Was just given an Asus CUSL2/700E combo - need info/advice/help

[Shag]

I had a nice surprise today - found out that my future father-in-law just sent me an Asus CUSL2 and a PIII 700e (haven't picked it up yet, but it's from googlegear and should be cB0). I recommended this combo to him about a month ago but didn't expect this to result in him sending me the same combo. I'm quite happy...

Anyway, when I did the initial research for him, I didn't look into specifics for the overclocking process for this combo. Seeing as I'm at work all day today, I'm not able to research this process too much before I pick up the package tonight. So, I'm looking for any advice anyone has for me in getting this combo up and running at 933mHz. I'm not familiar with all the features/setting for this mobo, so any advice there would be appreciated. I do have some overclocking experience (still running my celeron 300@464), but am a bit out of touch with current methods/technologies...

I have two 128Meg sticks of memory - one Siemens PC100 and one Kingston PC133. Any idea if the PC100 will be able to run at 133? If not, would I be better off running this system with 128M@133mHz or 256M@100mHz?

Is it advised to run a non-stock cooler with this combo? If so, what cpu coolers would you recommend? I don't have a lot of money to throw at this, so a budget-conscious solution would be preferable.

In case it matters, here's the rest of the system:

InWin Q500a 300W
2 case fans
Diamond Viper V770 32M TNT2
SB Live! X-Gamer
Diamond fireport 40 scsi card (hey, it was cheap )
18G Quantum Atlas 10k scsi HD
13G WD 5400rpm HD (backup/storage)
Plextor 32/14 cdrom
Yamaha 4416 cdrw
3com Ether-express NIC
128M Siemens PC100
128M Kingston PC133

I think that's it. Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.

 

[MoneyMINTR]

Take a look at the P3 700E from googlegear.com. It should cost you a little over $200 shipped.

It's also has the best price/c ratio. Most are able to get 933MHz with good cooling. I recommend the Alpha coolers. Get the FC-PAL35t. I've tried close to 8 or 10 P3 700E's and only 1 wasn't able to get to 933MHz. One of my P3 chips is at 1000MHz.

You should be ok with everything that you have now.

Here's my specsP3 700E @ 1000MHz

Good luck,
MM

 

[BlueScreenVW]

Congrats to the "combo"!
Well, it's very hard to tell how much your PC100 stick is likely to handle. I run 3 different PC100 sticks at 140 MHz on my BX board right now, so I've obviously been lucky. A good thing is to put the PC133 stick closest to the CPU - this way there's higher chance your most important info will end up there. Also, on the CUSL2 you have two options regarding the memory speed: either FSBx1 or FSBx3/4. What I personally would do is:
1. Try overclock as high as possible (with a decent non-retail fan) with the memory at FSBx1.
2. Then overclock as much as possible with the memory at FSBx3/4. Here you start trying at 933 MHz, obviously. Does it work? If not, use number 1 above. If it does work, then you'll have a hard time figuring out what's the better choice. Personally I'd prefer, say, 127/127 MHz FSB/Memory above 133/100 MHz, since you'll be quite bandwidth limited if you run a 933 at only
100 MHz memory bus.

Addition: make sure your PCI bus is running at FSBx1/4 if you get over about 115 MHz FSB, too.

 

[webguy]

You have one of the best combos around. I just picked up the same set up this weekend and I got it up to 924 by stressing my pc100 ram to 132. I barrowed my friends mushkin pc155 and got it up to 1002 with out a problem @1.75v. I recommend ditching the PC100 ram and sticking with the PC133. As for the cooler get an alpha pal which I recommend or a Golden Orb or one of those from 3dcool.com. O/Cing can be very simple or very complex depending what you want to do, but an easy way is to go into the BIOS bring up the FSB in small increments until you are happy or the chip is not as stable, then bring it down a notch. I say you can do at least 868 with an fsb at 124 without a problem at default voltage. anything after that will require a voltage boost, just go in the bios and set it manually. Just don't change the FSB and the voltage together it sometimes gives you screwy results. My best advice is to get motherboard monitor and wcpuid, (from the link given to you by MoneyMINTR) to monitor all your chips moves.
Good Luck. Come back and post your results in this thread.


Webguy

 

[subhuman]

this combo rox.

gorb quiet.