unlocking a PIII

[D4RK3N]

I have a DELL Dimension XPS T600 with a 600 mhz PIII 100FSB and PC100 SDRAM. Is there any way that i can unlock the CPU?

[cozyfannytooty]

Don't know - can't guess. Just thought I would give you a quick reply D4rk, I don't seem to be getting any for my posts. Don't feel glum, someone will help you chum. Cozy

[HYDRO]

To save you any more trouble NO its not going to happen. -ED

[Charon]

I'll tell you right now that Dell motherboards cannot be overclocked (without soldering jumpers), and you'll probably never unlock the multiplier.

[kunsunoke]

D4RK3N (Jan 15, 2001 11:50 p.m.):
I have a DELL Dimension XPS T600 with a 600 mhz PIII 100FSB and PC100 SDRAM. Is there any way that i can unlock the CPU?

You cannot unlock the P-III / 600(Katmai) or the 600E (Coppermine), whichever you have, since both have locked multipliers. The 600E is reportedly a good FSB overclocker, however. In order to overclock it you would need to do the following:

1) You would have to yank your existing motherboard in favor of a decent Slot-1 or FC-PGA S370 motherboard in order to attain the capability of increasing your FSB setting. Intel i815 boards are the current flavor of the day, although a decent (e.g. Abit or Asus) i440BX board may do okay.

2) You may have to get better memory, since you would be overclocking that as well.

3) You would definitely need a video card upgrade, unless your Dell comes with an nVidia or 3dfx model (not likely). Overclock & you will have to run with an out of spec. AGP bus.

4) You could run into problems with your hard disk drives, since some (notably, older Maxtors) don't like out of spec IDE busses.

In general, OEM systems do not overclock well, if at all, due to the compromises made in componentry (elfin-sized power supplies, etc.) and due to the attitudes of the OEM suppliers, who don't want you messing around inside your box.

[D4RK3N]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess ill just shell out 250 bucks for a new Socket A motherboard with a 950 mhz T-Bird. I'll pop a Super Orb on it and try to squeze 1.1 ghz out of it. Cheers!

[kunsunoke]

D4RK3N (Jan 16, 2001 04:04 p.m.):
Thanks for the info guys. I guess ill just shell out 250 bucks for a new Socket A motherboard with a 950 mhz T-Bird. I'll pop a Super Orb on it and try to squeze 1.1 ghz out of it. Cheers!

Dark - Check out the Abit KT-7 RAID. You can get a second hard drive at the same rated speed & size, set it up for striping & have server power in your den!!

Don't forget the 300+W power supply. T-birds & Athlons are notorious power hogs. Also, you might consider one of the bigger GlobalWin coolers instead of the Sorb if you want better cooling.