How many Pentium 2 variations were there?

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dos-man

I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it. The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think it
is a Gateway :(

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

dos-man
 
dos-man said:
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get
one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it.
The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think
it
is a Gateway :(

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

dos-man
Click to expand...
If you can't post the socket type and/or the computer type how can
anyone help you.
Take the cover off and look at the CPU. So you can try Intel;
http://developer.intel.com/design/PentiumII/prodbref/
 
dos-man said:
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it. The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think it
is a Gateway :(
Click to expand...



Just check the multiplier and frequency jumpers...
you may be able to go up to 450mhz.

Although all P-II's use the same slot...
there are a number of different heat sink variations so not all p-II's will
fit
 
dos-man said:
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it. The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think it
is a Gateway :(

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

dos-man
Click to expand...

answer depends if its a slot or socket 7 cpu, and on what core
frequency the mobo will support. You'll likely be limited by the fsb,
P2 233-333 used 66MHz fsb, P2 350 and up used 100MHz fsb, so if your
mobo only goes to 66 you're limited to 333.

If the mobo takes other types of cpu there are some amds that wil do
about 500MHz in some older boards originally fitted with much slower
P2s.

The updside is upgrading wll cost you approx nothing.

As has pretty much been said, come up with the data if you want
anything more precise.


NT
 
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it. The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think it
is a Gateway :(

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

dos-man
Click to expand...


Gateway should have been selling socket 370 Pentium 3 by
2000-2001, unless this was some kind of overstock grey
market system.

They were selling PII-233 in the second half of '97 and
early '98. IF that is when it was bought, the board should
take any 66MHz FSB PII, they went up to 300MHz.

If the system were mid-to-late '98, it would more likely
have a BX chipset and support 100MHz FSB CPUs, too, so you
can install P2-350, 400, PIII 500, 550.

With a slotket adapter either of the above configs would run
a socket 370 Celeron up to 500MHz (or 533MHz?) but not 500A,
not Coppermines. The slotket adapters are now as expensive
as the CPUs so it wouldn't make sense to use one unless you
already had it lying around.

The Pentium 2 was (except very early models) multiplier
locked, as were later versions so there is no multiplier
jumper on the Intel OEM boards that Gateway used. They
usually set FSB automatically too.
 
dos-man said:
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx.
Click to expand...
but I need to make sure that I get one that fits my motherboard.
Apparently, there are different kinds. It is a slot processor (I
think.) It has a big heat sink attached to it.
Click to expand...

If it is a Slot 1 processor, then a 300 MHz Celeron 300A may be a good
choice because it can almost always be overclocked with a 100 MHz CPU
bus to make it run at 450 MHz. I normally don't believe in
overclocking, but this one was almost always reliable at 450 MHz and
sometimes even 530 MHz, at 60C. You want the 300A, not the 300, the
latter which has no L2 cache and runs approximately 15-20% slower,
although it too is as good at overclocking.
 
dos-man said:
I'm looking for a faster pentium II to stick in my PC. The one I have
now is 233mzh with mmx. It works great for most of the video games I
play, but some of the side-scrollers need more speed.

I'm trying to find a faster PII, but I need to make sure that I get one
that fits my motherboard. Apparently, there are different kinds. It is
a slot processor (I think.)
Click to expand...

Unless it's in a laptop, a p2 is a slot-only chip.

It has a big heat sink attached to it. The
PC itself is a Gateway 2000 or 2001. Or maybe it's Dell, but I think it
is a Gateway :(

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

dos-man
Click to expand...

If your board will accept a p2-450, chances are very good it can accept
a p3-450, or p3-500.
 
Unless it's in a laptop, a p2 is a slot-only chip.

It has a big heat sink attached to it.
Click to expand...

I love those slot p2's with the big heat sinks. They're so quiet, and
so hard to kill.

~e.
 
Unless it's in a laptop, a p2 is a slot-only chip.
Click to expand...

there were lots of P2-233 in socket 7 form. I've got one sitting in
front of me. Socket 7 can go upto 550MHz using and AMD replacement.


