How can I overclock a PII 400 on an ASUS P2B motherboard?

[EvilPig]

I've got a PII 400 with an ASUS P2B motherboard and I have SOME idea on how to over clock it, but I've only been able to manage to get an extra 1MHz out of it! hahah

There are a few tutorials out there that I looked at but they were really vague and I don't have any other method for cooling other than the cpu fan that it came with and the powersupply fan.

Thanks for any info.

 

[BadSeed]

The standard fan should be ok for moderate overclocks. I have a P2B too and I have my P3 600 running fine at 800 using the standard fan. Basically all you can do with Intel processors is change the front side bus (fsb) speed. I'm not sure if you P2 runs on a 66mhz fsb or a 100mhz fsb. If you check the manual for the P2B on page 14 (it should be the same page as mine) there is a table of settings you can use for the fsb.

Now if you open up your pc, have a look at the set of 4 jumpers that is just next to the 2 ide ports. Check the table of settings and set the jumpers to the next speed up and see if the computer will boot. If it does, try running a few programs (Unreal Tournament is a good game to test how stable it is). If you have any trouble getting stuff to run, you will have to set the fsb back to what it was. If stuff runs ok though, you can always try increasing the fsb to the next setting.

I dunno how good P2's are for overclocking, but see what you can get and post back the results.

Good luck

 

[EvilPig]

you have a piii on a p2b?? i thought the p2b could only support a pii and celerons.....i'll have to check it out....yeah, I think my mother board can run at 100mhz normally since i have 1 module of pc100 ram and one pc133 stick (of course i'm not expecting it to run at pc133 on a pc100 motherboard). thanks for the info, i'll check it out.

 

[bacillus]

only revision 1.12 of the P2B natively supports coppermines. judging by your cpu, your board is older than that (lower revision number),so putting in a slot 1 coppermine will not work. your board revision number can be found between the ISA slots.
you can overcome this hurdle by using a fc-ppga coppermine & a slocket with voltage manipulation eg Asus S370-133. you must have the latest bios & set the slocket voltage to 1.8V! that is technically an overvoltage for cpu but it tolerates it without problems.

 

[EvilPig]

here's the funny part, i don't know what ANY of that is. coppermine? what? are you talking about PIII support on an asus motherboard? hahahah, i'm totaly lost. I guess I forgot to mention that i've only reciently started understanding hardware terminology.

 

[scorch2000]

I had a Pii 400 on an Asus p2b board. I got it stable up to 496Mhz with a better than average HSF from cooler master...its not great but better than a retail HSF! All I did was change the FSB to 124, since the PII is multiplier locked you cant do anything about it. Good luck!

My Splendid Rig:

MSI K7T Pro 2-A Motherboard
AMD Duron 800 @ 950Mhz w/ Chrome Orb Cooler
256 mb Micron / Hyundai PC-133 SDRAM
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR (7072 drivers)
SB Live Value
Quantum 10GB HD ATA/33
32x Panasonic CD-ROM
DLink PCI Ethernet Card
Acer 17' 77e Monitor
Altec Lansing 45.1 Speakers
WinME
1 Pet Hamster

 

[EvilPig]

Well I moved some jumpers around and here's what i've gotten done:

I used the hot deal on the crucial pc133 memory and got a 256mb stick to add in with my 64mb pc100, the new pc133 stick is cl3, but I was able to go into my bios and overclock the mem to cl2 and i got my cpu up to 447mhz which so far is a great improvement, but earlier i got my cpu up to 533mhz! but of course my pc wouldn't start windows, but i'm gonna mess with that tonight while the case is still off and I might leave the case off and point my deskfan into the case to circulate the air. thanks for all your tips and keep em commin if you know how to make it faster and more stable!

once again, thanks for your tips, you've made a newbie VERY happy!

 

[EvilPig]

OK, i've played around with the jumpers and the highest I can get is 448mhz.

scorch2000: how'd you get it up to 496mhz? you wouldn't happen to remember the jumper settings would you? I don't know how to read a manual, but according to what's in the book, I have my system currently set on CPU core 8.0X(8/1) and CPU external clock freq at 112mhz cpu/37.3mhz pci. I don't know what any of this means, but if it helps, lemme know.

I already tried setting the jumpers to the highest CPU external clock freq and once and a while if i got the cpu core right, i'd get 533mhz listed in my bios, but the computer would crash while detecting harddrives. I'm just curious if I can get the speed any higher than 448mhz.

Also, to keep things low in temp, i've installed the ASUS system monitor to keep an eye on my heat and I took the cover off my shell and have my deskfan laying on top of the opened shell. So far so good. Haven't crashed yet....

 

[shiggy]

i am runnin a PII 400 @ 533 right now and have been for almost two years now. I have an Alpha cooler on it with 2 fans. And that 133 FSB is nice. Good Luck
shiggy

 

[spamboy]

Mine only ran at 412 because my hard drive was so touchy.

 

[chemwiz]

Try an MSI Master slocket, Celeron 600, and Gorb combo. Everything fits OK, and most of the 600's run great at 900. You can get it for less than $100 on the fs/ft board, then sell your 400 to help pay for it. Breathes a little new life into a great mobo! And you're not overclocking any of your components, unless you go over the 100MHz fsb.

