WIP: Karaktu's (and Zap's!) Unofficial Guide to mobile Celeron overclocking success!

[CrazyHorse]

Ok guys since a 2.8ghz mobile P4 seemed to be bad i got a 1.5ghz mobile Celeron today.

Sellers Specifications:

sSpec Number sl6fn
Processor Frequency 1.50 GHz
CPUID String 0F24h
Package Type 478 pin PPGA
Core Voltage 1.300
Bus Speed 400 MHz
Thermal Guideline 30.0W
Core Stepping B0
Thermal Spec 100°C
L2 Cache Size 256 KB
Manufacturing Technology 0.13 micron
L2 Cache Speed 1.50 GHz
Bus/Core Ratio 15

I had not a chance to test it but i could boot it up with my Asus Vintage P4S800-MX with AMi Bios Ver. 1002.

I set the FSB @ 166mhz and it still boots up no problem. I wont check more or how stable it runs before i have a hard drive to put an OS on it lol.

1 thing i noticed, in the bios the L2 Cache showed up as 512k instead of 256k. Do you guys think i can do the 100% and let it run on 200mhz fsb to get the full 3ghz out of it ? I would love to overclock an CPU 100% where i only paid like 20 bucks for.

One Question i have is how does the FSB relate to the DDR memory ? I got some good cheap PQI PC4000 with Samsung TCCD does the fsb increase the same when i increase the CPU. Like i said Intel Noob here =).

I will keep you up to date as soon as i get a hard drive in and let run Prime95 for a few hours like 12 - 24 or so.

 

[TechnoButt]

Originally posted by: Karaktu

Originally posted by: ChooChoo
Hey guys, any suggestions for a heatsink ? Or can a normal P4 still reach the mobile celeron without heatspreader ? I would appreciate advice on a heatsink with good power and cost effective. Thanks

By chance, have you read the first post of this guide?

Heatsinks that I have tested and verified to work:

Thermalright SLK 900/947/948U
Zalman CNPS7000/A/B AlCU/CU
Zalman CNPS5700D-Cu (with and without shroud)
Spire CopperStream II (my personal favorite)
Spire Easystream
Any Intel socket 478 retail HSF

Heatsinks I have tested and verified need the "penny trick":

Vantec CCK 7025

FYI, my P4-M 1.6ghz running in a P4P800-E Deluxe with S478 mounted Zalman CNPS7000AlCu does not need the penny for me. It makes excellent contact and cools better without the lapped penny shim than with (in fact, in my upright case, having AS5 on both sides of the shim caused to to eventually slip out from vibration with the fan.. suddenly my temperatures would spike for no reason.. lucky I found it before damage ensued). Without the penny shim, I'm golden.

Although, I think I'm about to upgrade to a CT-479+1.6 Dothan, so my cooler+cpu is in my thread.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
So mobile P4's work in the shuttle, Zap? Well, then, that changes some things Did you move to the midwest already? How did it go?

Yeah, the mobile P4 worked in the Shuttle SS61 without problems.

I've finished moving from California to Wisconsin. Still trying to get settled in. Tired all the time. Unemployed. Good thing my spiffy shiney and new wife 1.0 3D internet edition OC XT is employed and bringing in enough so that we don't starve (and can even pay mortgage, student loan, car loan, etc.).

Just popped a P4M on a Foxconn 651M02-GL (SiS651 $42 shipped at newegg) and it defaulted to 1.5v and ran without mods. So the Celeron 1.8 and 2.0 would work great on the 133MHz fsb option.

And you can set the fsb manually without breaking off any pins.

Working with mobile P4 does not guarantee working with mobile Celeron. My Shuttle 865PE board (what was it again?) cannot. Also, sometimes breaking off pins allows different RAM multipliers or changes some other timings to allow better overclocks. People have found this to be true even a few years ago with Athlon XP.

eBay mobile Celeron Processors... like 1.2ghz and wonder if they would run.

I think those use a different socket and may be based off P3, not P4. You want one that is socket 478. IIRC, those start at 1.5GHz (but I could be wrong).

I hit 3.4ghz with that 1.8

:thumbsup:

The link of cpu mod pic is out: http://www.bloodyfist.net/computer/478cpu.jpg

That was on my site. Stuff changed at hosting place when I moved. I'll get it straightened out sooner or later, after I get all settled in. Barely got internet (after being a month offline) and still need to get cell phone service and a JOB so I can buy all my toys. :evil:

Hey guys, any suggestions for a heatsink ?

