Need opinions on old motherboard

[garebo]

I do charity work, I take in units and parts donated from any source and re-do them, and they go out to schoolkids who dont have one at home. As a result, I ended up with an old computer minus the hard drive. I see its an Asus P2L97. Nothing new here except i see its got
a second slot for a slot 1 cpu. I checked out Asus and a few other places but there is little mention of the second slot.
I also note that the best cpu it will take is a celeron 433 or a P2 333, boy is that old!
However, this being the first dual cpu mobo i have ever seen, it has left me wondering.
I will be refurbing this unit anyway and i will be starting all over again with it from scratch as its very dirty inside. So i guess i am wondering if its worthwhile to put a second cpu in this unit, since i have to take it all apart anyway. Do i have to match the two cpu's or can i use any 2 that are within the above-mentioned range? I have to say i know nothing about these little marvels.

What are\were the benefits of adding that extra cpu? Where would these benefits apply? Gaming? Business apps like spreadsheets? How would it affect performance?

Thanks


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[micker377]

Do you mean you have 2 slots for a CPU, or 1 slot and 1 socket?

 

[Frank4d]

Your MOBO appears to be an Asus P2L97-DS which supports one or two dual Pentium IIs. Per the manual, if installing only one CPU it must be slot 1 which is the connector roward the rear of the MOBO. Here is a download link for the manual:

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/slot1/440lx/p2l97-ds/p2l97ds-104.pdf

 

[Frank4d]

Sorry for my typo... should have been Pentium IIIs.

 

[garebo]

To micker: No, as i said, its 2 slot 1's.
To Frank4d: I believe you were right the first time, its only P2's not p3's.
I always try to check things out before posting and i downloaded, to my desktop,lol, all the files and such for this mobo. But what i may have done is downloaded the wrong ones, as the mobo only says P2L97 and NOT P2L97-DS, but this mobo does indeed have the 2 slot one setups, with, as you mentioned, the slot at the back must take the first cpu and thats where this one is mounted.

Now i need to find out what cpu's i can install there. If they have to be a matched pair or not? I am not too hip on this dual stuff as you can see. Interesting though, great time to learn where it costs me little to nothing. Only thing is, in fairness, lol, this is a charity rig, so i guess i had better not blow it up. Funny thing, its a real nice sturdy case, loaded with what was goodies at the time.
Half tempted to keep the case,lol, but i wont!



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[garebo]

Oh ya, Frank4d, the link is no good, lol.


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[epod69]

I thought pentium II's only used slot 2 (the tape looking slot..) and pII motherboards can support up to 450 (maybe 500, its been a while since I use to build them.) But all of the mobo's I have worked with that were p2s went that high. It sounds more like pentium chips to me if all they can get to is 333. But thats my input, but im only a hobbiest when it comes to building pcs.

 

[epod69]

p2s go to 550, my bad

 

[Frank4d]

Oh ya, Frank4d, the link is no good, lol.

It works fine from my PC. But the Asus website is always really slow or unavailable sometimes.

 

[garebo]

Its the slot type, not the socket. Isnt that slot 1 ?


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[epod69]

yes, your right, slot 1. The newer xeon ones use slot 2 I guess.

 

[epod69]

How do you know it only goes to pII 333?

 

[garebo]

It is slot 1 for sure.
There is a place on asus where you can check mobo support and thats what it says, max is 333. Now that doesnt always mean that the mobo wont support a faster cpu. Sometimes with bios upgrades the mobo will support a faster cpu.
I posted thinking there might be someone out there who has had this mobo and can tell me their experience with it.

As i said above, it only says P2L97 and it doesnt have the "DS" on the mobo. However, unless i have severe psychotic issues this is a dual mobo slot 1 Pentium 2, lol.
So i guess it is indeed the P2L97-DS. Now i have to see if the drivers and such are different between the standard model and the DS model. Certainly the pdf version manual is different, shows the 2 slots for 2 cpu's.
I also wonder what performance boost comes from having 2 cpu's as opposed to only 1. If i have another cpu sitting around i might as well use it anyway, not worth much.


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[mainegeek]

garebo,
The most you can probably hope for with a 440LX is a Celeron 500mhz cpu on a socket 370 to slot 1 adapter board.

 

[garebo]

Thanks.
I am wondering what effect doubling up does. For instance, if i were able to get 2 - celeron 400's running in this mobo, or 2 - 333 P2's running in this mobo. How much more computing power do you get with another cpu? I dont think you get double? And where would the extra speed show? One must get some benefit otherwise who would make and who would buy a dual cpu mobo?

Nobody has answered this part of the question?

thanks


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[Frank4d]

On dual P4 Xeon servers, application software has to be written to take advantage of the two CPUs. Otherwise the second one just sits there drawing power from the PSU. I suspect PIIs are the same.

 

[garebo]

Well, i asked for this, lol.
I do remember reading on some other fora about people being in love with their "dualies" These were Pentium 2's, around 400 to 500, and pentium 3's around 700 more or less.
There must be something we dont know?
At this point, with an older machine its not like i expect to create a miracle here, lol. Just opening up this case and finding a dual cpu setup got me to thinking. Now i have a few slot 1 P2's around, and i have come up with a pair of P2 300's and if its worthwhile i can plant them both in this mobo, just wanna know its worth spending an extra $10, lol!
Seriously, not so much for this unit, but what if i get my hands on a dual P3 900, then having a bit of knowledge might be helpful.
If there is no value in installing another cpu in this oldie then i wont. I just cant accept that there is no benefit, why would they make them? I can see making progs for servers and business machines, but these people were talking about dual units in their home machines.
Sooner or later someone will read this and give us more info. And i dont mean to demean any info i already have.
Course i could be wrong, but i believe there is more to this.






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