Overclocking - A Wonderful thing? Wah bout me?

[GIJersey]

I want to overclock my PIII 550 with factory fan. I am running the
ASUS P2B Rev 1.04 Mobo. I am also running 2 x 133Mhz CAS2 memory
sticks. I know I am only getting 100Mhz out of this setup on the
memory but what if I overclock the BUS frequency multiple. Will I get
133 outof the memory? Also I have a GeFroce2 Ultra in the 1.0 AGP
slot. Will overclocking the FSB also speed up my video card? The FSB
is currently set to 100.2Mhz. The other settings that are available
are (103Mhz, 112Mhz, and 133Mhz) Which one would you reccomend I try
and also is the possiblity of damaging the system a factor with
setting this too high especially with the factory fan on the CPU?

Yes, I'm a virgin This is my first attempt at overclocking and like the prom queen I am a bit apprehensive...

I would just like to also say that all of you "Tech Veterans" are awesome! Your help is really appreciated and always put to good use!


Thanks

Mark

 

[Colt45]

hmm... is the chip a Katmai or a Coppermine? you've got a better chance of a good OC with a CuMine.

if the chip would do 133FSB, that would be great, as your PCI and AGP would stay @33mhz.(aslong as the P2B has a 1/4 divider, does it?)
but chances are you wont hit a 133FSB, especially without jacking the voltage a bit.
103FSB isnt much of an OC. @112FSB your PCI would be at 37.3mhz, which is not to far out of spec, and should be ok.

either way, 112 should be easy to reach, and should give you a clock of ~616mhz

is the chip FC-PGA on a slocket? or Slot1? if you get a better HSF, and have the ability to change the voltage, there is a possibility you could hit 133FSB which would give you a clockspeed of ~733.

although, if it is a Katmai, most couldnt hit much higher than ~650 IIRC.

well, good luck

 

[GIJersey]

Thank You very much Colt! You really seem to know yer stuff. I have posted a few questions and you always give detailed consise and very helpful answers!!! I just wanted to let you know that your help is very much appreciated.

To answer your questions:

The PIII550 is a Katmai. I'm not too sure about the ASUS P2B having a 1/4 divider? In fact i'm not really sure what the heck a divider is? Forgive my lack of knowledge on this one. I am really just starting to learn the in's and out's. What does a divider do? I thought it had something to do with the Mobo voltage?

The processor is a big Slot 1 I think it's called. it is on a vertical card.

So in your expert opinion, Do you think I can get away with setting the FSB to 122 without too much risk to the system? Again the processor has the factory fan on it.

And just to clarify, will my Memory (2x133 CAS2) and my AGP slot run a bit faster with the FSB running at 122?

You also mentioned that "112FSB your PCI would be at 37.3mhz, which is not to far out of spec" Does that mean that by OC'in the FSB that all the cards in my PCI slots will run faster? Do it also effect the IDE Bus to the hard drives?

Thanks again my friend for the help

Mark

 

[Colt45]

No problem
I'm not an expert either, I've learned my stuff from hanging around the forums.

What the divider does is divide your FSB by n(whatever the divider is) and that will give you your PCI and AGP speeds. I can't seem to gind the info on the P2B right now, but if it is like most BX motherboards it has a 1/2 and 1/3 divider.

this would mean, (provided you can acheive these overclocks) your speeds would be:
FSB/CPU/PCI/AGP
66/363/33/66---------(1/2 divider)
100/550/33/66-------(1/3 divider)
103/566/34.3/68.6--(1/3 divider)
112/616/37.3/74.6--(1/3 divider)
133/733/44.3/88.6--(1/3 divider)

~37mhz PCI should be safe, but 44 is really high, and may lead to data corruption (providing your chip could OC that high)

BUT.. IF the P2B has a 1/4 divider, then 133FSB would give you
133/733/33/66 (right on spec)

another problem with Slot 1 is, that if you want to increase the core voltage, which may be neccerssary on high OC's) you need to tape some of the contacts where the CPU slides into the slot.

since your ram is PC133, it will be able to run fine @112 or 133FSB.

since i dont think you could hit 733 with a Katmai (at least not without a voltage increase and better cooling) I say go for the 112FSB.

It's not much of an OC, but you should be able to do it with out adjusting voltage. The slight raise in the speed of your PCI and AGP cards will also improve their performance. Also, since the IDE controller is basically a PCI card soldered onto the motherboard, it too will be overclocked. Too high of an OC can lead to data corruption, but the general consensus is that ~37mhz is the safe zone.

Good luck with your OC

 

[lastig21]

The divider actually divides your cpu fsb to obtain your pci bus speed. Your pci bus should run at at 33mz, while your agp should run at 66mhz. 100/3 = 33, and 133/4 = 33. Any other fsb is running your system out of spec. It is essentially overclocking your harddrives, and pci slots, so total system performance can be increased.

You can't expect a huge overclock out of a katmai, but the 112 fsb should be an obtainable goal. All your devices should easily run at the 37mhz bus they will be forced into. I've seen a buddies sound card that wouldn't run at 38mhz, and I've had trouble overclocking bx chipsets past a pci bus of 41mhz in the past.

Good luck with it. Monitor your temps and all should be ok. Your cpu will run the speed, or won't. You just have to play with it to see what it can do. I would suggest backing up all important data before you start however. Harddrive corruption is rare, but if you harddrive doesn't like the new bus anything could happen.

--Colt beat me to it