PIII 550 mhz and Abit BX6rev.2 Motherboard... please help me overclock!

[HellSpam]

I am dying to overclock this cpu... I just need speed . I know how to overclock, but I don't know what speeds I can reach with the cpu, or what all the options do... for example, what does the SEL(or something else)60/100 signal do? What L2 cache latency should I put? What voltage should I put it on? The best I've been able to overclock this cpu is to turn on the turbo function and gain 16 mhz! Woohoo . Someone please help!

 

[TravisBickle]

You have to shove up the bus speed, and match the bus dividers in the BIOS if you can. If your system doesn't boot up at faster settings, try with 0.05V increments above normal. But no more than 0.2V above normal, common wisdom is telling me.
If you are already on a 133 bus I suppose you is fakked, basically.

 

[HellSpam]

Just deleted that damn qoute... I looked for something intresting to put in my sig, guess I haven't found something good enough yet . My comp is a reg p3 550 running at 5.5x100 (actually it's 5.5x103 with my 16 mhz overclock ). Now, I'm not sure if both my sticks of Ram are PC133... one I got with my comp, and the other I am sure is 133. Any way to check if it's PC133? If it helps, I can check what's writtin on each of the sticks. But what I really want to know is what is that 66/100 signal and what L2 cache latency should I use... cause I have never really fooled with those two.

 

[HellSpam]

OK... just back from opening my computer... found out that one stick of ram is pc100... so that's what's been screwing me all along. Now here is an important question: I can now finally overclock my pc. What I want to know is what is better: to overclock my pc to 682mhz (and maybe even more) or to stay with 256 mb of ram...

 

[pandaflux]

Even though your 128mb stick of memory is labeled PC100 that doesnt mean it cant go higher. If i remember correctly true PC100 is actually spec'd up to 124mhz (?) so you might have some leg room.
Now onto your questions

the SEL 66/100 was added into the bios to unlock certain 400mhz and below pentium IIs and celerons. so this setting does nothing for you. i like to set it to "low" though, it makes me feel good.

As for the L2 cache latency, i dont believe your are really able to change the cache timing but even if you are it does no good to do so because it then fails to work in synch with the L1 cache and timings get messed up.

Your quest for anything over 650mhz without the use of extreme cooling is a lost cause. There is a reason intel stopped making the Katmai P3s at 600mhz, they simply couldnt scale any higher. Your best bets are to increase the FSB to 112mhz or 117mhz. With a good cooling and a slight increase in voltage you may achieve a clock speed in the mid 600s. Personally i wouldnt venture over a .2 increase in voltage. good luck.

matt

 

[TravisBickle]

Hellspam, I'd guess that your overclock is not really worth much trouble because of the age of that chip. Unless you can use your extra RAM and can tolerate any extra noise from beasty fans. You can actually get away with a PIII550 for a long time to come. It will do games, even speech recognition, great. Don't tell anyone but I am on a PII300, I'm gonna upgrade to a Celeron800 when it gets cheap...

 

[HellSpam]

About the pc100 Ram... well, it has to be the problem, because before I took it out, I couldn't POST at anything over 100.. but now I can. I get a pretty stable speed @ 645mhz 2.05v. Gonna check it all night now with Seti and other progs. But if it's stable, I need to know what would you guys recommend: A 645mhz with 128mb of Ram, or a 550mhz with 256mb of Ram...

 

[HellSpam]

Well, I'm done with the problem. Got my p3 550@645 2.05v, and bought another stick of 128mb pc133 ram. I'll give my PC100 one to my brother... he's only got 32 mb of ram anyway... Thanks for all the help, guys!

 

[HellSpam]

BTW... anyone know why I can't get any higher than 117mhz on the FSB bus? I think it's the displayer... the pci is usually close enough to 33mhz, but the AGP bus gets up to 80+mhz. I hope when I'll get my new GeForce 2 GTS I'll be able to overclock even more... but who knows, maybe it's just that the CPU can't get any higher than that.

 

[pandaflux]

Thats great news Hellspam. congrats on the overclock. I would run some stability test on it to be sure though. let us know what results from those tests. it must be nice running that 512kb of cache at 322mhz.
matt

 

[overclocker3]

Good Luck,I have a Pentium 3 550 slot 1 turning 825MHZ (150 front side bus) with a alpha P3 125 with 2 60mm fans. This chip is also running default voltage 1.65!!! The antec sx830 also aids in cooling. Chip idles at night at 69F after 2 hours of quake3 84.20F hottest its ever seen. I have my combo posted- 550@825,I-will Vd133 motherboard, alpha fan p3 125, 128 Ram, for $275.00.

 

[HellSpam]

Just back from a night of testing... stable at 645mhz. Used Seti and Hot CPU tester. Hooray ! BTW, all, my cpu is Katami, so that's why the low overclock speeds with high voltage.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

DUDE trash the ram you have and get some good stuff and watch the bus speed go up check my computer out i can post with 154Mmhz but my scsi card dont want ot here it.. its the ram

 

[pandaflux]

There seems to be a major misunderstanding about Intel Pentium III processors in this thread. HellSpam has a 550mhz Katmia chip with 512k of L2 cache at 1/2 speed, has a default voltage of 2.0 and was built on a .25 micron process. This is NOT a coppermine like JONNYROTTEN72 and overclocker3 have in their systems. You two seem to be confusing the 2 different kinds of P3 chips. Your chips are Coppermine P3 chips aka, default voltage 1.65, 256k full speed L2 cache, and built on a .18 micron process.

Please be more wary before you give advice next time. HellSpam does not have the same chip as you two and you seem to be implying that he does.

 

[HellSpam]

Ah, well, the 645mhz isn't stable after all... games just crash after a few sessions.
615mhz is my next check... At the most, I'll go back to my 16mhz overclock, but put back the 128mb pc100 Ram stick I got and get 384mb of ram . In the summer, I'm pretty sure I'll be in the U.S and buy me a nice AMD Thunderbird + Motherboard, although I'll probably barely use the computer since I'm going to go to the army and all (I live in Israel, and yes the army is mandatory 18-21). Maybe I'll just wait until after the army. At 2004 computers should be a lot faster than now... you think I can stay with a 550mhz till then?

 

[Stallion]

I was getting a little confused myself. I thought HellSpam was talking about a Katmai chip, glad that is straitened out.

I had a 550 Katmai that ran at a FSB of 115 on my BE-6 with some Corsair PC100 Ram. I see you just added a post..

Try 110 or 112 also, with a BE6 II you have unlimited FSB choices.

 

[HellSpam]

Now the FSB is 112 (5.5x112=615). Problem is, that thats the only speed over 100 that it's stable at. It's an Abit BX6-II, though, so I have only 112 or 117 and nothing in between or under. Ah well, let's hope that it's finnaly stable @ 615mhz.

 

[Stallion]

My bad, I thought it said BE-6 II. So it's more like my BE-6. I have 105,110,112 and 115 (there are more but nothing a Katmai will do). 112 is better then nothing though. Good luck.