VIA PM800 compatible with Dual Core?

[NetPhreak]

I've got a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo L 7310 Notebook.

CPU:
Intel Celeron Mobile 360
SL86K clock 1.40 GHz, Modell 360, fsb 400 MHz, 90 nm, Stepping:C0,L1 Cache 1 MB, Socket Micro-FCPGA

Chip:
VIA PM800/VT8235
http://www.via.com.tw/en/produ...psets/p4-series/pm800/

RAM:
2x512MB DDR1-400 PC3200 SO-DIMM CL3

Question:
a) Can I use a CPU with FSB 533Mhz?
b) Can I also use a Socket mBGA CPU? Is it compatible?
c) Are following CPUs compatible?

Core 2 Duo Mobile:
1. SL9WE 1.73 GHz T5300 533 MHz 65 nm L2 2 MB Micro-FCPGA
2. SL9VP 1.60 GHz T5200 533 MHz 65 nm B2 2 MB Micro-FCPGA
3. SLV3W 1.33 GHz U7600 533 MHz 65 nm M0 2 MB Micro-FCBGA

Dual-Core Mobile:
4. SL9VY 1.73 GHz T2080 533 MHz 65 nm D0 1 MB Micro-FCPGA
5. SL9VX 1.60 GHz T2060 533 MHz 65 nm D0 1 MB Micro-FCPGA

Pentium M:
6. SL7VB 2.26 GHz 780 533 MHz 90 nm C0 2 MB Micro-FCPGA

I already asked Fujitsu-Siemens but they have no bloody idea and told me that the best upgrade would be a Celeron M 390 (Dothan) 1,7Mhz 400fsb and that DDR-400Mhz wouldn't work.
Well, DDR-400 runs fine at currently 398Mhz and there is no reasonable argument for a Pentium M (Dothan) 1,7 400fsb not to run, if the Celeron runs! Bloody Fujitsu-idiots!

But will a P4Mobile 533fsb or even a Dual-Core/Core2Dual work?

Wondering if someone has a clue...

[Mr. Chris]

That board is limited to a 400Mhz FSB, so the 533Mhz stuff won't work. Also, BGA ( ball grid array ) will not even work in a PGA ( pin grid array ) socket board. The Pentium M 1.7 ( Dothan ) might run, but you may need to get the latest BIOS revision for the CPU to be seen correctly by the BIOS. Chris.

[NetPhreak]

Hi Chris!

Thanks a lot for your post! Seems that you are much more competent than the FSC support [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Do you or anyone else have an idea if I can unlock the fsb lock by the board?

Have you got a datasheet for my board? Or where did you get the information?

[Mr. Chris]

I got the information from the link you posted from VIA about the chipset. There is no way to increase the FSB speed on the board unless there is the ability within the BIOS to increase the FSB. But that will not get close to 533Mhz. You might make it to 430 or maybe 450Mhz but that's it. Chris.

[NetPhreak]

But the link/technical datasheet says:

Key Features

» Full support for the latest Intel® Pentium® 4 Processors
» Supports 400/533/800MHz Front Side Bus Settings
» Supports up to 8GB DDR266/333/400 SDRAM
» Ultra V-Link 1066 MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge interconnect
» Full Featured Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) compliant with 8X/4X transfer modes
» Integrated VIA UniChrome Pro Graphics
» Optimized Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)
» 200MHz Graphics Engine Clock with separated 128-bit data paths
» 128-bit 2D and 3D Graphics Engine
» Chromotion CE Video Display Engine
- MPEG-2 Decoder
- Video Deblocking
- Adaptive De-Interlace
- Full HDTV support up to 1080p
» Two 8-bit Video Capture Ports
» Three 12-bit Digital Video Ports for connection to TV out, Video Capture In, and external TMDS transmitter
» Full Software support including Microsoft DirectX 7.0, 8.0, 9.0 and Open GL support
» Support for VIA Vinyl Gold 8-channel Audio controller & integrated VIA Vinyl 6-channel Audio
» Serial ATA support for up to 4 devices
» Integrated V-RAID with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1**, and JBOD (SATA) support
» Parallel ATA133/100/66 support for up to 4 devices
» Support for up to 8 USB 2.0/USB 1.1 ports
» Support for VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet companion controller & Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
» Advanced System Power Management Support

Could it be that Fujitsu-Siemens lock the FSB at 400?[

[Mr. Chris]

O.K., I had my facts sideways there, sorry. The chipset does support up to 800Mhz FSB, but the board's BIOS does not. Fujitsu Seimens data here.
I do see they list a Dothan Core 2 as supported CPU as well. But it's still gonna be 400Mhz FSB. The BIOS looks pretty plain, I doubt if there is any overclocking ability. Chris.

[NetPhreak]

I think they're talking talking about the normal Dothan Core with a 2MB 2nd LevelCache [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

The technical facts for RAM were wrong though, as they say only 333Mhz would work.

The BIOS hasnt got fsb-change features [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

[tcsenter]

Originally Posted by NetPhreak

a) Can I use a CPU with FSB 533Mhz?

This is not determined by the chipset.

b) Can I also use a Socket mBGA CPU? Is it compatible?

This is not determined by the chipset.

c) Are following CPUs compatible?

This is not determined by the chipset...for the most part.

Notice any pattern? The chipset is able to support the specifications listed by VIA. But the chipset is not floating on air inside of your computer. There is a circuit board built around it, everything connects to the chipset through that circuit board. Therefore all of those questions are determined at the circuit board level (and system BIOS).

A chipset might support 400MHz, 533MHz, 667MHz, and 800MHz processor FSB, but the circuit board design determines which of them are implemented; all supported FSB or only one. A chipset might support PGA, BGA, and LGA chip packages, but the circuit board design determines the form factor of the processor socket.

None of your questions could be answered by looking at the VIA chipset specs. VIA designs the chipset, it does not design the motherboards (except for its own VIA-branded boards). Only Fujitsu or someone with special knowledge of this particular Fujitsu motherboard could know the answer to any of your questions.

Based on an educated guess, your laptop probably could support standard Banias and Dothan based mobile parts, but not Yonah or Merom. Again, completely subject to Fujitsu BIOS and motherboard design.

Edit: oops, just realized this discussion has been inactive for a few months.