How much can I overclock Piii 900

[Agnivarsh]

So.. I am new to overclocking. I have a nice system setup with PC133 Mushkin RAM, CUSL2, geforce 2 gts 64 etc etc inside an antex SX1030 tower with four fans and 300W PSU.

I have a PIII 900 according to my motherboard (i got the chip free from a giveaway). And the bios shows it running at 100 FSB.

Now, what kind of overclocking options do I have? I have a golden orb sitting on the Piii right now... and most probably I don't want to have to go an get some complicated cooling setup. With the setup I have now, what kind of overclocking can I expect to achieve? Can i run the Piii 900 at 133?

Please let me know what is possible... and i would really appreciate it if you told me how it was possible.

 

[Zedfu]

we all know that the p!!! core usually maxes out at around 1ghz, so your 900e can be possibly be overclocked to near 1000 (111*9) at the most. maybe a bit more if you're lucky. knowing this, it is usually the best to get a 700e and get it overclocked to near 1000. and about using the 133fsb, it's unlikely, for its theoretical cpu speed is over 1000mhz. well, it never hurts to try

 

[Agnivarsh]

In CUSL2 how do we do the FSB changes? How do i change to 133 for my setup? Please help!
What is the worst thing that could go wrong if i do this?

 

[maxSe]

Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard of PIII900E... The fastest 100bus PIII is 850...

Agnivarsh, may be you should check the markings on the chip itself... May be it's a CII600 running at 100bus, making it 900?

 

[Agnivarsh]

Hmmm... the intel guys came on campus for a career fair and gave out this chip as a prize. Told me it was a 900 PIII.

The numbers on it are:
PIII Malay
R880526PY900256
Q010A293-0041 QS69ES

I went to the intel website and dug around... its kind of ambiguous but the Datasheet said that a PIII 900 was available for a 100 MHz bus.

Now, could someone help me understand the math behind not being able to run this PIII at 133? How much of a performance loss do i have? What is the best thing I could do now?

 

[KR]

The Intel PIII developer specification does list the highest 100MHZ PIII as being the 900 MHZ device. Haven't seen any on the open market but they do exist according to the spec.

As for overclocking - since you're already at 900 MHZ you'll want to increase the speed in small increments. Check the motherboard documentation for the FSB clock speed settings. you'll need to go into the bios and select a frequency greater than 100 MHZ in the manual settings - If 105 MHZ is available, that might be a good starting point. If this works or works with a Vcore voltage increase, try the next FSB speed selection and keep increasing the FSB clock speed until you are at the highest STABLE speed and Vcore voltage increases do not add stability.

If the system starts to boot after a FSB speed increase but you get errors you may need to increase the vcore voltage slightly - your documentation should direct you to the bios page that allows you to manually set the Vcore voltage. Default voltage is 1.65 or 1.7 volts for the PIII 900. With the cooling you have provided you should have no problem increasing the voltage to 1.85 if needed. Always start with and keep making small changes and don't increase the voltage more than you need to to attain stable system operation.

With air cooling and the good quality components you have selected you will PROBABLY be able to reach 950 - 1050 MHZ. This speed seems to be the current reasonable limit for the coppermine .18u devices though occasionally one will exceed 1.1 GHZ.
Though it would be a treat to see your device run at 1.2GHZ (133FSB X 9) don't be too disappointed if it doesn't. Even Intel has decided that this device technology is not quite up to that speed and have recalled all the processors of over 1 GHZ.

Remember, with overclocking there are NO GUARANTEES so even if you end up running only slightly over the rated speed you still have a very nice and very fast system.

 

[Hard_Boiled]

Maybe it's unlocked, if some Intel guy just gave it away as a prize. That would sure make it a sweet cpu to win. It would probably overclock about the same as a PIII 850, and most of those can get up to 1 GHZ with a good heatsink. If your unlucky it will only go up to 975 or so, 75 mhz overclock isn't too good, but 975 is still very fast. Hopefully u can run it over 1000, seeing as how my PIII 850 runs at 1054 I'd be inclined to think you have a very good chance of getting over 1 GHZ. Good luck!

