K-6-2/450 on Biostar m5ata

[Harvmeister]

Hi! I recently acquired an old (1997) computer for use by my 13 year old granddaughter.
Mobo is a biostar M5ATA with latest BIOS avail. from Biostar site, which had a Pentium mmx. I have installed an AMD K6-2/450 processor and am looking for the optimal BIOS settings for this processor. Most of the BIOS guides I've found contain a lot of info on newer setting not available on this vintage mobo. For setup and debugging I'm currently running it at 66 mhz fsb w/ multiplier set at 2, which the K6-2 remaps to 5.5 (66x5.5=363).
I plan to run it w/ fsb at 75 to get it up over 400 MHz. I know that I need to enable write allocation, etc. to take full advantage of the new processor, but dont know which bios settings to use. It's Award v 4.51 w/ string id of 5-27-98 ALi 154x 2a5kib09c-00 (old, but the newest avail.).
Anybody know which setting are best on this board/CPU combo? At this point I have them at default settings. Thanx in advance.

[a_user]

Do a Google search for K6-2 and M5ATA. You will lots of hits. I would start here http://k6plus.50megs.com/compatlist This references 3 really good K6 urls.

Note - Here is a note on the M5ATA for the above k6plus url
Later BIOS will NOT work! Can support 2.0V if you have 8-pin (4 jumper) block for voltage. Requires these modifications if you have the 6-pin (3 jumper) block for voltage.

[ajzchips]

2.0x remaps to 6.0x, and not 5.5x.

[Harvmeister]

Thanks for the replies, folks.
a_user: Yeah, I've seen the article in the link you provided. It's actually about the K6-2+. It was a big factor in why I decided not to go for the "+" model of that processor, since my board will only go down to 2.3 volts. I have seen a few other pages that look promising by doing a Google search, as you suggest, but most of them are in German (which I dont speak).
ajzchips: I know that the K6-2 is supposed to remap 2 to 6, but sisoft sandra utility reports the multiplier as 5.5 and the processor as running at 363.
I've actually been working on this project for a couple of months now. I've looked everywhere I can think of for specific settings for this CPU/BIOS combo.
I've read thru AMDs white papers on this CPU but they're a little over my head. Mostly about code optimization for the processor, etc.
I'm really hoping I can find info gaered to the older BOIS options that are on my setup.

[th]

Hi

There are not really any specific settings for the CPU in the Bios (other than enable/disable the cache).
The problem is, that even the latest BIOS might not enable all the special features (Write Allocation, Write Combining) , the CPU does offer, so it will not run as fast as possible.

This does not hurt, because you can enable them later on, using 3rd party tools (check the links, which have been already posted) on Win3.1, 9x or Me.
If you are going to install Linux, you don't need it, since the Linux Kernel will do it (unless compiled for a different CPU).
The same is supposed to be done by W2K and XP.
NT4 might need a service pack or also a 3rd party tool.

If your CPU does not run at 400MHz, as you think it should, then
- The multi is not set to x2.0, check
- The FSB is not set at 66MHz, check
- The measuring program is not working correct (get another, dos-based one, an older version of ctcm for example)
Forget about the speed display on the startup screen. This might be awfully wrong.

If you are running a DOS-based OS (Win3.1, 9x, Me), please do use CPU-Cooling software like "rain" or similar.
This is not needed for Linux, NT4, W2k and XP.

As soon as you are heading for 75MHz or more, please use SDRam.
Don't mix SDRam and old SIMMs

BTW: Disable "Speculative Read" (YMMV) in the Bios.
Don't try to use UDMA33 (or complain about, your board not doing it).
This feature is unrelieable and should be left disabled.

Bye
Thomas