Clocking a P3-550 (512k L2, SECC2) on a BH6 (old version).

[OriginalSkittle]

Currently I've got a P2-350 @ 434 (124 bus). I'm in need of an upgrade and was wondering if I would have any luck running a P3-550 @ 682 (124 bus still)?

My P2 has an Intel OEM HS+FAN and has been running fine for over a year so far with L2 latency set to 1 and voltage at 2.10.

Has anyone successfully clocked a 550 to 124 bus speed?

 

[snow patrol]

The Katmai P3's weren't very good overclockers. I don't think you'll have much luck getting past 600-650Mhz, which is where the core of that particular chip model will hit the ceiling in terms of overclockability.

Why do you want that particular chip any way?

 

[OriginalSkittle]

I only want a cheap upgrade at the moment. Friend of mine has recently bought a Duron 700 + KT7-R board which he's running at 900MHz.

I need a CPU upgrade within the next week or so but I can't go the same route. When I do upgrade properly, it will be to a Thunderbird 800 with a DDR capable board (not the AMD chipset one).

Thanks for the info anyway, I think I'll get a 600 and clock it to 124 FSB (or 133 if the BX will cope).

 

[snow patrol]

Ok, I guess you mean a 600e Coppermine based processor, as opposed to a SECC2 Katmai one?

 

[OriginalSkittle]

AFAIUI, Intel are only producing one style of 600 (actually, an 800/133FSB , underclocked). SECC2 and FCPGA versions use the same core (at this speed).

I wanted to use the 550 because it's cheaper, and has 512k of L2 instead of just 256. 600's are roughly £45 to £50 more than the 550.

I think I'm going to have to borrow cash from somewhere and get a Duron+KT7 (non raid) setup and hope I can sell it without making too much of a loss when I want a Tbird 800 + DDR.

 

[snow patrol]

Hmmn, you're not quite understanding it correctly. The 512k cache on the Katmai P3's is actually running at half speed, whereas on the coppermine P3's, the 256k cache is running at full speed. You may think this would work out to mean the same thing, but in actual fact, 256k full speed cache equates to roughly a 10% speed increase over an identically clocked Katmai. Also, the Katmais (with there 512k cache) are relatively poor overclockers.

 

[Stallion]

I had my 550 Katmai at a FSB of 115 for 630mhz. I had the voltage at about 2.1 I think. I used an Abit BE6/TNT2 Ultra/Corsair Ram.

It ran like a champ, no problems at all. I ran it there for almost 2 months then I got my 700E.

 

[compuwiz1]

If you go Katmai, the PIII 450 is really the best. Low multiplier (4.5x), but many of them would run at 133MHz fsb for 600MHz. Infact, I have one rollin around here somewhere that does 600+ at default voltage.

 

[snow patrol]

Might have trouble finding a P3 450 now though, although I'm sure if you hunted around a bit...

 

[techwanabe]

Original Skittle,

Here is what I'd do if I were you and really want to use the PIII 550. Make sure you get the PentiumIII 550E FCPGA (Coppermine). The FCPGA stands for Flip Chip Pin Grid Array. The CPU chip is "flipped" upside down on the substrate with respect to the Katmai SECC slot 1 processors. Thus, the core of the CPU chip is "exposed" directly to the heat sink and they cool more efficiently than the Katmai version which use a "slug" to transfer heat to the heat sink. I've read a great many articles stating that these "Coppermine" E FCPGA processors (which run natively at 100 mhz FSB speed) are good overclockers. This led me to buy one when building a budget PC last May.

If you go with the Pentium III 550E FCPGA Coppermine, you will need an Coppermine FCPGA to slot 1 CONVERTER card to plug it into your current Katmai ready mother board. I'm assuming you only have a slot 1 CPU slot on your mother board. If you shop around, www.pricewatch.com, you should be able to locate a good converter for around $15 to $20. Don't use generic brand converters... I tried this and got hard locks after running for an hour or so. After replacing the generic converter with a good name brand converter, I've been running fine for 5 months now. I bought an MSI Master but the Slocket II or ASUS brands are good too.

So if you run at native FSB of 100 mhz, you'll be running at 550 mhz, the spec'd speed for this CPU. The vast majority of articles I've read state that folks have gotten the Pentium III 550E to run totally stable when resetting the FSB to 133 mhz, yielding a CPU speed of 733 mhz using the stock fan and usually no voltage tweaks! That is pretty sweet. I've run my Pentium III 550E at 733 mhz much of the time to boost game performance and it works fine for me. It doesn't seem to run much hotter either and some articles I've read state that there is little to no increase in temp when Overclocked. I have a motherboard monitor TSR installed and I usually see the temp stay in the mid 40s C or lower on my PC.

Keep in mind that if you are going to be setting the FSB to 133 mhz, you really should have PC133 complient memory, and use good quality memory. Cosair, Mushkin etc are top dollar memory and really only needed if your pushing the FSB to ~150 mhz. If you have PC100 memory, you might be successful overclocking to 133 mhz, or you may have to throttle back somewhere inbetween 100 and 133 FSB to get solid stability, depending on the quality of your memory.

But in general, the Pentium III E series coppermine 500-800 (all 100 mhz FSB native) are all good OC candidates and I highly recommend them.