 

[Agnivarsh]

It is possible that it is unlocked (or whatever that means.. what does that mean?). the guy gave me a strange smile when he told me it was a test pentium... he said it was perfectly fine

Is there a overclocking guide somewhere where I can read more before I start experimenting? Secondly, is it better to experiment AFTER i install an OS or before?

 

[her209]

you can overclock it to about 1.3 ghz

 

[Agnivarsh]

Hey her209
you mean just following the instructions the other guys gave? is there anything special i need to do? any special cooling?
please let me know.

 

[shk]

Agnivarsh,

for overclocking tips and instructions, take look at your Manual that came with your Mobo. and can you find out if your Processor is CC0 stepping?? if so, then you are in very good condition to start overclocking well. The past stepping version is CB0 which is still pretty good but the CB0's are better!! You should be able to break 1Ghz very easily, maybe reach 1.2+ Ghz. Find out if your CPU is CC0 or CB0!

 

[shk]

Oops... Im sorry for the confusion on the CPU stepping, I mis typed it!! lol..

Quote, "The past stepping version is CB0 which is still pretty good but the CB0's are better!! " I meant CC0's are better. Sorry.. my fault.

 

[KR]

Unlocked means that the multiplier is not permanantly set. All current production PIII's are programmed at the factory with a fixed multiplier. The multiplier is factor by which the FSB is multiplied internally by the CPU to reach the processor internal clock speed - In your case, the multiplier is 9 X FSB... 9 X 100MHZ FSB = 900MHZ CPU internal clock speed. Sometimes an evaluation or "test" cpu will be shipped with the multiplier still active (unlocked). You can check this by manually setting the BIOS Multiplier to some other setting than 9 and keeping the FSB at 100MHZ... if the system identifies the device as something other than a 900MHZ device it's probably unlocked. If it complains about the speed (Speed Hold Error, etc) then it's locked at 9 X.

With a locked multiplier, the only way to overclock your device is by increasing the FSB (Front Side Bus) frequency. Whatever clock you apply to the processsor it will be multiplied by 9 (the multiplier of your chip). The FSB set to 110MHZ will result in your processor attempting to run at 110MHZ x 9 = 990MHZ - and it probably will. See my post above for suggestions on where to start and the small changes you will be making to find out what speed your chip is capable of.

Do not automatically expect 1.3 Gigahertz. Though your motherboard may be capable of selecting 133MHZ or higher as a clock speed the capabilities of your CPU will determine how high above specification it will run.

Load Windows before you overclock - one of the first indications that you've clocked too high is when you can no longer load windows. When that happens and you've raised the Vcore voltage to 1.85V, you've discovered the limit of the chip and it's time to back off the clock until you can load and run windows and some recommended stability test programs.

Hope this helps....

 

[Agnivarsh]

Dude! you guys rock! So.. keep helping me through this... and I will make sure you guys will get some nice christmas gifts if I can get the system running above a gig by christmas

 

[KR]

If the system is assembled, you are familiar with the bios clock setting instructions and have the O/S loaded you'll probably be at 1 GHZ an hour after you load Windows. AS for cooling - the golden orb while not the absolute king of cooling is a very good heatsink and should do the job at around a GHZ.

 

[Agnivarsh]

shk, how do i find out if it is cc0?

 

[Agnivarsh]

Another question: What are the normal temperatures for the Processor and Mobo?

I O/Cd to 990 and asus probe showed my processor at around 104 F
is this ok?

I am currently running the processor at around 945 and the temp is constant at 98 F. The mobo temp is 96F.

What are the normal/max temperatures for my processor and mobo? Pl. let me know. How is this going to affect the life of the processor?

 

[KR]

98 F is actually very good. The spec allows for something like 60 Celcius or possibly greater - I really don't recall the exact number (you can download the spec from the intel site) - at about 37 C (your current measurement) you're in great shape.