kony said:
Do some web searches for "Coppermine VID pins". By
soldering bridges across motherboard pins (back of the board
is usually easier), or at the VRM controller on the board,
or wrapping wires around the CPU pins themselves, and/or
putting insulation (like CAT5 wire insulation expanded a
little) over some of the VID pins (then using a small ream
to enlarge the socket hole for that insulated pin just
enough to slip the CPU in), you can get pretty much any
voltage you want.
If you wanted the alternate approach, putting a pot between
3.3V and Gnd and the wiper going to the feedback pin on the
vrm controller will also allow quite a variation in voltage
adjustment (far more versatile, and dangerous). You might
also want shielded leads to cut down on noise pickup to/from
the pot if mounted at a distance. Generally I prefer the
soldering on back of board and insulation on the CPU pins
over any other combination.
Maybe, but I've seen some systems that looked a little heat
stressed over time from running the stock CPU. Compaq has
often had pretty low airflow on some of their systems that
depend on a proprietary form PSU doing all the ventilation
work. At least your active cpu 'sink should help.
I think the normal airflow on this machine comes from the top vent on
this machine, down out the PSU on the bottom. There should be the
normal heat rises thing going on, But the arflow is top-down. I'll have
to double check tomorrow which way the PSU fan is blowing, to be sure.
I might have it exactly backwards. You're right about the default
cooling being inadequite, though. The crappy passive sink these things
came with is hot to the touch even with the stock chip. Though it
probably cools better with the panels ON.
What's the use of the system?
Basicly, The organization I belong to is a non profit computer
refurbisher. In fact, we are a Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher, though
we are also very friendly to Macs. Some systems are regifted to
Qualifying Individuals, and to other nonprofits. Others are resold at
the thrift store, to pay the rent, and other expenses. Since these
machines are eye-candy, and compact, they'll be resold. But we can get
a higher value if they're faster.
As for parts, the upgraded CPUs are usually salvaged from machines with
dead motherboards, or those that are otherwise non-viable, or were
themselves upgraded. The Celerons salvaged from these will probably be
an uprade for some old Etower 400s.
The collection of upgrade parts, and machines is utterly random. And we
see pretty oddball stuff from time to time. Any one want an
unauthorized Mac Clone, or A neXTstation, or an Indy? We also have a
fair idea of just how MUCH a system can be abused (not by us) before
it's worthless. In the case of these machines, they were tossed in a
large cardboard box (3 ft^3), among dead VCRs and misc Crap, with the
side panels distributed among 3 other similar boxes (Which did not
arrive the same week) , and mostly stripped RAM and hard drives.
Cordwood gets better treatment. And so far every last one has been 100%
stable. The 20th time you see this you learn not to worry so much.
Since we do materials recovery (copper, gold, alumimum, metal,
stainless steel, and plastics). Dead electronics pay the rent, too.
I'd be tempted to just make a NAS out of it, making CPU
peformance a lot less important.
There's 24 of these machines. (I did say Boatload) Most of them are the
c500, and about 5 or 6 are a newer Celeron, that I haven't opened up
yet to see what's inside. (I think 700 or 800)
