Your motherboard is most likely set to 60mhz and a 1.5 multiplier.
You need documentation to determine the upgradability.  Your
possible choices for speeds are 50mhz, 60mhz, and 66mhz.  Some or all
may be selectable for your board.  Dividing a cpu's rating by its
speed gives you the multiplier necessary for the board.  So a 133 is
66mhz with a 2 multiplier and a 150 is 60mhz at 2.5  All multipliers
are in .5 increments, so you can guess the speed because it has to
come out roughly to the advertised rating.  Your documentation
will tell you what is possible.  For non-Intel processors, a BIOS
upgrade may allow you to use a Cyrix 150 or 166.  These require lower
multipliers since the cpu rating is the so called P-rating, the 150 is
actually a 60mhz with a 2 multiplier and the 166 is 66mhz with a 2
multiplier.
To make matters more interesting, cpus with the same rating came with
different core voltages.  Your board should support voltage settings
from 3.3 to 3.6, which will allow you to use most models, but you
should make every effort to match the board's configuration to the cpu.
More documentation.

Without documentation to reconfigure the board, your choice is limited
to the aftermarket products that have an all in one package of cpu,
voltage
selection, and multiplier built-in, otherwise every cpu installed will
run at 90mhz.

Having said that, there is no compelling reason to replace the board
in such an old pc.  A whole new pc at a better value can be purchased
for only slightly more.

Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: John Farrow [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 12:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] What Processor


If I were to upgrade the processor that came with a Dell Pentium P-90,
what is the fastest processor that I could use with the original
motherboard and power supply?  P-133MHZ-P-166MHZ?

What is the determing factor, the power supply or the motherboard?

Thanks

John

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