Overclocking Pentium Pro

[bigal40]

I have an old dell optiplex. it has a 180 mhz pentium pro, 32 mb ram 3-1gig hds, and some kind of video card with 2mb ram running windows 95. I am trying to overclock it. I can overclock the video card using powerstrip. Anyone have anyideas on overclocking the processor. It has a large heatsink but no HSF. The one and only case fan is place rigth behind the HS, i'd say it is about 3 inches from the HS with nothing in between it. Is that going to provide enough cooling. I know dells are very hard to overclock but i don't really care if i mess it up so i will try bios hack and anythig like that. thanks

Edit: Do any of you think i could gain more performance out of it my upgrading or a OS reinstall.

 

[namco]

I really don't think you will see any more performance by reinstalling (what i guess is windows95) just know that the newer OS you install on there the more CPU Usage it will need plus more ram.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

hehehe........overclock it till it catches fire....then video its demise to share with us

 

[CrackRabbit]

Try Installing win2k if you have a copy of it, it should run faster than any win9x variant.
get some more ram too, should be able to find some simms over in the freebie thread in FS/FT.
Goodluck!

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
hehehe........overclock it till it catches fire....then video its demise to share with us

if i don't get much improvement after a os reinstall and a ram upgrade and if i can figure out how to overclock it i might take it out into my driveway and try that.

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Try Installing win2k if you have a copy of it, it should run faster than any win9x variant.
get some more ram too, should be able to find some simms over in the freebie thread in FS/FT.
Goodluck!

IMO I wouldn't recommend running win2k on the Pentium pro 180 (?, never seen a 180, I always thought it went 100->133-> 166->200). Anyways, Windows 95 and 98 should be good. And I remember annual reinstallations of those OS's helped with performance a bit.

edit: now that I think of it some more I have encountered a 180 Ppro. Installed win98 and it was fine.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: Anonemous

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Try Installing win2k if you have a copy of it, it should run faster than any win9x variant.
get some more ram too, should be able to find some simms over in the freebie thread in FS/FT.
Goodluck!

IMO I wouldn't recommend running win2k on the Pentium pro 180 (?, never seen a 180, I always thought it went 100->133-> 166->200). Anyways, Windows 95 and 98 should be good. And I remember annual reinstallations of those OS's helped with performance a bit.

edit: now that I think of it some more I have encountered a 180 Ppro. Installed win98 and it was fine.

yeah it is definatley a 180 PPro. I read Here that PPro's were optimized for 32 bit OS's and a windows 95 was predominatley 16bit. Doe supgrading to windows 98 have any performance increase

 

[CrackRabbit]

Yes it will run fine with win9x, but with win2k it would be faster. PPros had a deficency when it came to running 16bit programs, which win9x is full of. Win2k is a full 32-bit operating system and will run slighly faster. The only thing it would need is more ram.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Yes it will run fine with win9x, but with win2k it would be faster. PPros had a deficency when it came to running 16bit programs, which win9x is full of. Win2k is a full 32-bit operating system and will run slighly faster. The only thing it would need is more ram.

so windows 98 has just as much 16 bit stuff as windows 95?

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: bigal40

Originally posted by: Anonemous

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Try Installing win2k if you have a copy of it, it should run faster than any win9x variant.
get some more ram too, should be able to find some simms over in the freebie thread in FS/FT.
Goodluck!

IMO I wouldn't recommend running win2k on the Pentium pro 180 (?, never seen a 180, I always thought it went 100->133-> 166->200). Anyways, Windows 95 and 98 should be good. And I remember annual reinstallations of those OS's helped with performance a bit.

edit: now that I think of it some more I have encountered a 180 Ppro. Installed win98 and it was fine.

yeah it is definatley a 180 PPro. I read Here that PPro's were optimized for 32 bit OS's and a windows 95 was predominatley 16bit. Doe supgrading to windows 98 have any performance increase

I wouldn't be able to tell you if it gave it a performance boost since I have only encountered it once and had to reformat and install whatever was on hand (win98) at the time. It performed well with windows 98. I do remember running win98 on a k6-233 awhile back and I had no hitches so I would predict the PP180 would have no problems running win98.

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Yes it will run fine with win9x, but with win2k it would be faster. PPros had a deficency when it came to running 16bit programs, which win9x is full of. Win2k is a full 32-bit operating system and will run slighly faster. The only thing it would need is more ram.

wow, that I did not know, thx for the tip. well I learned something new today.

 

[CrackRabbit]

less, but its still there. 98 was built off of the base code of 95, as me was built off the base code of 98 and something from the pits of hell. (but thats another issue)

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
less, but its still there. 98 was built off of the base code of 95, as me was built off the base code of 98 and something from the pits of hell. (but thats another issue)

so what do you say i should go with 98 or 2k. i know 98 has 16 bit in it but wouldn't windows 2k use up alot of my processor and ram just for the os and therefore run slower even though it was 32 bit.



