Soyo Dragon Plus CPU Support

[Mark Bussman]

I've been chatting with people about this on the QT3 IRC channel over the past few days or so, so I thought I'd post this for anyone interested.


Are there plans to update the BIOS of the KV7-DRAGON Plus in order to support the Athlon XP 2200+, 2400+ and 2600+?

Also, there is a conflict between two of the Soyo websites as to what the fastest processor supported by this motherboard is.

This one says, "up to 2100+"
http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=37

This one says, "up to 2200+"
http://www.soyo.com.tw/products/proddesc.php?id=37

Thanks in advance.


Mark,

This M/B does not support the 2200+ CPU. This is the limitation of the M/B design.

Thank You! Have a Nice Day!

Regards,
SOYO Technical Support Team

Not a bad turnaround time. I guess what I'll do is wait (not that I have much choice since I don't have the money yet :)) until the Rev B chips are out, and scoop up a 2100+ when the prices drop.

[Xaroc]

Mark, if you want 2200+ speeds all you need to do is tweak the fsb up 6-7 points and you will be set. That is a margin of error overclock and should give you no problems. No need to unlock the chip or anything just make sure your agp/pci bus is locked down in the bios (most newer boards have this). I realize it is a small difference but hey I always say is try to get what you want.

-- Xaroc

[Anonymous]

I am curious: why are the 2200+ and higher not supported? It's just a faster chip, but it's still using the same process, same throughbred core. Have I missed something? Why the cut off?

I have an ECS K7S5A and on the ECS site it just says it supports all "future Anthlons." I found a chart that indicates that any chip that falls in with the "AthlonXP 0.13u" is supported. I had hoped to be able to upgrade to one of the fast processors when the come out.

[Mark Bussman]

I am curious: why are the 2200+ and higher not supported? It's just a faster chip, but it's still using the same process, same throughbred core. Have I missed something? Why the cut off?

Actually, the 2200+ has the new Thoroughbred core while the 2100+ and below have the Palomino core. I'm assuming there are no plans to make Thoroughbred versions of the 2100+ and below. Supposedly it should only take a simple BIOS update to add support for the new core, but I don't know. Maybe one of the more tech-savvy folks around here knows for sure. I'd actually like to know the real answer, because if they should be able to add support but refuse to do so, then that would certainly influence my future purchasing decisions.

It *almost* sounds like they just don't want to go through the effort of doing the BIOS or they're hoping that people will go buy the KT333 based board instead. Seems like they'd lose more than they'd gain if that was the case. I'm sure I'm just being cynical though.

[Jason Cross]

I am curious: why are the 2200+ and higher not supported? It's just a faster chip, but it's still using the same process, same throughbred core. Have I missed something? Why the cut off?


Depending on the motherboard chipset and the capabilities of the BIOS, the multiplier might max out at 10 or 10.5 or whatever a 2100+ is. Multipliers of 11 or higher, for example, might not be supported in the chipset/bios.