K6 233(3.2/3.3v) on single voltage mb(3.3v) - award bios

[Space Marine]

Another question:
I have atm 5 cards installed (verite v1000, voodoo1, matrox m3d, awe64 gold isa, isa lan card)

Is a good idea trying of running cpu at his native speed? (233 instead of 200)

[Denniss]

With using the Voodoo1 you should dropthe M3D.
If your Bios shows the L2-Cache enabled then it should be there and working, it's not easy or impossible to detect L2-Cache on the boarboard using software, it may be visible using a memory transfer test program as it should show a decrease in speed starting with 64MB.

Having 128MB of RAM with 64MB cached and 64MB not cached should always be faster than 128MB with no cache.

Try setk6 to enable Write allocation, at least this prog should show you whether it is enabled or not.
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/setk6v3.zip

[Space Marine]

With using the Voodoo1 you should dropthe M3D.

Absolutely NO!

This is a retrogaming pc, one is for glide games and one for powerSGL.
They must be toghether for this and are running fine =)

If your Bios shows the L2-Cache enabled then it should be there and working, it's not easy or impossible to detect L2-Cache on the boarboard using software, it may be visible using a memory transfer test program as it should show a decrease in speed starting with 64MB.

Having 128MB of RAM with 64MB cached and 64MB not cached should always be faster than 128MB with no cache.

Wait, you have misunderstood me:
i can only choose between:
- 128mb without cache
-64 with cache

because win95 use, for first, not cached ram, then cached.
Pratically is always non cached.

Try setk6 to enable Write allocation, at least this prog should show you whether it is enabled or not.
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/setk6v3.zip

Ok, i'll try

[cp]

to test ram speeds get this:
http://drn.digitalriver.com/product.php%5Bid%5D57936

basically it tests transfers with different blocksizes. so you can clearly see how fast which ram type is (L1/L2/MAIN).
btw. L2 cachesize should be displayed in the bios post summary screen. and L2 detection and usage doesn't depend on the main memory size. maybe your power supply is a bit overstressed with the bunch of pci cards and stuff.

[Space Marine]

L2 cache is recognized during post as usual: 256k

I will try this second test too

The first one write me a long like of numbers in a window called "debug mode"

Is that line that you want for checking if write activation is on?

[Space Marine]

I'm testing it with 64 mb of ram and everest continue on not recognizing L2 cache

[Space Marine]

I have just tested k6 at 233 too, but after a while it crashed (appeared some blue screens) and the system became instable.

Probably cpu was getting too much hot, im still using for k6 old 133 fan and heatsink

[cp]

run cachemem from DOS aka windows not loaded and pipe the output in a file with 'cachemem > outfile.txt'. post the results here.

as Denniss already said: it's hard to detect the size of L2 cache on socket 7 boards. everest could run some speed tests and evaluate the results to guess the cachesize or the could read out some chipset registers that store the L2 cache size. but i guess everst isn't aimed at such old mainboards and L2 cache detection on S7 boards hasn't a high priority.

and again my advice: get a large fan for both cpu and power-transistor and a decent heatsink for the cpu or you will wreck the equipment.

[Denniss]

I have used a VX-board with 64 and 128MB myself long ago with Win95. For sure 128MB without L2-Cache are slower than 128MB with L2-Cache although only 64MB are cached.

The best solution to get speed out of it is to reduce CPU multi but raise FSB to 75MHz (if possible and board and PCI cards work stable with this).

[Space Marine]

I have used a VX-board with 64 and 128MB myself long ago with Win95. For sure 128MB without L2-Cache are slower than 128MB with L2-Cache although only 64MB are cached.

The best solution to get speed out of it is to reduce CPU multi but raise FSB to 75MHz (if possible and board and PCI cards work stable with this).

Is not possible, my mainboard is max 66mhz bus speed.

However the problem is not the cpu, because it is a 233mhz running at 200.
Probably is insufficient cpu heatsink or VRM too stressed


I will try cacheman after lunch

[KachiWachi]

I'll have a look to see if your CPU supports MSR's (it should I think...but also Everest may not be set to dump them for your particular CPU).

