...a successful, if modest, P3 overclock:
I built the first PC I ever owned a little over a year ago. It was a 500 MHz Katmai P3 running Windows 98SE at 560/112 with some generic PC100 CL3 RAM on a good Slot-1 BX board, the AOpen AX6BC Pro. The system was not very exciting, but it was rock stable (which is very important to me) and I only saw one BSOD that I can recall. I had added dual monitors, DSL and some good 7,200-rpm HDD?s, and was pretty satisfied.
But I still thought it would be nice to have a 1 GHz system, although I wasn?t in any rush either.
First I considered getting one of Compuwiz1?s tested overclocked CPU?s, something I would recommend to anyone who is a serious overclocker (which I am not). But I was reluctant to run my FSB/AGP/ PCI buses too high or to buy the very fastest CL2 RAM.
Then last Sunday after the holiday I saw Mushkin?s Rev. 1.5 PC133 RAM @ $89 per 128 MB with free shipping ? close to a one-third price cut ? and I thought ?Well, a few hundred bucks never killed anybody.?
So with considerable excitement I ordered the following:
1. A retail boxed 850 MHz FC-PGA P3 from MultiWave, a cB0 dated 8/15/00 as it turned out.
2. A GlobalWIN FOP32-1 HSF and an ASUS S370-133 Rev. 1.01 ?slocket? from CompuCheap.
3. 256 MB of the Rev. 1.5 PC133 RAM from Mushkin.
4. Some Arctic Silver and miscellaneous from 2CoolTek.
Everything arrived as planned, so after dinner and giving the dog an abbreviated ?walkie,? I put the flip chip in the slocket, slathered on the Arctic Silver, clipped on the FOP32 and put that combo in the Slot-1 board. Then I put in the new RAM, which cleared the GlobalWIN by about 2 mm.?s, and powered it up.
After fussing with the BIOS settings for CL, FSB and core voltage, I was happy to find that the system is very stable at almost exactly 1.0 GHz, CAS 2-2-2 and 1.75 volts (up from 1.65 stock). More importantly, it seems much faster than before, especially on the web, and met my modest goals. Unfortunately, it won't run at 1,050 MHz, the next jump with this board - but that's OK.
Now of course this is not exactly an overclock to write home about. But it did meet my conservative goals for achieving a stable system at one GHz, so I?m a happy camper tonight, and I thought I?d share it with you.
Nighty-night.
P.S.
1. So I don?t offend anyone, I should say that I considered a T-bird system, but I didn?t want to have to get a new motherboard or power supply, or mess with those bridges. But that was always a very attractive alternative, for sure.
2. Any offers for the unused Intel-approved retail HSF unit ? it?s a real beauty and especially quiet.
I built the first PC I ever owned a little over a year ago. It was a 500 MHz Katmai P3 running Windows 98SE at 560/112 with some generic PC100 CL3 RAM on a good Slot-1 BX board, the AOpen AX6BC Pro. The system was not very exciting, but it was rock stable (which is very important to me) and I only saw one BSOD that I can recall. I had added dual monitors, DSL and some good 7,200-rpm HDD?s, and was pretty satisfied.
But I still thought it would be nice to have a 1 GHz system, although I wasn?t in any rush either.
First I considered getting one of Compuwiz1?s tested overclocked CPU?s, something I would recommend to anyone who is a serious overclocker (which I am not). But I was reluctant to run my FSB/AGP/ PCI buses too high or to buy the very fastest CL2 RAM.
Then last Sunday after the holiday I saw Mushkin?s Rev. 1.5 PC133 RAM @ $89 per 128 MB with free shipping ? close to a one-third price cut ? and I thought ?Well, a few hundred bucks never killed anybody.?
So with considerable excitement I ordered the following:
1. A retail boxed 850 MHz FC-PGA P3 from MultiWave, a cB0 dated 8/15/00 as it turned out.
2. A GlobalWIN FOP32-1 HSF and an ASUS S370-133 Rev. 1.01 ?slocket? from CompuCheap.
3. 256 MB of the Rev. 1.5 PC133 RAM from Mushkin.
4. Some Arctic Silver and miscellaneous from 2CoolTek.
Everything arrived as planned, so after dinner and giving the dog an abbreviated ?walkie,? I put the flip chip in the slocket, slathered on the Arctic Silver, clipped on the FOP32 and put that combo in the Slot-1 board. Then I put in the new RAM, which cleared the GlobalWIN by about 2 mm.?s, and powered it up.
After fussing with the BIOS settings for CL, FSB and core voltage, I was happy to find that the system is very stable at almost exactly 1.0 GHz, CAS 2-2-2 and 1.75 volts (up from 1.65 stock). More importantly, it seems much faster than before, especially on the web, and met my modest goals. Unfortunately, it won't run at 1,050 MHz, the next jump with this board - but that's OK.
Now of course this is not exactly an overclock to write home about. But it did meet my conservative goals for achieving a stable system at one GHz, so I?m a happy camper tonight, and I thought I?d share it with you.
Nighty-night.
P.S.
1. So I don?t offend anyone, I should say that I considered a T-bird system, but I didn?t want to have to get a new motherboard or power supply, or mess with those bridges. But that was always a very attractive alternative, for sure.
2. Any offers for the unused Intel-approved retail HSF unit ? it?s a real beauty and especially quiet.
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