CPU upgrade options for my Asus A7V-ML (A7V-VM) HP Board.

[Trevayne10]

Can I run an AMD XP 2100+ (or faster?) Thoroughbred CPU in my HP Pavilion 7935 PC?

I am currently running an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.30 Ghz CPU, 200 Mhz effective FSB.

Here are the BIOS/chipset/board specifics:

BIOS Type: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.U
BIOS ID: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.U
BIOS Date: 20020124 (January 24,2002)
BIOS Vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
BIOS Version: 3.17
BIOS Size: 262144
Chipset: VIA 82C305 rev 129
SuperIO: VIA 686 rev 64 at pci 7
Motherboard Name: HP Pavilion 04
Motherboard Model: P5267A-ABA 7935
System Name: HP
System Model: 1.00
Base Manufacturer: Asus Tech
Base Product: A7V-ML

I'm running the "latest" (i.e., 2002-vintage) Award-Phoenix OEM BIOS issued by HP, and that's all there is. HP hasn't issued anything since. If I try to flash any Asus stuff into this thing, I'll brick it.

This is an A7V-ML board, in the "A7V-VM" family - presumably an HP-proprietary subset of the Asus A7V family.

On the system board, right next to the CMOS battery, there is a 3 position jumper, labeled "CPU type", with "1-2: 100Mhz", right next to it, and "2-3: 133 Mhz" right under that. It is currently jumpered to the "1-2" (100 Mhz FSB) position.

Now, according to every HP support website I've been to, this board has the KM133a (KT133a variant) chipset. I'm fairly certain that this is the "Moorea" board, not the "Congo" or the "Montana" boards (goofy HP internal code names), so given this info, along with the "CPU type"/FSB speed jumper, I'm fairly confident that the board can do 133 MHz/266 MHz FSB speed that the AMD XP CPUs require. Just out of curiousity, I tried putting the jumper on the 133 Mhz position, but the system wouldn't even POST (not surprisingly). I presume this is because the board can't run the FSB and the CPU asynchronously.

The system has 1 GB (2x512MB DIMM) of PC133 SDRAM memory (3-2-2-5 timing), running at PC100 speed (ugh!). I can't WAIT to get a decent Athlon XP T-Bred chip in there, stick the FSB jumper onto 133 MHz, and let 'er rip! (I hope).

(Side note: on most of the more technical websites I've gone to - I've done a TON of research...but not enough...nothing useful from HP - the consensus seems to be that in the "real world", PC2100 DDR memory is only 8 - 10% faster than PC133 SDRAM in typical use, so this may not be as crazy an undertaking as it seems, DDR or no. The T-Bred has 64KB + 64KB L1 cache, and 256KB L2, plus a hardware "pre-fetch" feature that gets around most of the latency and wait cycles incurred from going to system memory, so for me, DDR vs. PC133 may be mostly academic. If 95% of the data is in the cache, maybe 75% of the time, I can take the 8 - 10% PC133 speed hit.)

Also, this board doesn't have an AGP slot, but that's not a huge deal, because I'm not a gamer. I've got a 128-bit PNY nVidia FX5200 PCI vid card with 256MB DDR that works just fine for my needs.

Questions: The multiplier on my current Athlon 1.30 GHz is 13x (it's really 12.5x, but never mind...long story). Is there a maximum multiplier for my motherboard/chipset? Is there a maximum GHz/crystal clock limit? There's nothing in my BIOS setup screens...I've looked all over. Can I successfully run an XP 2400+ Thoroughbred in this system, which has a 15x multiplier? How about a 2600+, with a 16x mulitplier? Is this system max'ed at a 13x multiplier? There doesn't seem to be any info out there in Google-land, and HP has nothing. I also read somewhere that 1667 Mhz is the max. CPU speed that boards in the KT133a chipset family can handle...is that true? Or maybe that applies just to HP boards like this one? In that case, is the XP 2000+ TBred (or Palomino?) as far as I can go? Its actual core speed is 1667 MHz. By the way, I recall reading on some AMD blogsite that generally, if your system can run a Palomino CPU, it should be able to run the Thoroughbred.

I know this is all incredibly long-winded, but I really don't want to jump through all the eBay & PayPal hoops, pay $39 - $59 USD (+ shipping), wait a week, only to end up with a chip that won't work - and then...you know the rest. Only to try again a couple months later if I get the upgrade itch. I'd like to get this right the first time. Hence the verbosity.

So, I guess my ultimate question is this:

WITHOUT flashing the BIOS, and given all the above info, do I have a better than even chance of successfully running at least an AMD XP 2000+ Thoroughbred CPU in this system?

Thanks for your time.

[Guest]

Success!

Purchased AMD XP 2000+ Palomino (6 6 2 stepping) in this system, BIOS recognizes it, FSB speed is 133 MHz (266 MHz DDR), 1.67 GHz. Everything runs about 64% to 150% faster than the Athlon 1.30 GHz CPU. Memory is running at 133 MHz now, instead of 100 MHz.

[D.8080]

The only thing you need to do is be sure to have Pc-133 ram, if it's 100 mhz@133 that is overclocking and you could bust your motherboard...

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.

There's an FSB jumper on the system board, marked with "100 MHz / 133 MHz". I set the jumper to 133 MHz after I installed the new CPU, so the PC133 memory is running at its full design 133 MHz spec speed.

Before, when I was running the Athlon 1.30 TBird, the PC133 memory was hobbled by the 100 MHz FSB bus speed.

I never overclock.

CPU is running at 1.67 GHz, (12.5 x 133) and the 512 MB memory at 133 MHz. The system flies, now.

[Guest]

In other words, the memory is PC133, and it prominently labeled as PC133.

[Guest]

[D.8080]

You are ok then.
Have fun with it

[Guest]

Thanks, will do!