Overclocking an older slot 1 processor

[Krusher]

Has anyone here had a Slot 1 processor based system (for example, I have the P3 866 w/ 133MHz FSB) and successfully overclocked it at one time?

I am looking for web sites that may still have info on this, and realistic gains that you can get. I'm thinking of pushing that older 866 I have a little more, or I can get a 1GHz for $57 and possibly get a little more even. But, I don't know whether I should just get the 1GHz and be happy with that until it dies someday, or whether I could get 1.2 or even 1.4GHz out of it. (Woah almost, half the speed of my current main computer!)

What do you think? Don't bother or worth a look? I also found Slot 1 to Socket 370 adapters. For ~ $10 I could stick a 1.2GHz socket 370 in it, which would work except that I don't think my old heat sink will fit. It's $75 for the processor = $85 total, instead of $57 for the ready-to-go now plug in model...but I would probably not bother overclocking the 1.2 at that point since adapters generally don't like that. (It takes a Slot 1 to Socket 370 and a FC-PGA2 adapter on top of that, which makes me wonder if it'll work at all.)

This mobo uses RDRAM (PC800) and specs 45ns RAM, but I have 40ns RAM in it if that makes any difference.

Thanks.

 

[dannybin1742]

pay the extra money and get a powerleap adapter and a 1.1 or 1.2 and set the fsb to 133, that should give you a healthy OC (1.1 and 1.2 p3 celeron .13micron) the adapter will run you $40 and the chip around 35

 

[Ackbar]

I have an older P3-850 (100 MHz FSB) Slot 1 that i've o/ced for years now to about 950 MHz. I think the later P3 chips that are below 1GHz o/ced pretty well. From what I remember 1GHz is about the limit for these chips hence not seeing many chips made that are much higher than that in speed. If you get a 1GHz chip don't expect to be able to o/c much, if you get below that, don't expect to pass 1GHz (or if you do, don't expect to pass it by much!). Hope that helps.

 

[Krusher]

Ok, to reply to danny's suggestion, I did find an alternate thread here that mentions an "upgradeware" Tualatin adapter. This was under $25, but when I emailed the only distributor on it they said that it's not listed as compatible for my computer (which is a Dell B866r by the way). I assume that the reason why is their special fan ducting fits just perfectly over the heatsink, and any other method would require a new fan and heat sink assembly. That would probably add to the cost on an outdated mobo. I will look into powerleap quickly though.

To reply to Ackbar, seeing that the 1GHz Slot 1 replacement is $57 - whatever I could recover from an auction of the old 866, maybe it doesn't pay for me to overclock.

So, I guess it's powerleap or OEM. Time to surf a little more.

EDIT: The powerleap web site says it's not compatible either, so I think I'll stick with the 1GHz OEM for now and put away the extra money I'd save for a much faster server in the future. Thanks.

 

[BigBadBiologist]

Since you have a Dell, you won't be overclocking anyway. But for the sake of information, coppermine cored CPUs seem to max out at about 1050MHz.

I've gotten the powerleap adapters to work in Dell systems that they technically weren't supposed to work in, but it's definitely not a guarantee. I'd do a search on the Dell forums for your model and powerleap and see if anyone has tried it out.

The other thing is, you really won't notice much of a difference between an 866 and a 1GHz. You may want to put the money into extra RAM as it would likely show a bigger performance increase.