I need to check this Pentium 4, 2.8 Ghz with 800MHz FSB.
Can I safely and surely test it on a motherboard which has FSB 533Mhz ?
greets, thanks
Sort of. It *should* boot and run with no trouble at 1.86GHz, so that
should allow to at least test if it's mostly working. There is no way
to test if it will run at the full 2.8GHz though.
Of course, it's not 100% certain that it will boot at 1.86GHz. The
BIOS may not properly recognize the chip, since there is no such thing
as a real P4 running at 1.86GHz with a 533MT/s bus. Most motherboards
will just continue on anyway, even though you appear to have an
invalid product stuck in the thing, but occasionally it may fail to
boot altogether.
Also, if you have a "Prescott" processor it is likely that it will not
boot and may actually fry the voltage regulators on your motherboard
(rare, but it could happen, ie don't chance it). "Prescott" P4 chips
are still fairly rare, so this probably isn't a problem, but be sure
to check before plugging the thing in. An older "Northwood" P4 will
be marked as "Pentium4 2.8C GHz" while the new "Prescott" chips will
be marked as "Pentium4 2.8E GHz". If it's got an 'E' in the model
number, you probably don't want to plug it in. If it's got a 'C' in
the model number you should be fine.
