Yes, I think the XP mobile versions have some advantages over the regular
XPs.  I'm running an XP-M 2600 on an Epox EP-8RDA3+ motherboard.  It's
overclocked to 11x210=2310 MHz using 1.650v, and I don't think the processor
that I have is a particularly stellar overclocker.  It will run stable at
2400 MHz, but this requires 1.700v and tended to get too warm under full
load for my preferences.

Most desktop motherboards will not properly detect these XP mobiles, and
most will not know what to make of the high multipliers that they use.  The
XP-M 2600 is suppose to run at 2000 MHz on a 133 MHz FSB, so the default
multiplier is 15x.  When I first installed this processor and booted up, it
came up with 6x100=600MHz.  After flashing the BIOS, it defaulted to
6x133=800MHz.  It also defaulted to 1.6v instead of the specified default
1.45v.  So, you'll need a motherboard that will let you manipulate the
multipliers from within the BIOS to take advantage of these processors.
Most motherboards will be limited to a range of 6x-12.5x settings, though
they may show more options.  At least this was true with my Epox board.  So,
I needed to set the multiplier to 12.5x or less and then adjust the FSB
speed accordingly to get things working well.

These are sold as OEM processors, so you will need to get a heatsink and
fan.

As far as the Epox motherboard goes, it is a pretty good  choice for
overclocking, but I have found that the PCI sound cards that I've used are a
bit more prone to static like sounds on this motherboard then I remember
them being on my previous motherboard.  On the other hand, these are older
sound cards that I tried (SB Live and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz), and I'm not
sure if the WinXP driver support for them is as good as it could be.  The
integrated onboard sound (C-Media chip) doesn't seem to have these problems,
but it is limited to only 16 hardware sound channels, which makes it less
desirable, for me, than a dedicated sound card.  I guess I would have to try
a newer sound card, like an Audigy 2, to really tell if the problem is with
the motherboard or the sound card drivers.

By the way, with regard to P4 motherboards and the special 12v connector,
there are adaptors that let you use a regular molex power supply line and
connect it to the little square connector on the motherboard.  Early Asus P4
motherboards even had a regular molex connector on the motherboard ("EZ
Plug") for this purpose.  I'm not sure if there is any down-side to this.
Probably, at the least, you should not be running anything else off of that
power connector, if you hook it up to the motherboard.  And, it raises the
question of whether a power supply lacking this 12v connector is fully up to
the latest Intel standard in other regards.  See
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=119 for more information on
this.

John

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] AMD XP vs Pentium 4


> The Enermax case has a 365w Enermax power supply. It doesn't
> have the Pentium square 4 pin connector which argues for limiting
> the choice to AMD (unless there is a reliable adaptor).
>
> I have been researching the XP-M processors since you wrote
> and it seems that any one of the 2400, 2500 and 2600 XP-M
> processors would be a good choice especially in terms of
> reducing cooling problems and, as well, leaving open the option
> of overclocking.

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