P3-450@558 upgrade to P3-850???

[NeelyMSU]

Is an upgrade to an P3-850 worth the upgrade? I have an Abit BE6 and a P3-450 and currently running at a 124MHz FSB. Going to 133 causes errors booting Windows. (Chipset problems???) How fast do you think I could get a P3-50 to overclock?

Thanks.

 

[Wingznut]

You probably wouldn't get over 950-1000mhz. But that's still a nice upgrade.

Are you a big gamer? If so, what kind of games?
I ask because it's kind of a toss up, if a new video card might be a better place to spend the money.

But yeah, you'd notice the cpu upgrade. Especially if you do cpu-intensive stuff.

 

[ROJAS]

Where did you get your P3-450. Isn't it a P2-450.

You will notice a big increase by going to a P3-850mhz.

 

[CraigRT]

PIII 450's do exist ROJAS.
they are slot 1 only and are a Katmai core, not a Coppermine
they go from 450-600MHz

and to Neely, the only way you'd need to upgrade your CPU is when playing fps games where all the FPS you can get is needed, Q3, UT, etc.

other than that, for any other games your CPU should be working just great for the time being!

 

[soulm4tter]

Go for a PIII 800E. My friend has one at 1064MHz (133 bus) on a slocket in a BX board. He's using 2.2 volts and the heatsink (FOP38) doens't even get very warm. People will tell you not to go over 1.85v, but more voltage shouldn't hurt if the cpu isn't getting too hot. Thats one of the benefits of using a BX board with a slocket....you can use more voltage than most i815 board support. I recall a few people on this message board running 800Es@1064.

Your motherbard/chipset should run at 133mhz bus as most Abit BX boards have no problem. Your CPU or video card are probably limiting the bus speed. TNT2 don't tolerate high bus speeds very wall and very few Katmai PIIIs would run at 133mhz bus.

For what do you use the system?

 

[JohnnyTT]

I'd say go for it......I did a similar upgrade and was very happy with the performance increase.

 

[Shmorq]

Not only is it much faster in terms of MHZ, but the Coppermine's cache is much more advanced than the old Katmai's. I noticed a huge difference when I switched from my PIII-450 to a P500E o/c to 667 MHz.

 

[NeelyMSU]

I do play FPS games...Quake 3 and Unreal. Yeah, going with a Coppermine may be better. I never thought of that. Thanks for the advice. What I want to do is build a whole new system this summer. So, I just might hold off with what I have.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Wizkid]

If you plan on building a whole new system then definitely wait until then, don't spend the money on this upgrade

 

[rogue1979]

I would suggest the 700E, it is cheaper and most of them shipped now have cBO stepping, 933MHz on a 133 fsb is almost gauranteed. If you go the 850 route then you will not reach the 133MHz fsb. I would personally go for the 650, it is the cheapest on pricewatch, slap an FOP38 on there and go for 140MHz fsb for 910MHz cpu clock. If you are going to wait for a whole new system, then switch over to socket A like I did. Much cheaper and slightly faster clock for clock, not to mention Thunderbirds and Durons overclock higher than their P3 counterparts. With 128k L1 cache vs. 32K on the P3, plus a 200Mhz fsb, the t-bird is stronger. Remember Coppermine cores are limited to 1075-1100MHz, people are taking 1.2GHz t-birds above 1400 all the time.

 

[Chad]

I'm running a P3 850 on an old BH6 rev 1.0 at the 124 bus (1054mhz) at 2.1 volts with a PEP66t rock solid. Runs great. And this chip is from the Phillistines (usually considered the poorest of the overclockers). If you can get a Malaysia chip, I would bet it would do the 124 bus no sweat!

 

[alkemyst]

Hey Chad...it's not the Phillistines heheh Philipines maybe based on your sigs you see it that way though.

funny