appropriately. After you swap the chips, watch the boot screen, it should show the speed of the new CPU. Intel chipsets are pretty good at this kind of thing generally.

Whether or not you can overclock the chip is determined by the BIOS and/or jumpers. Check the website of the motherboard manufacturer for a PDF of the manual. Also, if you know the specific chipset on the motherboard (an Intel BX perhaps? around that vintage, anyway) you can check sites like arstechnica.com or HardOCP.com for articles regarding OC capabilities and methods.

-Rav

6

A “chipset” is hard-soldered to the motherboard, and is responsible for coordinating interactions between the CPU and the rest of the system (memory, hard drives, pci slots, etc). “The cartridge that contains everything” is usually collectively known as a CPU.

So yes, you can likely just swap them out, assuming that they are the same form factor (Didn’t PIIs come in both socket and slot varieties?). Whether you have to manually set your clock multiplier (with a jumper) or not to set the system clock to the higher speed is a function of your motherboard.

-lv

7

I don’t recall ever seeing a socketed PII. The reason for the cartridge-based CPU is that they couldn’t fit the cache on the CPU die, so they package it externally. Also, can you adjust the clock multiplier on a PII? I seem to remember that it was locked in on the CPU…

8

Well, that about answers it. I will try to simply swap out the CPU cartridges and then watch at startup to see if it ID`s the new CPU. I have the manual at home for the motherboard. It should say in there how to set the clock speed of the CPU. (do the manuals usually tell how to overclock?)

Thanks for the assistance all.

9

Yep, the motherboard was able to detect the new CPU cartridge all by herself. I did notice a slight performance edge when I opened up some larger picture files taken with the digital camera. We`re talking tenths of a second though.

Thanks again.