See if Jan will send you his K6 MSR dump program (DOS).

For Win9x, there are plenty of third-party utilities available to set up the K6...both DOS and Windows oriented. I persaonlly usr WAMonitor II v.57 (with MSRTouch v.3), which you can get from the downloads page at K6Plus.com (along with a few other goodies as well).

@75 MHz - I was never able to get this to work on my M520, but I've yet to try it on my DFI...mostly because of the SCSI card.

[Space Marine]

Damn, yesterday a sad thing happened:

after 2 minutes from powering on, pc freezes.
Suspecting that the problem was inside, i opened the case and discovered that the Fan that i applied up the VRM stopped functioning, overheating or, probably, burning it.

I have adjusted the fan but motherboard no more did post since then.

I have yet to try the old p133. If it will not start too, probably i'll have to watch for another motherboard



The worst thing is that this fan was the p133 fan, that i moved on vrm when mounting a gf2mx fan onto the cpu.
If i wouldnt have mounted k6 maybe it would have burned old p133 too.

[Space Marine]

I have tested a lot the motherboard with both p133 and k6 200 and until now is running fine.

Probably overheating caused partial loss of cmos data, so resetting cmos and changing cpu allowed restoring it's operational state.

Have yet to run cachemem, but i have another question:

if i will find a socket7 upgrade adapter like powerleap or evergreen ones, can i fit with it any k6-2 k6-3 and k62+ k63+ with any voltage and multiplier?

i'm asking that because i will find soon a socket7 adapter that claim support for k62 and k63 onto 66mhz boards.

What i have to check for being sure of compatibility?

Will a k6 2 or 3 mounted on that adapter stress VRM more then my k6 200?

[cp]

those adapters are basically two things: they offer three jumpers (noob feature) for multipliers (BF0-2) for anything that's AMD K6-2 and above and (this is really important!) they bring their own switching voltage regulator for vcore. a 5,25" or 3,5" power connector is used to get some voltage and enough current from the power supply. the onboard VRM remains the power source for chipset and ram only.
i'd not recommend any adaptor because they are just f...ing expensive. besides the chipset on the mainboard is so slow that a faster cpu simply will wait a few more cycles until the memory transfers are done. not to mention the limited fsb and thus cpu speed choices (remember: fsb x mult = cpu speed, and the mult is 6 on CXT cores max.!)..what a waste! if you want more speed buy a more recent S7 mainboard for 1$ off of a huge online auctioneer.
really. if you're building a retro(!)-gaming machine there's no need for a K6-2 or K6-III. if you want a K6-2/III you should get a more recent mainboard with switching voltage regulator onboard.

[Space Marine]

those adapters are basically two things: they offer three jumpers (noob feature) for multipliers (BF0-2) for anything that's AMD K6-2 and above and (this is really important!) they bring their own switching voltage regulator for vcore. a 5,25" or 3,5" power connector is used to get some voltage and enough current from the power supply. the onboard VRM remains the power source for chipset and ram only.
i'd not recommend any adaptor because they are just f...ing expensive. besides the chipset on the mainboard is so slow that a faster cpu simply will wait a few more cycles until the memory transfers are done. not to mention the limited fsb and thus cpu speed choices (remember: fsb x mult = cpu speed, and the mult is 6 on CXT cores max.!)..what a waste! if you want more speed buy a more recent S7 mainboard for 1$ off of a huge online auctioneer.
really. if you're building a retro(!)-gaming machine there's no need for a K6-2 or K6-III. if you want a K6-2/III you should get a more recent mainboard with switching voltage regulator onboard.

Some people have suggested me a bit of time ago that DFI K6BV3+/66 is the best AT super7 mainboard released (especially because of 2mb of cache and ata66 support), but 2mb cached mainboards are pretty rare, and that one a lot more.

If i would limit myself to 1mb of cache, which mainboard with at least 4 slot pci, not less then 2 isa slots, 1 agp 1x/2x, at least ata33, sdram pc100 support (if possible pc133) and K6-x+ CPUs support should i search for?