Besides those Karaktu suggested and the Zalman 7000 TechnoButt used (which I've used and it does work), I've also used the Arctic Cooling 4TC. It may be discontinued because SVC was blowing these out for $5, but it is a basic aluminum heatsink with a temperature controlled fan that runs really quiet. Only potential problem is that when cold the fan doesn't spin - by design since it is temperature controlled - but the BIOS of my MSI 645E Max board would cause the PC speaker to constantly beep trying to warn me of a dead CPU fan.

I set the FSB @ 166mhz and it still boots up no problem... Do you guys think i can do the 100% and let it run on 200mhz fsb to get the full 3ghz out of it ? I would love to overclock an CPU 100% where i only paid like 20 bucks for.

That's the beauty of overclocking these cheap CPUs - the awesome value potential. Not for everyone, but it can be fun and rewarding. Your CPU is a B0 stepping, which may not reach 3GHz. However, you may get lucky - try it and let us know!

Here's another interesting motherboard:
ASUS P4S8X-MX Socket 478 SiS 661GX $$48.50
It seems to be the "lite" version of the SiS 661 chipset, missing "official" support for 800MHz CPUs. However, Asus advertises overclocked 800MHz support. If this board is indeed the equivalent to the P4S800-MX with SATA for $10 less, would be an awesome deal.

 

[CrazyHorse]

Ok here is 2ghz Celeron where i finally hit 3.3ghz with which is 66% pure overclocking and stable.

http://home.comcast.net/~rstegmaier/test.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~rstegmaier/test1JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~rstegmaier/test2.JPG

I know pirme95 was only running for 4 hrs 7 mins but it gave me the idea that everything is fine. CPU under load never reached more then 47 degrees Celesius ~ 114 F. Motherboard ASUS P4S800-MX AMI Bios from Asus Vintage Barebone System. I m pretty satisfied with this little overclocking result.

 

[CrazyHorse]

http://home.comcast.net/~rstegmaier/test1.JPG

for some reason it wont let me edit hm....

 

[CrazyHorse]

Alright me again with a simple question. I just put a mobile P4 1.5ghz in the Barebone and it shows up with 1.2ghz. Ratio is 12 instead of 15 but runs no problem the 200mhz fsb which means it runs 2.4ghz no questions asked, but why does the ratio only show as 12x ?

 

[Zap]

The mobile P4 had Speedstep. Desktop motherboards do not support Speedstep, thus CPU will default to the lowest multiplier and you can't change it. However, these make great candidates for running at 800MHz FSB as you found out. The mobile P4 1.4-1.6GHz range are usually B0 stepping and they can usually hit 2.4GHz, but in my experience they have difficulties hitting 3GHz stable (250MHz FSB). The higher FSB from the lower multiplier gives it a boost in performance.

 

[CrazyHorse]

I noticed. Prime stable @ 200mhz in this case 1.5ghz P4 running at 2.4ghz. I m very pleased with this whole mobile Celeron / P4 on the Asus P4S800-MX cause it is a very cheap oppertunity to get a decent System up an running.

The Celeron 2.0ghz reached 3.33ghz @ 166mhz FSB Prime stable, I just let it run all last night so after almost 14 hours prime95, i think i can say its prime stable. Memory can only run PC2700 (333mhz) though.

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

Nvm, found my answer reading the thread.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: ChooChoo
I m very pleased with this whole mobile Celeron / P4 on the Asus P4S800-MX cause it is a very cheap oppertunity to get a decent System up an running.

Yup yup, that's the name of the game here. I'm happy with my Athlon 64 in my main rig and my P4 Northwood clocked at 3.33GHz in my gaming rig. My file server and HTPC are mobile chips because they're perfect for that. I'm considering replacing my gaming rig with a mobile Celeron clocked to (hopefully) at least 3GHz. Hey, gaming is really video card limited as long as you have "enough" CPU speed, right? I have a rare aluminum mATX case, would make for a nice alternative to a Shuttle SFF boxen so I'm not a "me too" at LANs, though the Shuttle SS61 made for a cheap mobile CPU platform...

 

[Zap]

BTW, I've been seeing "buy it now" pricing on Ebay for these CPUs as low as $21+7. I think about $10-15 more for a better-than-B0 stepping. That's pretty cheap for a Northwood with 2.5-3GHz+ potential. Now, if only Asus would make a mATX board with the SiS 655 series chipset that worked fine with the mobiles...

