CPU timing advice

SteveDallas · 12-30-2003, 12:08 AM

So, my parents are visiting, and my dad has been complaining about his 500-odd MHz Celeron, and I offered to build him a new system if he paid for the parts. I ended up with an Asus A7V8X and an Athlon XP 2400+ processor.

Everything went just dandy, except the bios is reporting that it's an 1800+ processor. I haven't installed Winblows yet, I'm running a DOS-based burn-in overnight that it seems to be passing fine. So, question is, what might cause this? I haven't found much help in the Asus site, but will dig in more tomorrow.

Undertoad · 12-30-2003, 06:51 AM

What causes this is the fact that it really is clocked at that speed - not that exact one, but one close to it, IIRC.

AMD Athlons are marked at some bogus power rating, not their actual clock speed.

They did this because they had to compete with Intel but were taking the route of lower clock speeds running faster instructions, meaning that an AMD 2400 will compete nicely with a Pentium 2.4 even though the AMD is actually clocked at 1.9 or something. This is an oversimplification because I can never remember the exact details of how it's done, just the seat of the pants explanation. But I think AMD manages to do things like divides in 5 clock cycles instead of 7, and stuff. Different design decisions, not wrong ones.

SteveDallas · 12-30-2003, 08:18 AM

No, I've run into that. This is different. It's a 2400+, which runs at 2GHz. The BOIS reports that the processor type is an 1800+ with a speed of 1.5GHz.

FileNotFound · 12-30-2003, 03:11 PM

Clock up the bus speed till it matches the CPU specs.

It should be an option in the bios.

SteveDallas · 12-30-2003, 10:28 PM

Actually, on this particular mobo it's a dip switch, and I had already checked to make sure it was right.

Except I checked wrong, and when I changed it from 100 to 133 everything was happy. Thanks!

12-30-2003, 12:08 AM	#1
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	CPU timing advice So, my parents are visiting, and my dad has been complaining about his 500-odd MHz Celeron, and I offered to build him a new system if he paid for the parts. I ended up with an Asus A7V8X and an Athlon XP 2400+ processor. Everything went just dandy, except the bios is reporting that it's an 1800+ processor. I haven't installed Winblows yet, I'm running a DOS-based burn-in overnight that it seems to be passing fine. So, question is, what might cause this? I haven't found much help in the Asus site, but will dig in more tomorrow.

12-30-2003, 03:11 PM	#4
FileNotFound Intouch with his inner sheep rider. Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 603	Clock up the bus speed till it matches the CPU specs. It should be an option in the bios. __________________ This is a rat. \|This is a hamster.\| This is a chipmunk.\| This is a Sheep Rider.

12-30-2003, 06:51 AM	#2
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	What causes this is the fact that it really is clocked at that speed - not that exact one, but one close to it, IIRC. AMD Athlons are marked at some bogus power rating, not their actual clock speed. They did this because they had to compete with Intel but were taking the route of lower clock speeds running faster instructions, meaning that an AMD 2400 will compete nicely with a Pentium 2.4 even though the AMD is actually clocked at 1.9 or something. This is an oversimplification because I can never remember the exact details of how it's done, just the seat of the pants explanation. But I think AMD manages to do things like divides in 5 clock cycles instead of 7, and stuff. Different design decisions, not wrong ones.

12-30-2003, 08:18 AM	#3
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	No, I've run into that. This is different. It's a 2400+, which runs at 2GHz. The BOIS reports that the processor type is an 1800+ with a speed of 1.5GHz.

12-30-2003, 10:28 PM	#5
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	Actually, on this particular mobo it's a dip switch, and I had already checked to make sure it was right. Except I checked wrong, and when I changed it from 100 to 133 everything was happy. Thanks!

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