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Ghetto Computer Fun

Started by Bossk Oct 3, 2002 at 8:29 PM 2 replies 200+ views
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Bossk
Bossk
Okay, heres the deal. I recently got an old school 486 server. The case is awesome not only is it as tall as my waist, but it has a huge hard drive bay which I plan to use to chill drinks (since I have no hard drives which will fit inside). However, the servers mobo was not functioning correctly, it was toast when I got it. So, I got my friend to give me a really old mobo of his he had lying around. This mobo is also from another old server so I''d figure it would fit fine. The problem is that this mobo is slightly newer, and requires a socket 5 CPU. I have no socket 5 CPUs, however I do have two socket 7 CPUs. Unfortunately, I did not know they were socket 7 CPUs when I placed them inside my socket 5. The good thing is I did not turn on my comp with this setup. I learned that they were from a socket 7 mobo... Which got me thinking. Socket 7 supposedly has 1 more pin than socket 5, so why didn''t my socket 7 CPU mash in the socket 5 and one pin bend or break or something... One possibility is that the CPU, even though it came from a socket 7 mobo, is in fact a socket 5 CPU. But since I know that the other comp worked, does this means that socket 5 CPUs can be placed in socket 7 mobos? What about the other way around? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide in unconfusing me on this matter. [edited by - The United States Government on September 32, 2002 99:99:99 AM]
Raymondo
Raymondo
I have no idea....But I hope you get it working.

I''ll bring the power supply to school tomorrow.

Bossk
Bossk
Sigh, so does anyone know if socket 5/socket 7 are compatible with eachother? I checked and socket 7 has one more pin than socket 5, but each of them have the same voltage range, so...

[edited by - The United States Government on September 32, 2002 99:99:99 AM]
Bossk
Bossk
Yay I found the answer. In case anyone cares...

What are the differences between a Socket 5 and Socket 7 motherboard?
Socket 7 is defined as a superset of Socket 5, and can handle all previous processors that worked in Socket 5.


Changes between sockets:
Socket 7 requires 5.0 amps at 3.3v, while Socket 5 only requires 4.33 amps.
The maximum power dissipation for Socket 7 is 17 watts, two watts higher than Socket 5.
Vertical clearance above the CPU was raised from 1.35" to 1.75".
Socket 7 comes with a 321st pin located at AH-32 to be used for a KEY pin, which is not electronically connected to either the CPU or the motherboard.
Pin AL-01 is changed to Vcc2DET to identify split-rail (dual voltage) processors.


Note that most all Socket 5 motherboards only support 1.5x and 2.0x multipliers, making their maximum processor speed 133MHz (66x2.0). And there are also some Socket 5 boards that can only go up to 120MHz.


While Socket 5 and Socket 7 share many similar features, Socket 5 boards are older and often have slightly different electrical characteristics. Maximum amperages and heat dissipation mentioned above are two, but not all motherboards are made equally to begin with. Unforseen problems such as ringback, bad decoupling, and other extraneous electrical anomalies can affect the operation of processors. Especially newer ones which expect a cleaner signal at higher bus speeds. Buying a third party adapter can solve some of these problems, but if it''s severe, a new motherboard may be the only solution. So even if all the pieces (BIOS, bus speed, multiplier, voltage) seem to fit, problems may still arise that will affect the upgradeability of some motherboards. Especially older ones.


[edited by - The United States Government on September 32, 2002 99:99:99 AM]

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