VIA C3 Socket 370 CPU

I found this oddball CPU in my collection that runs on Pentium 3 motherboards and decided to fire it up.

[@mucahitselcuk]

The processor of my childhood I still keep now

[@DATT]

Really, you actually got practical use of it. Nice.

[@enzito_sdf6978]

it's kind of a cool cpu, usually they perform like a p3 of 1/2 it's clock. it did have some really weird stuff, like a large l1 cache, larger than the l2. also, it has a power saving feature, that means you can disable stuff and change the cpu multiplier on the fly, great for old speed sensitive apps. these via cpus are good for replacing, say, a k6-3+ which are really expensive rn.

[@DATT]

Multiplier on the fly, eh ? I recall trying to overclock it back in the day, there are these linkages on the chip, that I would cut or connect and it would change the multiplier. I can't recall doing that on a board level.

[@thudtheace]

I used one as a Server(game, samba, ntp, DNS, NFS, squid, e-mail) for a number of years because it just worked, was quiet, and used very little power. I was using the samuel 2 version of the C3 (C3-800). Cheers!

[@DATT]

Oh boy, bout what time was that ? I guess it could be reasonably fast if it didn't have to run a GUI.

[@moviebod]

We all had haircuts like that in 2003. I have just spent many hours applying (I won't say enjoying) the same sort of conundrums today with benchmarking and so on. Make yourself a sticky note as to what it does or doesn't do. And I did enjoy your pain as I was able to empathise :)

[@DATT]

Oh yeah, I guess the hair cut could be period correct. Ohhh, I wonder, maybe haircuts like that started from people copying video game styles cause you know, the graphics couldn't do better. Haha.

[@moviebod]

@@DATT I do believe these PCs attract a small group of masochists. It must be a small group as I can never sell my builds on eBay.

[@DATT]

@@moviebod Hahaha !

[@supermario8416]

Interesting video. Unreal is a great game for benchmarking CPUs from that time. Its very CPU dependent.

[@DATT]

Yeah, I noticed that in an old video, when I tried it on a Pentium then Pentium Pro with the same video card. I think by this P3 era, it's bound to just max out.

[@ChimpyChamp]

Good video, I only just realise how similar the Canadian accent is to Irish.

[@DATT]

I don't think what you're hearing is completely natural. I have a tendency to slip in to accents when filming to add a bti of character to the presentation. I think if you're hearing Irish, I was probably slipping a bit of Irish in there. Mind you, I'm from Ontario, an Eastern Canadian Accent, does sound Irish-ish, and I might slip that in there too.

[@breakingbadatron8874]

I've a via chip that's embedded in a desktop motherboard, mainly their office work, zero thrills but 100% productivity

[@DATT]

See, that's how I'd expect a CPU like that to be packaged, haha, no some much a 370 retrofit.

[@breakingbadatron8874]

@@DATT wouldn't surprise me if there was a market, they fit a socket 7 too

[@DATT]

@@breakingbadatron8874 Oh, they did make socket 7 CPUs. I have a Cyrix CPU for 7 but I dont' have a board that will run it. Used to, no idea where it is. I got rid of a lot of stuff few years back.

[@Voidsworn]

I've got two mITX mobos with the bga VIA CPUs running at around 1.4GHz and 1GB PC133 SDRAM. Definitely runs better than what you got.

[@DATT]

I wonder if your CPU's are a difference gen. I dont' recall the C3's hitting 1.4. But sounds liek you got a proper matched motherboard at least.

[@Voidsworn]

@@DATT I think they are the later revision. Also, they are soldered in these motherboards that were originally in some Winterms. I can adjust the FSB (to 133, hence the overclock) but the CPU multipliers are apparently locked and hidden in BIOS, which means the DOS program would be the only way to mess with CPU multipliers and such.

[@DATT]

@@Voidsworn Oh, I dont' recall if I got into that in this video. On this CPU I have, the multipliers are links of the CPU. I think they are on the underside. They are like PCB traces. You can cut and link others. I did get a higher multi oc out this chip before, tho I don't think it was stable.

