In a message dated 9/30/2003 1:13:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> Selectron w/intel

Kay,

What I am talking about is the CPU; i.e., 233 MHz Pentium central processing
unit.  The chipset will never be replaced.  Your motherboard chipset is made
up of a pair of chips called the northbridge and southbridge.  These are
soldiered into your motherboard, they are made by, Intel, VIA, SIS and they define
the basic function of the motherboard and what CPU's it will support.  Your
motherboard mfg. takes these chips and builds a circuit board supporting the
CPU's and other features they wish to use.

The 430TX Intel chipset allows both P54C and P55 CPU which means you can have
a bus/memory voltage of say 3.5V and either the same on the CPU core or
something lower.  Intel uses GTL (Gunning Transceiver Logic) on the 430 TX family
of chips which will allow a 1.2 v drop between the higher 3.3v to 3.6v for the
main bus voltage and 1.2 volts lower for the CPU core.  Many motherboards
allowed 2.8 to 3.5 Vcore voltage for the P55 CPU chips with the other fixed at
3.5v.  This does not mean that Selectron took advantage of these features in the
chipset.

The only reason I suggest to spend so much time on your older motherboard is
that I have found many strange possibilities by looking over the jumpers and
trying various combinations to get the CPU core voltage you need.

You have a socket 7 motherboard for your Pentium 233 MMX.  You could possibly
use the AMD CPU or Cyrix CPU.  In order to find the possible choices you need
to look over your board carefully, determine what core voltages are possible
and determine of there are any clues on the board.  You can try to measure the
voltages without installing a CPU as you can damage it quite easily.

Good luck on your quest.  You can purchase another board if you wish and that
would be easier; but sometimes easier is not what you wish.

Regards,
Mike Scott

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