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

I picked up a 1.8 from Karaktu for $34 and an ECS PT800CE-A from Newegg for $36. I'm hoping the chip will be able to handle 3ghz 1.55-1.6V. The mobo defaults to 1.55 according to Karaktu, and the BIOS apparently allows for up to a 6% increase in Vcore.

Since no P4 chip runs at 166fsb natively (100/133/200 are officially supported) will there be problems with the AGP/PCI frequency, or will it reset to 66/33 once I hit 166fsb?

 

[Zap]

The VIA PT800 chipset does not have an AGP/PCI lock so it has to use dividers. I do not know if there's one at 166MHz. Perhaps you can find out and tell us?

BTW, you should have looked in the For Sale/Trade because those motherboards have been used in Fry's combos and some people (myself included) have been known to buy a combo for the CPU (mobo+CPU = normal cost of CPU) and sell off the motherboard for really cheap.

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

Yeah I checked FS/T for one, however there weren't any. I figured $36 was cheap enough for a brand new one. Hopefully the AGP/PCI will reset at 166/167, I'll keep everyone posted. Should have it up and running before the weekend.

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

Well got the PT800CE-A and my 1.8. The FSB is capped at 132mhz in the BIOS, but luckily there's jumpers on the board for setting 133/200mhz. Using the jumpers you can get past the 132mhz cap, but then you run into another one at 165mhz, so I'm unable to test whether or not the AGP/PCI frequency locks at 166/167.

I don't think there's any version of Clockgen that supports the ICS (952911), but CpuCool does. Using the "fine tuning" option I was able to raise the FSB to 159mhz for 2,863mhz. I *think* this results in a 33mhz PCI clock, but I'm not 100% sure. Kind of a pain in the ass to have to load CpuCool everytime I turn on the computer, but so far it works.

And I'm using an Intel retail heatsink btw, one with a copper core. Making good contact and keeping the chip cool at about 25C (according to BIOS ne ways, that could be way off). I'm also gonna try a Thermaltake Polo 735 when it comes in, shytface out.

 

[Zap]

Good job for getting some great value out of a cheap setup.

 

[Zap]

My mobile P4 1.6GHz CPU is in my Shuttle AB60R board because that's my only mobile P4 at this time and that motherboard won't POST with the mobile Celerons with/without pin mods or voltage mods while the mobile P4 chips POST just fine with the nominal 12x multiplier. IIRC the CPU is a B0 stepping and I've run it typically at detected voltage of around 1.6v (motherboard severely undervolts by around .04v, so 1.6v=1.56v) and at 200MHz FSB. This particular CPU doesn't seem to want to run much faster than about 2.6+GHz so in the past I've just run it at 2.4GHz. This setup has been idle for a few months, board with CPU in it sitting in the original Shuttle packaging. I recently decided to put this into my server (currently running some Asus board and Tualatin CPU, forgot which since I built it almost two years ago and haven't fiddled with it since, and the server is monitorless and just serving up files). I wanted to minimize noise/heat while maximizing performance. The Tualatin CPU was pretty good, but I feel this P4 setup should be better with the Intel CSA network and integrated firewire (decided to get an external firewire box and received it Friday). The board allows for undervolting, so I decided to play around with various frequencies and voltages to see what numbers I come up with. Though the board allows for .0125v increments, I only tested in .05 increments just to save time. As this was only a quick excercise, I only tested for a successful POST and don't know if it would be stable under these conditions. Still, I think the numbers are interesting. Note again that the board undervolts. I'll list the voltage as I have them set, while the monitoring will state a number about .04v below that setting.

FSB/totalGHz voltage maxRAM
100/1.2GHz 1.15v DDR266
133/1.6GHz 1.15v DDR333
150/1.8GHz 1.15v DDR333
166/2GHz 1.15v DDR333
184/2.2GHz 1.35v DDR333
200/2.4GHz 1.4v DDR400

I figured that roughly 200MHz increments in total GHz would be sufficient to give me an idea of how the CPU ramps up in voltage required as speed increases. Also, I noted the maximum RAM multiplier that BIOS allowed at any particular FSB. It doesn't really give a multiplier, but a speed. I'm making an educated guess as to how BIOS figures out RAM speed...

