Dual Pentium III confusion (Intel Pentium III (Katmai))

Member Name: kingr

Product:	Intel Pentium III (Katmai)
Date:	28/02/01 (339 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable

Disadvantages: Generally more expensive than equivalent AMDs

I recently bought a QDI BrillianX IV motherboard that support single or dual Pentium IIs and also some (not all) Pentium IIIs. I initially ran it with a single 350Mhz, and then decided to try out my PIII 450 in it, which to my satisfaction, worked. However, not content with only using half the abilities of my motherboard, I decided to investigate getting a second processor for it.

I phoned several shops and was told different stories by them. Some said that to run dual processors, you MUST have the same processor type, speed, and stepping, others told me that the stepping was not important but they must be the same clock speed, while others told me that it must simply be the same type of processor, as long as you run the system at the clock speed of the slowest processor.

I decided to call in some help from friends, and borrowed a pentium III 450 and a pentium III 500.

And I can confirm that they both worked (running at 450), and I tried running it with one 450 and one 500, at 500, and it seemed to work although I probably wouldn't reccomend doing this since heat would become a problem and may well damage the chips.

So, to summarise, if you want to run dual CPUs, as long as they are in the same class, and run at the lowest common denominator of speeds, then all is well.

I have never had any problems with faulty or unreliable Intel chips, and the flexibily of them for dual processor applications means that I can thoroughly reccomend them.

Incidentaly, I have had my dual processor machine running since I bought a 450 for myself without a single reboot (6 weeks, 4 days and rising) which, if nothing else, shows the reliablity of the Pentium III chip.

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