Need to get more out of my P3700

[JStorm]

I overclocked my p3700 cbo to 877 but had to increase cVolt to 1.9. Cant get system to boot if I increase FSB any higher. Any ideas on further overclocking?
Abit BE6-II v2.0
Golden orb
Mushkin 128MB ram cas2 rev 2 3/3/3
IBM Deskstar GPX 20.0GB
SB Live! mp3
CL Annihilator pro DDR

Current temp using MBM:
system 26C
CPU idle 30C
6 hours of SETI 40C

[Mr. Potatoehead]

I can't get mine to go 933 either, i just
got it too using the orb, it booted once over 900, but locked up. I'm running at 820 right now, maybe we need some burn in at lower speed. I have mine 1.7 volts.
Maybe we are the unlucky ones...

[Tim-]

I would try using SoftFSB and see if it will run faster after boot up. The orb is marginal for cooling, and by the time it posts it may be too hot for Windows to run. If it runs when changing FSB on the fly, then you need more cooling. Another thing to try is to blow a household fan into the open side and see if it will go then. I have found the orb is inadequate for the "less than cooperative" chips.

[Mr. Potatoehead]

The funny thing is that when I have the case off, the orb
feels cool. I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy an alpha,
that jacks up the cost 40 or 50 with artic silver.
I should have just bought a pretested one.

[Tim-]

That may indicate that you are experiencing one of the fundamental flaws of the orb. They are not very well made, and the bottom is often not very flat. They don't mate effectively with the cpu die that way, and can't transfer much heat.

Many folks have found that lapping with 2 or 3 grades of sandpaper (ending up with a very fine grade) helps a lot. The anodizing is also very heavy on the base, and it doesn't hurt to get rid of some of it. Use a flat surface for lapping- a piece of glass, or marble or something similar.

Are you sure it's mounted squarely to begin with? They are a pain to mount in the first place.

[Mr. Potatoehead]

Should I take the orb off and try the retail
heat sink, although I tried once and it looked like the bracket is too short.

When I lap, do I take the clip off, or use
a narrow piece of glass or marble?

[Tim-]

Either way will work. I don't know how hard it would be to remove it. I have only used orbs a couple times and have stayed far away ever since. You do have thermal grease to put back, I hope. If not Radio Shack sells some that isn't too bad.

[marty]

I had a generic Orb. With it I could reach 840 MHz with my PIII 700. Changing to the retail sink brought me to 875. Adding Radio Shack thermal paste brought me up to 896. Adding an Alpha PAL 6035 and juicing the voltage from 1.85 to 1.9 brought me to 933!!

So try the retail heat sink.

[MartinT]

My efforts toward o/c'ing my new p3-700 seven months ago were minimal. I had an MSI slotket, Aopen BX mainboard and a stock intel hs/f then later, a generic gorb clone. I just went into the bios and made the changes from info I found in this forum.

I was just a witness to greatness, I really wasn't involved much in the process. The cpu temp showed 22C at bootup, 933mhz for two hours showed 29C, vcore was at default 1.65v. The 700 has got to be a beauty of an o/c'er anyhow whether you get 200mhz more or 125 because it runs cool.