FSB100-132, DDR266 = 2xFSB(4/3)
FSB133-199, DDR266 = 2xFSB(1/1)
FSB133-199, DDR333 = 2xFSB(5/4)
FSB200+, DDR266 = 2xFSB(2/3)
FSB200+, DDR333 = 2xFSB(4/5) = really 320MHz???
FSB200+, DDR400 = 2xFSB(1/1)

I'm guessing that ultimately the speed I'll use will be somewhere around 150-170MHz FSB. The 166MHz FSB I tested was the "last" speed at which the setup would POST at 1.15v and at the 5/4 memory divider would run my PC3700 HyperX at 415MHz. That seems to be a "sweet spot" in the settings.

The board doesn't help much by having a full-screen splash page on POST which cannot be permanently disabled. Hitting TAB will show CPU true MHz and RAM setting (not true MHz). Something interesting is that the setup will not POST if I set voltage to 1.10v even at lowest possible FSB. I haven't fiddled with the settings between 1.10 and 1.15v yet, will have to use a Windows install to test for stability (Prime95 perhaps). Note that at the 1.15v "setting" the BIOS monitoring said CPU was running around 1.11v (with a bit of fluctuation).

EDIT: Also interesting was the results showing up to 2GHz needing no extra voltage (indeed, undervolted as the CPU is rated for 1.3v) while over 2GHz needed a sharp bump in voltage.

 

[sandrogalli]

Hiya guys,

I'm a complete newb to mobile celerons and until a few weeks ago knew next to nothing about them. I stumbled across this thread by accident and it proved too tempting not to try. After reading through the whole thread, I purchased a 1.6ghz chip off ebay and a P4S800-mx from an online retailer.

I was AMAZED to find that I got a 100% overclock from this chip! I'd just like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread especially Zap and Karaktu.

Just one question: I've been trying to get my chip to default to a 200mhz fsb as I know it runs ok. I capped the 200fsb pin but it still default to 1.6. Do I also need to cap the 133fsb pin for this to work? Just checking so I don't screw up my brand new 3.2ghz HT PC!

Thanks again,
San

 

[Zap]

You're welcome. You are one of the lucky ones to have gotten a 100% overclock. It is not unknown, just not super common. Congratulations!

Even if you do the pin mod right, IIRC the Asus boards will always POST at the lowest FSB whenever it detects a CPU change or if the machine doesn't finish POST (such as you turning it off or hitting reset right after powering it on).

 

[sandrogalli]

Ok zap, that must be it. So it's only on other boards that the default fsb mods work?

hehe. 100% overclock... yeah.

thanks again!

 

[Zap]

Yeah, kinda. The thing with Asus is their CPU auto recovery. They try to make it so that the system will POST all the time. This means "defaulting" the CPU down to the lowest possible settings regardless of what it should detect as whenever the board detects that it didn't finish POST or that the CPU has been changed. Once you have it set to whatever speed you want, the board should remember that speed unless it again doesn't finish POST. For instance, if you go to shut down Windows and accidentally hit Restart, then just turn the machine off when it reboots and before Windows starts booting, the motherboard may determine that it was an unsuccessful POST and thus reset the speed to lowest.

 

[sandrogalli]

ok, thanks zap.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

Update, the TT Polo 735 heatsink didn't work too well, resulted in even higher temps than my Intel retail HSF, probably bad contact. I've decided to go with a 2ghz chip at 2.66 due to my board only being able to reach 133mhz fsb.

So I have 3 CPUs available to anyone that wants to get into the mobicel world, 2x 1.5ghz chips and a 1.8ghz chip. PM me if you're interested.

Also, sometimes when I first boot into Windows everything will be really slow for a minute or so, and sometimes when minimizing/switching windows with IE open it'll just freeze and all I can do is move the mouse around until I hit the reset switch. CPU usage also spikes up to like 27% at times when doing normal tasks like browsing the net or using AIM. Anyone else experience anything like this?

 

[Univac]

Ok, I'm out..

This stuff was just to Easy!!

Follow the guide and everything will work...well.

As I like to tinker, I sold most of this stuff local so I could of course, buy more things..

But I do have one 1.8 gig Celeron cpu left.

I was running it in the 2.9 GHz range on an ASUS board.( actually, it was ran over 3.0 GHz, but wasn't 100% stable there)

but as always YMMV.

PM me if interested.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Inappropriate4AT
CPU usage also spikes up to like 27% at times when doing normal tasks like browsing the net or using AIM. Anyone else experience anything like this?

What's using the CPU? Check Task Manager.