Socket A Semprons

[Sonya]

I'm building a low-cost desktop machine from spare parts, and wanted to know if Semprons can work as a drop-in replacement for Socket A Athlon XPs. The mainboard I'm using is a FIC AM37, which has a VIA KM266 chipset and formerly ran with 1GB DDR-333/PC2700 memory and an Athlon XP 2200+. The new one is a Sempron 2800+, model SDA2800DUT3D.

[jggimi]

I believe you may face Front Side Bus compatibility problems. Googling shows the FIC AM37 can be strapped to an FSB speed of either 100 or 133 MHz. The Sempron 2800+ has an FSB of 333 MHz.

The only Sempron's I've ever run have been with 333MHz motherboards, so I am unable to confirm this is a problem; only that it may be a possibility. AMD should be able to tell you if the CPU will negotiate and operate with the slower FSB or not.

[vermaden]

Yes, the Sempron you have should work with that mobo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors

[Carpetsmoker]

List of officially supported CPU's:
ftp://ftp.fic.com.tw/motherboard/cpu...cketa/am37.pdf
(From http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/cputable.aspx)

Sempron 2800+ is not mentioned, it may work nonetheless, but probably not.

[vermaden]

It may also work, but at slower speed, this can be propably fixed by latest BIOS update of your motherboard.

[jggimi]

As I stated above, that depends on if the CPU can match the slower FSB. It might be able to; then again, it might not.

[J65nko]

Nice to head that FIC is still around

My wife and I set up the FIC European headquarters in 's-Hertogenbosch(NL) in 1990.

[Sonya]

Thanks for the links. I've looked up a list of recommended mainboards on AMD's site and it lists the Gigabyte GA-7VM333M-RZ as compatible, it uses an identical chipset (VIA KM266) so it may work. Do you have any thoughts on voltage, will testing the configuration cause damage to the CPU? Socket-A Athlons are kind of touchy.