KT7-RAID (100 MHz FSB) and Sempron

I'm trying to put this old MB to use by building a PC for my kid.
After reading briefly online about the CPUs this thing can take, I
ordered a Sempron 2400+ Socket A (and quickly realized the error of my
ways, but that's beside the point...).

The problem I'm having is that the processor is running BELOW the speed
I set for it in the BIOS! Even when I use the default settings for 1.2
GHz, 1.3+ GHz, etc, the processor runs at 1.00 GHz. This is very
disappointing, as that is the same speed of the processor I just
replaced! I've verified that it's actually running at 1.0 GHz by
running CPU benchmarks in Sisoft Sandra and the results are identical
to the ones for an AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz.

I know I won't be able to get any very high speeds out of this thing,
but does anybody know why it isn't letting me set it to even 1.3 GHz?


Thanks,
Greg

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 12:14:36 -0700, gzumbroo wrote:

> I'm trying to put this old MB to use by building a PC for my kid.
> After reading briefly online about the CPUs this thing can take, I
> ordered a Sempron 2400+ Socket A (and quickly realized the error of my
> ways, but that's beside the point...).
>
> The problem I'm having is that the processor is running BELOW the speed
> I set for it in the BIOS! Even when I use the default settings for 1.2
> GHz, 1.3+ GHz, etc, the processor runs at 1.00 GHz. This is very
> disappointing, as that is the same speed of the processor I just
> replaced! I've verified that it's actually running at 1.0 GHz by
> running CPU benchmarks in Sisoft Sandra and the results are identical
> to the ones for an AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz.
>
> I know I won't be able to get any very high speeds out of this thing,
> but does anybody know why it isn't letting me set it to even 1.3 GHz?
>
Yes. It's multiplier locked at 10x and you have the FSB set to 100MHz.
You can try a couple of things. Just use the FSB add and add as much as
you can to it. Mine maxed out at 16 for a total FSB speed of 116MHz. That
would get you to 1160MHz. Probably not what you want when the default
speed of that CPu is 1660MHz (10x166MHz FSB). Your only other option
requires unlocking the multiplier by turning the CPU into and XP-M model
by redoing the the bridges on the cpu. Once you've done that properly you
should be able to get 2400MHz out of it assuming it's a Tbred B core
(CPUID 680) as I thibk all of them are. My server link in sig line has
lots of info that will answer most or all your questions. This link
explains what bridge work would need to be done to change the cpu type.

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e24.html

Treat the Sempron 2400+ as an Athlon XP, because that's really what it is.

Other options would be to just buy an XP-M and use it.

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