NT
 
If it is a Slot 1 processor, then a 300 MHz Celeron 300A may be a good
choice because it can almost always be overclocked with a 100 MHz CPU
bus to make it run at 450 MHz. I normally don't believe in
overclocking, but this one was almost always reliable at 450 MHz and
sometimes even 530 MHz, at 60C. You want the 300A, not the 300, the
latter which has no L2 cache and runs approximately 15-20% slower,
although it too is as good at overclocking.
Click to expand...

How are the celeron 333s at clocking? We've got lots of those.


NT
 
How are the celeron 333s at clocking? We've got lots of those.
Click to expand...

Good, BUT, with that age of platform the main issue was that
the PCI bus retained a ratio to the FSB, so the target was
usually to run the Celeron on 100MHz FSB instead of 66MHz,
or at least close enough to 100MHz such that the PCI bus
didn't get too far out of spec.

So, 300A Celeron on 100MHz FSB was at 450MHz, an easy thing
for most of them. 333 Celeron would be at 500MHz, still
possible but getting near the ceiling the core could do
without extreme overvoltage and cooling needs. The typical
ceiling was somewhere in the 550-600MHz range with
reasonable meaures but not all could do it. Even so,
that's not an argument to use a faster default spec celeron,
it was better to bump the FSB over 100MHz if possible, but
again the PCI bus issue had to be addressed. Most
problematic was that HDDs often got corrupted when PCI bus
rose more than 10% or so, thus it was often recommended to
first (before overclocking at all) make a HDD backup, NOT to
a drive (still) connected to same system at the time of
oveclocking.
 
I love those slot p2's with the big heat sinks. They're so quiet, and
so hard to kill.

~e.
Click to expand...



Yep, but many of the motherboard from that era were junk.
Fortunately many of the popular OEM systems used Intel OEM
boards which were much higher quality and tended to last far
longer.
 
there were lots of P2-233 in socket 7 form. I've got one sitting in
front of me. Socket 7 can go upto 550MHz using and AMD replacement.
Click to expand...


Only Pentium 1 came in socket 7 interface. There were
Pentium 1/200, and Pentium 1 MMX / 233 in socket 7 form.
All Pentium 2 were slot 1.
 
there were lots of P2-233 in socket 7 form. I've got one sitting in
front of me. Socket 7 can go upto 550MHz using and AMD replacement.


NT
Click to expand...

You sure it's not a Cyrix MII?
 
kony said:
Only Pentium 1 came in socket 7 interface.
Click to expand...

And AMD K6-2 and K6-3, and Cyrix M2, and Evergreen WinChip.


There were
Pentium 1/200, and Pentium 1 MMX / 233 in socket 7 form.
All Pentium 2 were slot 1.
Click to expand...

Except for Pentium 2 Xeon (which is a different slot), And the Pentium
2 mobile, which is a socket, but it couldn't possibly be mistaken for
socket 7.
 
kony said:
Good, BUT, with that age of platform the main issue was that
the PCI bus retained a ratio to the FSB, so the target was
usually to run the Celeron on 100MHz FSB instead of 66MHz,
or at least close enough to 100MHz such that the PCI bus
didn't get too far out of spec.

So, 300A Celeron on 100MHz FSB was at 450MHz, an easy thing
for most of them. 333 Celeron would be at 500MHz, still
possible but getting near the ceiling the core could do
without extreme overvoltage and cooling needs. The typical
ceiling was somewhere in the 550-600MHz range with
reasonable meaures but not all could do it. Even so,
that's not an argument to use a faster default spec celeron,
it was better to bump the FSB over 100MHz if possible, but
again the PCI bus issue had to be addressed. Most
problematic was that HDDs often got corrupted when PCI bus
rose more than 10% or so, thus it was often recommended to
first (before overclocking at all) make a HDD backup, NOT to
a drive (still) connected to same system at the time of
oveclocking.
Click to expand...

Right, ta. Some are probably on boards that are designed to do 75 or 83
fsb.


NT
 
Right, ta. Some are probably on boards that are designed to do 75 or 83
fsb.
Click to expand...


There were no decent performance boards in that era that
could do 75 or 83 FSB. The older ones were meant to use PIO
mode and the newer with odd dividers were crap chipsets with
so many bugs and such poor performance in general that it
was a bit of a waste to think about overclocking.
 
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