INTEL PENTIUM III 1.4 GHZ SL5XL

[Hempfieldtesla]

Hello. I'm  rebuilding an old dell dimension 2100 for the fun of it. It has windows xp on it. It's running 512mb ram, and the original 20g hard drive was replaced with a 7200 rpm 80g hard drive. It currently has a intel celeron 900 mhz processor. 128k L2 cache. It uses the 370 pin-out. I'm looking to buy a INTEL PENTIUM III 1400 MHZ 1.4 GHZ SOCKET 370 CPU SL5XL to replace the celeron. I believe it will be an improvement, and the computer will be able to do basic web browsing. I'm also debating about putting Ubuntu Linux on it. I was wondering if this processor would work in this setup, and if the integrated graphics would still work off the motherboard.

Thanks,
Jesse

[DaveLembke]

Info online suggests that the board is running 100Mhz FSB and maximum is 1.1Ghz P3 CPU with 11x multiplier.  As far as Pentium III CPU's beyond 1.0Ghz you can run into problems with boards not supporting them. The maximum I ever got a Socket 370 motherboard to support which was a Dell was an upgrade from 700Mhz Celeron with PC-100 memory to a 1.0Ghz Pentium III.

As far as RAM goes, 512MB of PC-100 memory is the maximum it can address. The problem with modern Linux Distros are that they have moved on to a common minimum suggested memory of 1GB. There are still some distros that support lesser memory such as Linux Mint Xfce. I have a feeling you will either be running a up to date Xfce distro or you will be running an out of date distro which works better on the limited 512MB RAM.

The last Xfce version of Mint I ran was Mint 13 Xfce on a Dell Laptop with Pentium III 600Mhz and 384MB RAM. It ran it, but it was not a speed demon. You need to have patience running these OS on a Pentium III CPU especially if you are running on a mobile P3 CPU with bare minimum memory to run the distro.

But anyways, information online suggests that your motherboard does not support this 1.4Ghz, and 1.1Ghz is what one person posted as working. Another person tried a 1.3Ghz which booted as 750Mhz Pentium III because the CPU is being driven by a 100Mhz FSB instead of a 133Mhz FSB. With this motherboard you are stuck with 100Mhz FSB so your upgrade is limited.

Here is a copy paste from PIII wiki for CPU's that match up with 100Mhz FSB:

100 MHz FSB: 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900, 1000, 1100 MHz (E-Models)

[Hempfieldtesla]

Thanks so much for the reply. I found another processor that seems to meet the maximum specs the motherboard can handle. It is a Intel Celeron CPU Socket 370 1GHz 256K 100MHz CPU - SL5ZF.

Here is a link- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Celeron-CPU-Socket-370-1GHz-256K-100MHz-CPU-SL5ZF-/291097624618?pt=CPUs&hash=item43c6c5402a

Do you believe it would be worth the upgrade to this processor from the intel celeron 900mhz, 128k L2 cache that is currently in this machine?

As for the Linux, I have had luck running a retro version of Puppy-dog on an old Pentium II desktop I have. And I have also tried DSL linux and it seems to run fine. I will also look into the Linux mint you mentioned. I prefer the linux mint layout as appose to DSL.

-Jesse

[DaveLembke]

If putting any money into the system, I'd go with the Pentium III 1Ghz if affordable. One other thing I forgot to mention is that the Pentium is also stronger with more internal transistors than that of the Celeron. So while this 1Ghz Celeron would be a +128k cache and 100Mhz boost to what you already have, i feel you'd get better performance out of a Pentium III 1Ghz with 256k cache than a Celeron 1Ghz with 256k cache.

If $7 is all you want to spend though, this extra cache would help... just wanted to make you aware of a better choice if your going all out for the maximum processing power you can stretch out of this old system.

[Hempfieldtesla]

Ok, thanks again for the advise. Would this Pentium III 1ghz work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-SL5FQ-Pentium-III-3-1000Mhz-133-256-1-75V-CPU-P821-/251280300147?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a81791873

It has a bus speed of 133, but I found a site with specs of the dell mothernoard on it and it says it suports a Pentium III 1ghz with 133 bus speed. Once again thanks so much for your help

http://www.ascendtech.us/dell-dimension-2100-motherboard-2e087_i_mb3del2e087.aspx
Dell Dimension 2100 Motherboard 2E087

Item Code: MB3DEL2E087
Manufacturer:Dell Computers
Model:2E087 Dell Dimension 2100
Category:Intel P3 370-PIN Motherboards
Item Description
Dell Dimension 2100 Motherboard Model: 2E087 - This Socket 370 desktop board brings exciting new levels of performance and features to the desktop. These boards are Intel made boards for Dell, so you will see a Dell logo come up when booted. All boards are fully guaranteed and come with warranty.

Specifications:

Manufacturer: Dell / Intel
Compatibility: Dell Dimension 2100
Part Number: 2E087 02E087

Specifications:

Processor Class: Pentium 3 or Celeron (FC-PGA); Socket 370
Supports: Intel Pentium 3 933 MHz or 1.00 GHz 133FSB and 1.10 GHz 100FSB or Intel Celeron 700, 800, 900, 1000 or 1100 MHz 100FSB
FSB: 100Mhz / 133Mhz
Chipset Used: Intel 810E
Memory Types Supported: PC100 or PC133 SDRAM 128MB, 256MB or 512 MB (max)
Number of Memory Slots: 2
Video Integrated: Intel 810 3D AGP Integrated Video Graphics
Onboard Device: 1 Parallel and 1 Serial Ports
IDE Mode Supported: 2 Ultra ATA-66
Slots Available: 4 PCI Slots
Number of USB Ports: 2
Other: PS2 Mouse, PS2 Keyboard and Floppy Support

[easeltine1]

Hemp,

I just wanted to verify what Dave told you as far as the memory usage is of some of the most current Linux operating systems. When I allocated 750 MB of my 2 GB to my VirtualBox the system would crash, I had to lower the VirtualBox to 500 MB.  That was due to the fact that my Kubuntu Linux, (current version), was using over 1.25 GB of RAM.

You might try Lubuntu. it is similar to Mint that Dave mentioned, and the system requirements state that it runs well on only 512 MB.

Of course, with 512 MB you could always run a version, say of Slitax Linux from a CD/ RAM only, and it works pretty well.

[Hempfieldtesla]

Thanks for the advise easeltine,

I'm currently looking into lightweight linux distros that run ok on older hardware. I currently have tried the retro version of puppy linux, DS-Linux, and antiXlinux. I have also tried Lununtu, which works, but does not run that well on old hardware. I'm going to be looking into the Linux Mint Xfce as mentioned before, and I'm also going to look into Slitax. If anyone has more suggestions please post a reply.

Thanks,
Jesse

[DaveLembke]

Looks like that CPU should match up since its listed in the DELL support documentation that you posted 100/133 supported.

However this other CPU linked below is a true 100Mhz FSB exact match. I have read online where some people using 133Mhz FSB CPU's end up with like 750Mhz Pentium III's instead of 1Ghz because of a locked multiplier in the 133Mhz FSB CPU's. And because the CPU is running at 100Mhz FSB vs 133Mhz FSB, it runs underclocked.

 I would trust a 1Ghz 100Mhz FSB Pentium III CPU to have a multiplier of 10x and working at exactly 1Ghz as designed vs a 133Mhz FSB CPU to work at 100mhz and multiplier adjustable to 10x in which the multiplier may be locked on that CPU.

http://ark.intel.com/products/27528/Intel-Pentium-III-Processor-1_00-GHz-256K-Cache-100-MHz-FSB