Anyone know how to overclock a dell?

 

[CrackRabbit]

well you have 3hdds, if you have both oses already you could install each one on a drive and see how they perform. You are still going to need more memory no matter what. Look for jumpers on the mobo to overclock it.

 

[sharkeeper]

Pentium Pro's came in 150, 166, 180, and 200 MHz flavors. They were also offered with up to a (at the time) staggering 2MB fullspeed L2 cache within the package but off die.

They run 16bit code slower than their P54 cousin due to the lack of a segment descriptor cache. They also lack MMX. (not that big of a deal)

They run NT 4.0 well and 2000 will run decent given at least 64MB (128 much better) of system memory.

I had a dual PPro 200 with 512KB cache on each chip (1997) running NT 4.0 and it smoked PII systems with 300MHz Klammath based chips. It was a unique (and expensive!) design at the time.

Anyways, to answer your original question depends on your motherboards. 180MHz PPros were running on the 60MHz bus. If you jumper your board (if supported) to 66MHz, it should run at 200. The multipliers are not locked as well and you may be able to run it at 3.5x instead of 3x (at 66 vs. 60) to get a "staggering" 233 MHz. You will probably need a fan on that passive HS as it will get quite warm.

Cheers!

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
well you have 3hdds, if you have both oses already you could install each one on a drive and see how they perform. You are still going to need more memory no matter what. Look for jumpers on the mobo to overclock it.

I've read about looking for jumpers but am a newb and i have absolutely no clue what a jumper is. Can you give me a description of what it looks like and when i find it what i do with it.

 

[bigal40]

I went to memorystock.com and it says i need 64mb Edo ECC 168pin Compatible Memory dimm for the computer. Does that sound Right? It has 64 mb for $20 and 128 for $40. is there any advantage to getting one or the other. THere is currently one 32mb stick in the computer. and there is 4 memory slots.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: bigal40

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
well you have 3hdds, if you have both oses already you could install each one on a drive and see how they perform. You are still going to need more memory no matter what. Look for jumpers on the mobo to overclock it.

I've read about looking for jumpers but am a newb and i have absolutely no clue what a jumper is. Can you give me a description of what it looks like and when i find it what i do with it.

BUMP for info about jumpers

 

[Bluefront]

Heh....guess you have to start somewhere. A jumper is a small squarish piece if plastic with metal sockets inside. It is meant to connect two pins on a motherboard, which changes variety of settings.Mostly older boards use these things......newer boards can change settings using the BIOS only.

FWIW....I've got a similar Dell with a 200 pentium pro. I did put a small fan on the heatsink. Thought it was running hot. With 128mb ram, mine runs XP pro surprisingly well.....just not so fast. Don't laugh, it was free, pulled from a dumpster.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: Bluefront
Heh....guess you have to start somewhere. A jumper is a small squarish piece if plastic with metal sockets inside. It is meant to connect two pins on a motherboard, which changes variety of settings.Mostly older boards use these things......newer boards can change settings using the BIOS only.

FWIW....I've got a similar Dell with a 200 pentium pro. I did put a small fan on the heatsink. Thought it was running hot. With 128mb ram, mine runs XP pro surprisingly well.....just not so fast. Don't laugh, it was free, pulled from a dumpster.

have you had any luck on OCing it?
i think i see some jumpers but what do i do. connect them together? just touch them together then disconnect them?

 

[trilogy777]

I agree with Sharkeeper...I used to have the legendary P Pro 200. overclocked to 233Mhz with512 L2
and 128Mb RAM It ran pretty fast...

 

[Bluefront]

bigal40.....don't do a thing till you find a picture of the mother-board layout, and an exact description of each pin setting. Those pins on the board do all sorts of setting changes. You could hurt something by connecting the wrong pins.

Some boards had printing on the board to describe the pin functions....be careful.

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: bigal40
I went to memorystock.com and it says i need 64mb Edo ECC 168pin Compatible Memory dimm for the computer. Does that sound Right? It has 64 mb for $20 and 128 for $40. is there any advantage to getting one or the other. THere is currently one 32mb stick in the computer. and there is 4 memory slots.

I don't see why you need ECC RAM? I might be wrong on this, but I think the non-ECC RAM would be cheaper. Also, you might as well go for the 128. If you are on a lower budget the 64 would still show some extra performance.

 

[bigal40]

thanks to everyone for there help. Heres what i plan to do. I am right now reformating one of my hardrvies. and will install 98se on it. I am thinking about buying this ram from ebay(128mb) and when i get that i will probably reformat the drive again and install 2k. I am still looking for info on the jumpers to try and overclock it but havenn't found anything yet I have been looking around and have seen places that sell riser boards that let you put in another processor up to a 533mhz celeron so i may end up getting one of those. What do you think of my plan. THnkas again for your help

 

[CrackRabbit]

Just a question bigal, what do you plan on doing with this ppro machine?