AMD Mobile 3400

Brian wrote:
> Is there a difference between a amd 3400 mobile and desktop cpu? I was
> looking at a mobile 3400 on ebay to put in a biostar mb I have sitting
> around.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian in MI
>
>

First of all, this is the current AMD pricelist, at quantities of around
1000 units. The item "Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor" is possibly the
one you are referring to. It is still listed here, implying they
don't have to be purchased on Ebay.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_609,0...tml?red

3400+ (64-bit, 2.2GHz, 1M L2 cache, 1600MHz HyperTransport bus) $170

As far as I know, that particular one is S754. Some mobile parts
are socket S1, which is a laptop socket and smaller than most.

That Mobile is a DTR and draws 62W. A desktop replacement generally
uses a physically full sized processor. But one difference I see in the
pictures, is there is no lid on the top of the chip. That style of S754
processor has a bare die on the top, just the way that the AthlonXP
32 bit processors did. This causes a small issue for the cooler you use.
The cooler won't make contact, unless it can be dropped down a fraction
of an inch. On a DTR notebook, they use custom heatpipe based coolers, so
this is not a problem. If putting the Mobile in a desktop board, you
may have to fiddle with the cooler a bit, to get it to work. (A Zalman
7000 series is mentioned as a possible cooler, in the gamepc.com
review below. The 7000 series uses screws and allows a slight adjustment of
retention force on the face of the processor.)

Picture here of a 3400+ lidless:

http://www.shentech.com/amn3400bix5ar.html

The one big variable, is which motherboard brands come with a BIOS that
can handle the detection of a Mobile.

At 62 watts, I'm not sure there is a lot of incentive to use one of
those.

An MT-37, on the other hand, is 25 watts.

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/notebook/

Price is $65 - read the reviews here, to get some idea of what
motherboards or devices might work with one. This is a much
cheaper experiment, than being ripped on Ebay.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16819103521

Review of using a Turion 64 in S754.

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=turion64&page=1

So no guarantees, but a project for you to work on.

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: AMD Mobile 3400