Socket 8 / Slot 1 / Socket 370 Motherboards

Socket 370

Socket 370 was released around 1998 or 1999 and was originally made as a budget CPU socket compared to Intel's higher-end Slot 1 solution. Later it became Intel's main CPU Socket until the release of the Pentium 4, after which it moved to the budget end of the market again before being phased out altogether. A wide variety of CPU's exist for this socket, ranging from the 333MHz Celeron (with Mendocino core) all the way to the Pentium 3s 1400MHz (also known as Tualatin-s). VIA also made a variety of CPU's for this socket, though compatibility is somewhat sketchy. As this CPU socket went through a couple revisions, not all Socket 370 CPU's will work in any given Socket 370 motherboard, even though they will mechanically fit. Generally speaking there are 3 different types of motherboards using this socket:The early Celeron Mendocino-only motherboards (usually limited to a 66MHz FSB), the Coppermine capable motherboards (having a maximum FSB of either 100MHz or 133MHz) and the Tualatin capable motherboards. Sometimes Tualatin capable motherboards have their CPU socket colored blue instead of the usual white.

To prevent usage of newer CPU's in older motherboards, Intel switched a couple pins around to prevent operation of Coppermine CPU's in the earliest Celeron-only boards and Intel repeated that trick when it started manufacturing Tualatin CPU's. This prevented the use of later chips in older motherboards, even if the right (lower) voltage could be supplied by the motherboard.

Usually Socket 370 boards had AGP (the older ones AGP 2x and the newer ones AGP 4x). All of them had PCI slots and the older types of Socket 370 motherboards had ISA slots. Almost all Socket 370 motherboards are ATX (though a few AT Socket 370 motherboards are known to exist). Only very few Tualatin motherboards featured one or 2 ISA slots. Usually the Intel 815 chipsetted motherboards had no ISA slots, except when the motherboard was equipped with a bridge chip. The bridge chip 'could' cause some problems when using ISA sound cards.