Quick question. I've never upgrade PC hardware b4 so please bear with me. Aside from talking with SGI tech support, how can I determine processor compatibility? Someone at SGI unofficially told me that they heard about someone running as much as dual 733 pentium 3s. But officially I can't seem to get a straight answer out of them. Does anyone know what's the latest processor the 320s will run safely? I don't want to do ay risky installations that could do damage to the board. Any help is grealty appreciated.
The upgradeability of your processors depends on three factors: the current PROM version, the currently installed processors & the motherboard revision number.
PROM 1.006 is recommended for running WinNT & adds support for 600 MHz Katmai processors (Family 6 Model 7)and slot 2 processors with 2M byte L2 cache.
PROM 1.1005 is recommended for running Win2K & adds support for 800 and 850 Mhz Pentium III Coppermine processors (Family 6 Model 8).
Following is an extract from the readme when installing PROM 1.1005:
Processor Upgrade Guidelines
The following guidelines should be observed when ugprading the processor in your visual workstation 320 or 540.
SGI warrants that your visual workstation will operate properly with the processor(s) it was originally shipped with.
SGI additionally warrants that single-processor 320 systems may be upgraded to dual-processor systems by the addition of a second processor of the same family, model, and stepping as the original processor. Single- and dual-processor 540 systems may be similarly upgraded to dual- or quad-processor configuration. SGI does not validate a three-processor 540 configuration.
Processor upgrades which change the family/model and/or speed of the processor may result in incorrect operation of 320 or 540. SGI does not warrant proper operation of such an altered configuration. The following guidelines are provided for users who wish to perform such upgrades and accept all risks associated with those upgrades including, but not limited to, permanent damage to the new processor, permanent damage to the system board, and non-operation of the resulting configuration.
Pentium II 320 and 540 systems may be upgraded to any Pentium II processor in the Deschutes family (Family 6, Model 6)
Pentium II 320 systems should not be upgraded with Pentium III processors unless the 320 system board is of revision 007, 007A, or 007B. The revision may be found imprinted into the system board below the bottom 64-bit PCI slot. SGI will not provide a system board replacement for customers who purchased Pentium II systems with revision 006 system boards.
Pentium II 540 systems may be upgraded to processors in the Pentium III Xeon KATMAI family (Family 6, Model 7)
Pentium III KATMAI (Family 6, Model 7) 320 and 540 systems may be upgraded to any processor in the KATMAI family.
Pentium III KATMAI 320 systems may be upgraded to 800 an 850 Mhz. processors in the Coppermine family (Family 6, model 8).
Processors with a 133 Mhz. front-side bus will not function in 320 or 540. 320 and 540 support a 100 Mhz. front-side bus only.
I too have been down this route with sgi engineers, and they only succeeded in affirming my decision to never buy a machine from them again - nobody seems to know what's in their own Readme's!