The memory would be backward compatible with a CPU, just not "forward compatible" if the memory was 200mhz. This should help you with ID's. http://www.amdboard.com/amdid.html -Clint
God Bless Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com ) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Carnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Thanks for the info, Clint. Ya, the processor i have is an Athlon XP 2000. I have it in a Gigabyte MB that i know supports it. Its true speed is 1.6874653, give or take a few digits. I bought the ASUS MB thinking i could put a faster processor in it until i saw the board number and went to their site. Ya, AMD has a Palamino, Thunderbird, and maybe a couple other names for their processors as you refered to. According to ASUS, the very first POST screen will list, up towards the top, a line that says American Megatrends, Inc Bios Version XXXX I've actually been looking pretty hard at just a 1.2 or a 1.333 (1.3 without the extra 3's is a 200 FSB) for the board knowing that they would work. As you suggested, i'd probably never know the difference in speed, but i thought, what the heck, if i can use a 1.4 and come across one cheap, i'd just put that in. The board does support DDR ram and I have some of the 266 stuff so i need a processor that supports that also. AMD has 2 versions of the 1.2 so i need to be sure I get the right one. They have about an 8 digit model number that ends with a letter thats supposed to tell you which one you have. As far as i know, a "B" is a 200 mhz FSB and a "C" is a 266. I dont know that thats 100% accurate though. Roger ----- Original Message ----- From: "Support-OrpheusComputing.com" Heck I'm a nut case half the time....maybe more! Hee hee. I flash mobo's all the time. I haven't had any that went bad or didn't work. I'm also sure when I do the BIOS updates the mobo & supply is connected to a UPS since the electricity here is "spastic". If the electricity cuts out during an update, you're in bad shape. Even though it only takes a few seconds, I can't chance it. I thought you said you COULD see the POST info on screen, you can get your current BIOS # from that? At any rate, if your mobo with the latest update will only support a 1.4ghz, don't bother. You're not going to see any difference between a 1.3 and 1.4 unless the 1.4 has more cache and a higher bus speed, and even then it would be marginal at best. Note that AMD CPU's do NOT display their CPU speeds in their respective model numbers. An Athlon 2000 for example is not 2000mhz/2ghz. Also in many BIOS updates where they mention any changes, and may mention a CPU maximum change, they will be listed usually as actual speed and not the AMD "name" of the CPU. Intel is not like this. You have to go to the AMD site to get the actual speeds, unless an AMD user here can tell you, I don't use AMD CPU's so I don't know. That "Athlon 2000" might be 1.4ghz, so that mobo MIGHT support your "Athlon 2000", but again like I said above, it's not worth it unless the CPU architecture changes a lot. Also note that with AMD CPU's, there are MANY names. There could be an Athlon 2000 that is an MP CPU, or XP, or even some others. Your mobo will only support specific letters, as in, it may support the "MP" line of AMD CPU's, but might not support the "XP line of AMD CPU's. If you're not positive of what kind of Athlon 2000 CPU you have, on the underside of CPU's you'll usually see the actual product code from which an EXACT model #/line can be determined. -Clint ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Carnell" Thanks for the replies, Clint and Jorge When i was writing that question, i was thinking "this is really a stupid question" !! But honestly, i had never did or tried it before. Since the BIOS reads the video card ROM as one of the very first things, i thought by chance the BIOS could display its information without the processor. Where was my mind??? Yes, its pretty obvious that the processor has to be there to process the BIOS information so it can be displayed. All I needed was to get the very first screen to get the revision number. I thought, well maybe it would display that information and then give an error code about no processor installed. About now you're probably thinking i'm a nut case....some days its probably true. I've been to the ASUS site and looked up the info for this MB. It says i can only install up to a 1.333 processor unless it has BIOS revision number 1006. Then i can install a 1.4ghz. I know, very little difference there. This MB could be flashed to that revision number if needed but i'm not sure if i want to do that. My luck, something would happen and the flash would fail and i'd be left with some junk circuitry on a board. Have you people flashed alot of MB's?? Is it pretty safe with only a small percentage of failures? It even says on the ASUS site that your taking a chance by doing it. I was just hoping to know what it was before buying a processor. According to the site, my MB with the board version number 1.03 can only accept a max of the 1.4ghz. If i had MB number 1.10 then i could put almost any processor in it. I'm using this information as my guide. I would like to know what the BIOS is now, if posssible. I have an Athlon 2000 processor but didn't want to put it in there if its not supported and have something happen to it. I don't know if anything would happen to it but if the ASUS site is correct about their MB, theres no way that this board can support it since its version 1.03 Thanks again, Roger Carnell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Support-OrpheusComputing.com" You can't be serious.....right? ;-) The CPU is the "brains" of a PC and you must have it to do anything. You must have the CPU, memory and power supply as the bare minimum to boot up a mobo, and of course a video card to SEE what's going on. In your case to find out the BIOS #, it may take a few tries of hitting the "pause/break" key to halt the POST process. Sometimes the BIOS # is at the top of the screen right after the BIOS logo, sometimes it's at the extreme bottom. -Clint ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Carnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello, I've never tried this and don't want to damage the motherboard, but can you fire up a motherboard with just a video card and no processor to see what the BIOS revision number is? The MB is an ASUS A7A266. I would like to know what the BIOS is before purchasing the processor. Thanks, Roger Carnell ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
