Overclocking Help

[Joes2Silly]

Okay, my friend dumped this pentium 3 on me awhile back.... So I installed linux (I dont have a 98 installer CD, If you do contact me) and I started to overclock it. Sadly I only raised it from 450 Mhz to 504 Mhz. So besides buying a new motherboard for it, how can I raise the clock to a higher speed?

FYI: it wouldnt boot at 600 Mhz

[Sparkfist]

Okay, my friend dumped this pentium 3 on me awhile back.... So I installed linux (I dont have a 98 installer CD, If you do contact me) and I started to overclock it. Sadly I only raised it from 450 Mhz to 504 Mhz. So besides buying a new motherboard for it, how can I raise the clock to a higher speed?

FYI: it wouldnt boot at 600 Mhz

Flash the BIOS with either a new version or an upgraded verison. That should give you the freedom you want. You should be able to get BIOS upgrades or new BIOS off the motherboard manufacture's site.

[Ari]

Is it not booting because it's overheating? If that's the case, then you just need a new heatsink/fan (or waterblock) to cool it down.

[timmeh87]

i never got my 450mhz pentium 3 past 512mhz on pc100 ram.

if you get pc133 ram you should be able to raise the bus speed higher. in theory. its not really worth it though (pc133 ram is more expensive than ddr (which is more expensive than ddr2). go figure)

[MM007]

I've seen several 333(A) MHz Celeron go 450MHz, but that's because of a lack of cache.

Since a Pentium III has more cache, it is generally harder to overclock than a Celeron (on the other hand, it's capable of more performance per clock). If you can push a 450MHz Pentium to 512, then I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a 450MHz Celeron to 533, 550, or maybe even 566 if you're lucky. 600 MHz is possible, but not necessarily likely.

A good rule of thumb thast seems to have held true since the Pentium days is that a 10-15% overclock is all you can expect right off the bat, if anything (Naturally, the Pentium 75 and some earlier chips are exceptions, but that's another story). seeing as you pushed an extra 62(66?) MHz out of your box, I'd put that as roughly 13 or 14%, which is within that range. With some more heat protection, better RAM, and a nice motherboard/updated BIOS, maybe you can coax it higher.

If I get my hands on a very overclockable Super 7 chip though, perhaps a later-end Super 7 AMD K6-II+ or a K6-III, I have a Super 7 board that can clock to 770 MHz on a 140MHz FSB. It is possible to get insane speed gains...with the right combination of chip, RAM, and board.

[timmeh87]

what was the original speed of that super 7... 550?

[Joes2Silly]

Well, I dont think heat is a problem, I have PC100 ram and SDR DIMM, so what should I use? Would I be better off overclocking my AMD k6? I also have one of those that I was going to use for a different system

[sam fisher]

I've had a 600mhz P3 easily go to 800mhz. That's a 33% increase.

[MM007]

what was the original speed of that super 7... 550?

550MHz was roughly as high as most Super 7 processors were labeled. I've never heard of a 600 MHz one, though it is possible. Super 7s tend to be in the range of 266 to 550, and normal Socket 7s tend to be 133 (75 if you want to be technical) to 233, or a bit higher.

I've had a 600mhz P3 easily go to 800mhz. That's a 33% increase.

I didn't say all processors were stuck in the 10-15% range. Sometimes you can squeeze out more, especially when you get a chip that is a newer core design which has a higher maximum theoretical speed...as long as the chip isn't so new it does not lack a refined design.

If I were a betting man, I'd say your 600 is an early Coppermine (but just late enough to be a refined and reliable core design at higher speeds). Early mendicino core models, like the 300A, were in a similar situation which permitted a speeed of 450MHz easily, and it isn't uncommon to clock a P-75 to 133 MHz in a Socket 5 (It may have been the first Socket 5 model, but it was refined from its early phase as the Socket 4 60-66MHz Pentium, though they fry without extra cooling after a while...I've heard that Socket 5 chips will work in a Socket 7, so it may be possible to push the old 75 even higher, maybe to 150MHz/ 200% speeds).

These are the first things I hunt for in a chip I plan to overclock:

flexible on-die cache speed (or lack of cache entirely in the case of some celerons)
higher theoretical speed for the core design (NOT THE SOCKET!)
2 or 3 speeds above intro speed (If something debuts at 533, 566, and 600, and the core design is 1GHz+, try for between 600 and maybe 733 or 800.)
good cooling (duh)

Those are likely to boost your odds of success, as well as how far you can overclock.

[totokan]

err... I'm confused here. Why are y'all talking about overclocking cpu's with speeds of less than 1ghz? surely you would get greater o/c'ing potential out of a cpu with a speed in the 3ghz range... I distinctly recall an extreme case on Tom's hardware guide where they o/c'd a cpu with liquid nitrogen .

[timmeh87]

yeah a lot of "hardcore" people use lN2

i got myself an AMD athalon 3200+ recently, 'venice' core. 64 bit, 2ghz. cost me $109 CDN and $60 for a board. let me tell you folks, that this thing overclocks like a dream.

i got 25% OC on stock air, generic ram and default voltages. unfortunately, i cant change the voltages on this motherboard. and im not buying more ram. but a lot of people have hit 50%.

i have the E6 revision, apparently E3 is even better.

[totokan]

Ok, once more: A question:
What's with all the numbers on AMD Processors? Why can't they just say the speed, as Intel does?

[timmeh87]

intel uses numbers now too.

[totokan]

Yes. As I have noticed. Silly Intel! Now I actually have to SEARCH for the specs

[MM007]

I am speaking in terms of less than a GHz because I'm poor and don't want to risk overclocking machines over 1 GHz. So I don't.