Get the Hyper-Threading Support on an Old Mainboard

by Anton Shilov
01/12/2003 | 08:09 AM

Although the Hyper-Threading technology is not officially supported by older i845 and i850-based mainboards, advanced users find a way to enable it there. Moreover, sometimes there may be a way to enable the Hyper-Threading on non-3.06GHz Pentium 4 processors on the Northwood core, however, the success cannot be guaranteed. Today this web-site reported that a well-known PowerLead company announced their PL-iP4 adapters that can enable the Hyper-Threading technology support on mainboards powered by slightly outdated i845 and i850 series of core-logic sets.

It is indisputably a nice feature to enable the Hyper-Threading support on older mainboards, however, we should keep in mind the following facts:

• If you install such adapter, you will need a special cooling system.
• Currently only the Pentium 4 3.06GHz provides this technology. Since the chip consumes a lot of power, Intel recommends that mainboards met the latest guidelines and had reliable processor power supply circuits, since the CPUs may need to get up to 70A of current. A lot of old mainboards cannot meet all the requirements, thus, current high-end Intel processors may work unstably there. So, not all the mainboards will be able to deliver you the Hyper-Threading advantages while working correctly.