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WANTED: K6-2 or maybe -3

X

xjas

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2015
Messages
396
Location
Vancouver Island
Looking for a higher-speed (400+ MHz) K6-2 or 3 with a 1999 build date or maybe very early 2000. The 3rd line on the chip should say something like "x 9918xxx" or "x 0020xxx" - the 4 digit number is the date code (year, week in format YYWW.) If you're unsure, post up what you have & I'll identify it.

Hoping to find one relatively cheap and local so I don't have to eat a whole bunch of postage & exchange rate fees. I'm kind of out of funds for this project as it is. :p I could even borrow something and return it.
 
Remember there are laptop parts rated at 300ish MHz but at lower voltages that are the same core as a 400mhz+ chip and will run 400mhz+ at 2.2 volts without issue

Finding one is usually easier
 
xjas said:
Both too new, but thanks.



Damnit, 0041... Why are all the cheap ones on Ebay outside my date range?

I'm specifically looking for like 0003 or earlier. Honestly, a K6-2/450 with a 1999 date code would be ideal. I don't actually want a + CPU (yet.)
Click to expand...

I am presently building a Mitac Compaq 7900 series gamer NIB using a K6-2 (533 MHz) NIB that I purchased for $12 free shipping. What's so special about the 450 with 1999 dates?
 
Nothing special unless you're using an ASUS P5A or P5A-B, which has a known bug that's triggered by later CPUs (and all + variants.) There's a resistor mod to "fix" the bug, but I want to benchmark before & after to see if the mod does do a complete fix and need a non-bug-triggering CPU for reference. See here, and here for details.

I have a 500AFR 0021 which I'm fairly certain is hitting the bug already. I guess I could use any slower variant of the K6-2, I'll just clock back the 500 for testing.
 
xjas said:
Nothing special unless you're using an ASUS P5A or P5A-B, which has a known bug that's triggered by later CPUs (and all + variants.) There's a resistor mod to "fix" the bug, but I want to benchmark before & after to see if the mod does do a complete fix and need a non-bug-triggering CPU for reference. See here, and here for details.

I have a 500AFR 0021 which I'm fairly certain is hitting the bug already. I guess I could use any slower variant of the K6-2, I'll just clock back the 500 for testing.
Click to expand...

Over on VOGONs this:

A bit of thread necromancy here to resolve the issue possibly:

The ASUS website says you need BIOS 1007.A or later to resolve specifically an issue with the K6-2 500MHz chip. Additionally, the K6+ compatibility page says that the version 1.05 and 1.06 boards are slow with K6+ CPUs due to a hardware problem. It doesn't elaborate. I stumbled across this unanswered question looking for details as I've got one and would like to use a K6+ CPU in it.

If you haven't already done so, it might be a good idea to upgrade your BIOS anyway.
 
xjas said:
Both too new, but thanks.



Damnit, 0041... Why are all the cheap ones on Ebay outside my date range?

I'm specifically looking for like 0003 or earlier. Honestly, a K6-2/450 with a 1999 date code would be ideal. I don't actually want a + CPU (yet.)
Click to expand...
I also have a (no +):

K6-2
A 0029BPAW
 
Agent Orange said:
Over on VOGONs this:

A bit of thread necromancy here to resolve the issue possibly:

The ASUS website says you need BIOS 1007.A or later to resolve specifically an issue with the K6-2 500MHz chip. Additionally, the K6+ compatibility page says that the version 1.05 and 1.06 boards are slow with K6+ CPUs due to a hardware problem. It doesn't elaborate. I stumbled across this unanswered question looking for details as I've got one and would like to use a K6+ CPU in it.

If you haven't already done so, it might be a good idea to upgrade your BIOS anyway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have the latest BIOS (1011 beta.) From my reading, the issue with the + chips also affects the late non-Plus variants, as the same instruction change was applied to all of them produced after a certain date. The resistor mod supposedly fixes the board for all those chips, but I'd like to know first-hand if it's a complete fix.

FWIW my 500 on my board doesn't seem as slow as some people are claiming; nowhere near "P100 speeds" as is often cited. I'm getting 790 3DMarks in 3DMark2000 with my Voodoo3 whereas I "should" be getting about 1300. This may be accounted for by the fact that I haven't gone through and tweaked all the AGP driver settings yet, but I don't know.

I tried my K6-2 against a Cyrix MII at the same clock speed (188MHz) and the Cyrix was faster in just about every test, but I don't know if that was a fair comparison (the Cyrix is PR-rated "233.") This is why I want another K6 to compare with. If someone's done rigorous (i.e. compared against a non-bugged CPU) before- and after-the resistor mod benchmarks on this board somewhere, please point me to them; I haven't found anything concrete yet.

Edit: I guess I could test against a Pentium MMX at 2.5x100=250, maybe that's a better match than the Cyrix. As long as I stay away from Quake. :p
 
Last edited:
^^ I think I'm good, now that I've got this thing working well I don't want to change anything, lest it collapse into a pile of components. Thanks for the offer though. :)
 
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