[@Voidsworn]

@@DATT Yeah, I know. I read over the schematics a couple years ago and moved the 0 ohm resistors around (on the motherboard)...it ignores them and leaves it clocked at whatever it is. Weird thing is that the CPUs are VIA C3-LP1.0GHz but they were clocked at 1GHz BUT on 100MHz FSB, I merely changed it to 133FSB. I think that the CPU mult is set at 10, so get 1.3GHz (not 1.4GHz...oops).

[@Voidsworn]

@@DATT Here's the board I have: EPIA-LP10000A. The CPU die has a big aluminum spreader on it.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

Yeah, seems these C3 chips are a lot of hard work to configure right. Pretty odd that they carried on the C3 line for so long, probably were banking on people not wanting to replace their system yet.

[@DATT]

Well, I don't know it was hard to configure per say, the board either supported it, or it didn't. Once I swapped the board, it worked just fine. I think what happens sometimes, is when new tech comes out, there might be a surplus of new old stock tech. So maybe they came out with a CPU to use with a common Motherboard on the market. I can't see anyone with a P3 already upgrading to this, especially since you could max out the CPU with cheap used parts at the time. That said, I dont' recall this thing being particularly expensive, tho, I couldn't find record of what I paid for it.

[@dabombinablemi6188]

At least being Nehemiah the FPU was also run at 1GHz. Samuel 2 and Ezra-T performance by comparison due to running it at half clock...is actually kind of tragic. Some games (if they don't crash asking for Pentium) run better on a Pentium II 350 than Samuel2 @ 700MHz or Ezra-T at 866MHz. Mine at 1.2GHz at least managed to beat my Pentium III 650 (on the same board). Though said board works best with Samuel2 as I can change the multiplier within BIOS (option only shows with C3, Ezra-T and Nehemiah lock up). Works fine when playing DVD (no HW acceleration enabled), can't tell if it runs any cooler than PIII 1000 as I'm having to use a rather overkill heatsink (socket clip broke) meant for Athlon XP 3200+. And both run at around 32 degrees C. No issues are guaranteed to be the fault of the CPU with my PC either...Windows ME, SiS 315 and AudioPCI 5200. Got to have a "home" for the odd and poor quality/poorly performing things.

[@DATT]

Yeah architecture can make a big difference. I would not be surprised at all if a P2 350 would outperform it.

[@crxxpslvyr7887]

Its a shame that it isnt worked great in the first time

[@DATT]

Well, the board just didn't like it, that board is questionable to begin with. I recapped it in a previous video and it was kind of glitchy then too.

[@arz1898]

today, I saw a board with one of these cpu on-board clk at 800mhz. look for Mercury PVCLE266M-L .really cheap as well maybe these boards kinda fair better than intel boards?.or just works better in windows 2000/xp. VIA don't have the best drivers i guess...

[@arz1898]

the board does not have agp slot tho, all on-board!

[@DATT]

@@arz1898 Oh, and oddball all in one. Cute. It should be cheap, it's pretty old now. I doubt I would put them ahead of an Intel board tho. And yeah, I think that'd be a 2000 era board, maybe XP. Whatever drivers you find for it should work well, weather you can find drivers for it in the question. Sometimes you look and the part numbers of the chips on the board and find drivers from that company.

[@mattscomp]

Have been researching these VIA CPU's to see if it's worthwhile me getting one. Mainly interested in the ability to slow it down. Using Setmul and other utilities. Anyways seems it's really not worth pursuing. Curiously it works better apparently on Intel 440BX chipsets. Needs an appropriate adaptor. VIA CPU with VIA chipset you would assume to be a better combo. World is upside down. But yeah not really a winner. Low power consumption is about the best thing about it. Other than the gold appearance. 😄

[@DATT]

Yeah, I'm sure it had it's purpose back in the day, for software and OS's written for it. But now, it's more a curiosity.

[@szyszka8303]

@@DATT only ezrael lets full control with smb & setmul

[@garywutube]

VIA C3 call himself AMD K6 killer!!🤭🤭🤭

[@DATT]

Hmm, well the K6 was Pentium era, and this is P3 era, I should hope it's faster . . .

[@DATT]

UNless you're thinking like the K6-3 or something.