The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

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FrankenGraphics
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Yes. I don't see why it wouldn't work; it can't be more power-hungry than the Pentium D, so there must be some other factor.
All intel cores, duo or solo, are socket M.

Intel core 2 duo, on the other hand, comes in various sockets; M, T, J, P, and a few others. Wikipedia has a complete-looking list here that might be useful tracking down a problem with the particular one you want to fit.
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by Joe »

Espozo wrote:Yeah, I now see that I got that number from someone who didn't know what they were talking about (checking the number in a 32 bit operating system, not the menu in the BIOS). I did see that the computer should actually take 8GB of RAM, with I think a maximum of 2GB per slot, not that I would do it differently anyway.
Unfortunately, the 945G chipset has only 32 physical address lines. Even if it can recognize that much RAM, you still won't be able to use more than 4GB of it.
Espozo wrote:Yes. I don't see why it wouldn't work; it can't be more power-hungry than the Pentium D, so there must be some other factor.
That "some other factor" is the BIOS. It most likely doesn't have appropriate code to initialize a newer CPU than what was available at the time. (It may even have trouble with a supported CPU upgrade if you aren't using the latest BIOS.)
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by tepples »

Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:"Because don't you need a 1080 for 1080 pee?"
???
An uninformed person might hear about console games that run at a resolution lower than 1920x1080 and think the NVIDIA model number somehow correlates with the maximum supported resolution, such that you can't get 1080p in a game unless you have a 1080 Ti.
Espozo wrote:
tepples wrote:My recommendation for a PC with RAM that small is Lubuntu.
My recommendation for a PC with RAM that small is to add more. :lol:
Until you look it up and find that all of your motherboard's RAM slots are filled with the largest module the chipset will recognize. One of my PCs had two slots and took modules up to 256 MB. Another had one slot and took modules up to 2 GB. The one I'm on now has two slots and takes modules up to 2 GB.
Joe wrote:Unfortunately, the 945G chipset has only 32 physical address lines. Even if it can recognize that much RAM, you still won't be able to use more than 4GB of it.
But does the chipset run at byte address granuarity? I thought with a 32-bit RAM word size, the address lines would be A33-A2, allowing 8 GB, not A31-A0.
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Drew Sebastino
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by Drew Sebastino »

Joe wrote:That "some other factor" is the BIOS. It most likely doesn't have appropriate code to initialize a newer CPU than what was available at the time.
Simple; write a new one. :lol: (/sarcasm) It's pretty shitty that they wouldn't make more BIOS revisions to support latter processors; the last supported processor (Pentium D 945) was released just one year after the computer was built. :|
tepples wrote:But does the chipset run at byte address granuarity? I thought with a 32-bit RAM word size, the address lines would be A33-A2, allowing 8 GB, not A31-A0.
Uh, maybe I'll just buy 8GB of RAM and hope for the best. It's cheap enough, anyway...
FrankenGraphics wrote:All intel cores, duo or solo, are socket M.

Intel core 2 duo, on the other hand, comes in various sockets; M, T, J, P, and a few others. Wikipedia has a complete-looking list here that might be useful tracking down a problem with the particular one you want to fit.
I found this too: http://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket ... A775).html
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Mobo manufacturers not updating BIOS beyond a year or so is a bummer (or just updating it for fixes, not forward cpu recognition) I wonder if there's a difference between companies like Dell, HP, Intel that have made boards for their own lines of workstations and desktops on one hand, and general purpose manufacturers like gigabyte. All are probably driven by wanting customers to buy their latest, but maybe the later category is somewhat more reliant on 'enthusiasts' rather than companies that just replace their office equipment every other year.

I guess the safest bet is to look at the date of manufacture on the latest revision, or a quick reference/chart/spec.
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by calima »

Or get a mobo supported by Coreboot, a free software bios replacement.
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Cool, i've never heard of that before.

For the purpose of 771/775 boards, here's a listing of partially or fully supported ones:

771:
ASUS DSBF
Supermicro X7DB8 / X7DB8+

775:
ASROCK G41C-GS R2.0
ASUS P5GC-MX

Foxconn G41S-K
GIGABYTE GA-945GCM-S2L
GIGABYTE GA-G41M-ES2L

Intel DG43GT

If they're in bold, it means a wiki maintainer/user has left a date-stamped verification that it works; complete with logs and configs.
All links lead to a thorough list of what's tested/untested, ok or work in progress for each board. In the case of missing links, there were no such page at the date of this post.

Reference: Here.
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by Joe »

tepples wrote:But does the chipset run at byte address granuarity? I thought with a 32-bit RAM word size, the address lines would be A33-A2, allowing 8 GB, not A31-A0.
I'm talking about the address lines between the CPU and chipset, not between the chipset and RAM.

Though now that you mention it, the CPU itself doesn't have A2-A0 lines; when those are necessary they have to be synthesized by external logic (such as a chipset). I guess it would be more correct to say there are 29 address lines connected between the CPU and chipset, and a bunch of control signals that replicate the functionality of three more address lines.

Either way, you're never getting more than ~3.25GB of usable RAM from a 945G chipset.
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Re: The insanely low cost of relatively old computer parts

Post by tepples »

calima wrote:Or get a mobo supported by Coreboot, a free software bios replacement.
Good luck with that on a laptop without having to settle for a decade-old ThinkPad made prior to Intel ME.
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