 

[EvilPig]

i'll look into that celeron idea (the only thing i can assume about a 600mhz celeron being overclocked to 900mhz is that it would be faster than a pii 450mhz...i'm not sure how much of a performance hit the smaller l2 cache takes, maybe someone could enlighten me...again) and it turns out it IS because of my harddrive that I can't get my cpu to run at 533mhz. I guess it's about time to upgrade to better equipment...

but that celeron idea sounds cool...it'll just have to wait until payday though.

i DID, however, figure out how to overclock my fsb to something around 112mhz (i can't get 133mhz because of the harddrive issue...it kinda ties in for some reason...)

thanks for the info!

 

[Poof]

(i can't get 133mhz because of the harddrive issue...it kinda ties in for some reason...)

I'm not sure if those older mobos had the option but maybe some did... At 133Mhz FSB, the newer mobos either auto-set or allow you to set via the BIOS, a "1/4" divisor for your PCI slots/controllers. This means it'll divide the 133Mhz bus speed by 4 to take the PCI devices back to their normal operating frequency of 33 Mhz. Check around in the BIOS to see if something like that is available... (it may have options like PCI - 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 or similar)

 

[EvilPig]

the board revision number is 1.02, so i guess if i wanted a faster cpu i'd have to use the slotket method...truthfully i'd rather just buy a new slot 1 motherboard that nativly supports PC133 memory so i don't have to overclock anything...but i'm not sure i want a slot 1. the only reason I do want one now is so I don't have to buy a new processor right away...does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of motherboard I SHOULD get (i.e., slot 1, slot a, socket, etc)? i'm not sure i'm ready to become a member of the 1.2ghz family yet...

unfortunetly, i had high hopes of having a revision 1.12 board since sisoft sandra 2000 reported my mobo is upgradable to higher processors.

i also found some kind of multiplyer, but it wasn't in the bios, it's in a set of 4 jumpers on the mobo, and they seem to only set the multiplyer for the ISA slots (even though the manual says it's for PCI???), so I just set those on a 1:4 ratio and left my FSB at 112MHz.

 

[TrojanDBA]

EvilPig, how did you determine that your hard drive caused the Windows starting problem? I've always been suspicious of my old AGP card. I have got a Celeron 677@832MHz on 83.3MHz FSB. I have an ASUS P2BS, Rev. 1.03 with BIOS 1.12. When I set FSB=100MHz, Windows freezes at the splash screen. Does anybody have any idea how to correct this problem?

Here's my system spec.

Celeron 677@832MHz
(very underutilized!)SiSoft Sandra reports 2258MIPS/1076FLOPS
ASUS P2BS Motherboard, Rev. 1.03, BIOS 1.12
2 X 128MB PC100 RAM
LeadTek WinFast 3D S800 APG card with DolbyDigital out and DVD decoder
SCSI onboard
9GM IBM Ultra SCSI drive
Hauppauge WinTV-D digital TV tuner card
SB LIVE! with SDIF
YAMAHA SCSI RW 4X2X6
HITACHI DVD
Logitech cordless kb/ms combo
CAMBRIDGE DDT2500 digital sound systems

 

[TrojanDBA]

I also want to mention that I have 3rd party heat sink and fans for my CPU. It's a Taisol heatsink with a Sunon 24CFM fan. I also use a 2Cool PC fan to cool my motherboard. I kept one side of my case open for airflow and quick access to the organs.

 

[bacillus]

<< When I set FSB=100MHz, Windows freezes at the splash screen. Does anybody have any idea how to correct this problem? >>




This is usually a symptom of a virtual device driver not
initialising properly.
You can pinpoint what file is at fault by booting with
a log file - press F8 at boot and choose boot with
BOOTLOG.TXT. When it freezes reset and boot into
DOS and type edit c:\bootlog.txt and the last file in the
initialisation stage will be the culprit.
You can get an evaluation copy of a great utility for repairing
virtual device driver problems/registry problems etc. at
easydesk software. It is call RegRepair 2000.
Visit http:\\www.easydesksoftware.com and take a look
at their download page. They have loads of troubleshooting
utilities.

 

[TrojanDBA]

Thanks for the response. While trying to make sense your suggestion I was wondering why this problem disappeared when I changed FSB=83MHz?

 

[Assimilator1]

hmm ,it just sounds like an overclocking fault to me!
Have you tried bumping up the cpu voltage a little?

Oh yeah ,nearly forgot ,check that the AGP divider is at 2/3 for 100MHz FSB ,it could be in the bios or by jumpers ,or maybe auto ,I'm not sure with this m/brd atm

 

[TrojanDBA]

By the way, when FSB=100MHz vcore had to be set to 1.9V or 2.0V for my system to bootup. I believe that AGP devider could be contributing to the freezing problem. I have looked in the ASUS P2BS manual and on the mobo for jumper setting, but the AGP devider was NO where to be found. I'm going to contact ASUS unless somebody from here can help. Thanks.

 

[bacillus]

your AGP frequency selector(AGPFS) is between the m/board ide connectors &amp; the fsb muLtipliers &amp; next to DIMM slot 3.
jumper on 1&amp;2=2/3 divider
2&amp;3=1/1 divider

 

[EvilPig]

I've never suspected it was my AGP card, i'll check it out. I'm not too sure I wanna boost the voltage, it seems like a messy and time consuming task and i'm just not that desperate (that is if what i've read is accurate: you need a permanent marker, super glue, a bent paper clip, and some voltage list that's floating around on the net). I don't wanna screw it up too much, I still need it for school and I can't afford to mess it up now. I'm just gonna leave the FSB at 112 (maybe 133 if that AGP trick works)...any boost is better than just 400! I've gone back to the default settings (back to 400mhz) just for now, and damn it's slow. I miss the 448 already.