Upgrade Celeron 433 to ?

[Funkymobo]

Hello,
After checking out overclockers.com and reading all of advice for beginners, I took a small step and upped my FSB from 66MHz to 75. I burned in the system with SANDRA and everything works great. I tried for more, but couldn't get any, but that's fine since I didn't try to fiddle with voltage or upgrade my cooling system at all.

I'm trying to stretch the lifespan of my cheap old computer as much as possible. I've tweaked everything possible from the software side, I run a clutter free system, have plenty of RAM, and haven't had a crash in months.

Now it seems that what remains to do is to upgrade my processor, and I could use some advice. My problem, according to articles I've read on overclockers.com, is that my MB, an ASUS MEW-AML Socket 370 microATX, is not designed for overclocking in any way. The power supply is barely 200W, there is no BIOS control of clock speed, no voltage settings, etc., etc.

I figure it would be relatively cheap, and simple, to pull the 433MHz Celeron and replace it with a faster Celeron. I've found Socket 370 Celerons up to 1.4 G, within my current budjet. My MB can run at up to 100MHz, and I have PC-100 RAM

What is the fastest processor I can install? Is this plan likely to work? Is it Worthwhile? I'm hoping to gain experience with this system until I'm ready to build a machine from scratch and push it to the limit!

Thanks!

[Gregory_WE]

I'm not familiar with Celerons but if you can somehow squeeze a low end P4 or Athlon in there with an ok mobo and 256MB of DDR, then you'll be pretty well off. Someone else can reccomend some good boards for Athlon or a P4 with DDR.

What else do you have in your computer? And what is your primary goal with this? E-Mail, gaming, surfing, work?

For the PSU, I'd upgrade to at least 300-350w if you do take my above suggestion.

[looktall]

your upgrade path is very limited.
your motherboard can only take PPGA cpu's. ie. old celerons.
it can't run FCPGA chips. and it certainly can't run tualatins (the 1.4ghz is a tualatin)
the highest you could go is celeron 533mhz. (not 533A)

time to buy a new mobo i reckon. :D

[ShadowFolder]

i have celeron 400@600 rock stabile! :cool:

well tuned rams and lots more volts = +200mhz ;)

maybe u can try 100mhz FSB






good luck, don't fry your celeron :)

[Funkymobo]

This is exactly the advice I'm looking for. Thanks.

I don't think buying a 533MHz Celeron (if I could find one) would be worth it. I'm not going to try any other upgrades, since that would be like buying a new car and installing the seats from my old one. There's not much inside the case that I would save.

I would like to overclock my current celeron more than what I have already. The news from "whereismy386" is encouraging, but:

1. I haven't found any mention of voltage settings in the MB's manual or on the CD. The MB itself has jumpers for setting the clock speed, but I couldn't find anything that looks like it would change the voltage. Any ideas?

2. I can't find my RAM's sparkplugs. How do I go about tuning my RAM?

Thanks again for all the help.

[ShadowFolder]

try to find your mobo's reviews, related articles, etc...

maybe somebody describe voltage stuffs in any article, reviews about your mobo...




PS: manual must to describe voltage settings! i hope it has not auto voltage settings.

[dxiw]

your upgrade path is pretty much non-existen unless you buy a new mobo, cpu and ram then you could see nice improvements, for the time being if you want cheap upgrade jsut get a quality cooler and raise the volts on that cpu and get it to 100fsb. might wanna buy a temp probe to verify taht your not getting to hot. At 100fsb you will be at 650mhz instead of 433mhz thats a lot better than upgrading to a 533 celeron and cheaper. I think that the athlon socket 462 coolers work or socket 370 so you should be able to get a really nice cooler for it and push it to the max...

[looktall]

there's good news and bad news.
the bad news is, there doesn't appear to be any voltage control for this mobo. (i've been reading the manual.) the other bad news is, your chip may not be able to run at 100mhz.

the good news is, if it won't run at 100mhz, you have a few settings in between 66mhz and 100mhz to choose from.
you have 70 (455mhz), 75 (487mhz), 90 (585mhz) and 95mhz (617mhz) .
neither of which will push your PCI too far out of spec, and in some cases it will be below spec.

the other good news is, if your chip does run at 100mhz, you have two higher bus speeds to try. 105 and 114mhz.

if you don't already, i suggest you head to asus and get the manual. you'll find it in their archives. the manual will tell you what the jumper settings are.


good luck. :D

[David]

You could get a 533 Celly (8x66) and OC the FSB to 75 to get 8x75=600MHz?

[Funkymobo]

Thanks for all your effort, looktall. I studied the manual thouroughly as well, but it's nice to have confirmation that there is no voltage control on my MB. I have the MB running a 75MHz already, with no problems. (Burned in with SANDRA benchmark for several hours, have been running SETI continuously for months)

I tried 90MHz, but Windows wouldn't start. I don't know what temp I'm running at right now, since I have no gauge. All I did to improve the cooling was to get some decent thermal grease for my cheap HSF. Do you (or any other readers) think it worthwhile to try higher speeds again with better cooling, considering that I can't up the voltage?

[David]

Originally posted by Funkymobo
Thanks for all your effort, looktall. I studied the manual thouroughly as well, but it's nice to have confirmation that there is no voltage control on my MB. I have the MB running a 75MHz already, with no problems. (Burned in with SANDRA benchmark for several hours, have been running SETI continuously for months)

I tried 90MHz, but Windows wouldn't start. I don't know what temp I'm running at right now, since I have no gauge. All I did to improve the cooling was to get some decent thermal grease for my cheap HSF. Do you (or any other readers) think it worthwhile to try higher speeds again with better cooling, considering that I can't up the voltage?

I would try better cooling: then you can confirm that the problems are not cooling related if 90 MHz doesn't work.

David

[Funkymobo]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to try some low-budjet options for better cooling. If anything dramatic happens, I'll pass on the details.

[Captain Slug]

Directron.com has a PPGA 533mhz Celeron for $40 (http://www.directron.com/celeron533.html), but I've been able to find them locally for $20-$25. They're fairly overclockable and you could peak at 600mhz without a problem.