How stable is overclocknig ?

[RC3]

Im about to overclock for my first time as soon as i will have my dual p3-1ghz here. But my friends tells me overclockning a 100fsb to 133 is maximum ! and if i overclock anymore than that i will start haveing problems after some months when the ram cant take it no more i told him i found this 166pci ram but they keep tellning my it doesnt matter you will get errors and disk crashes. Tell me that this is just bull **** ! I've seen you guys running fsb far over 133, so how good is it ? Even if it runs stable for a week or more how will overclockning be after 1-2 yeas if ill have my computer that long.

[Carmine_Paterno]

Welcome to The Forum! Here is the story....Your p3 1ghz will overclock roughly to about 1.1ghz. If you have good cooling, even more. But since you will be haveing dual p3 1ghz it will be slightly harder. What ever you get one chip to, the other chip will have to follow. If the other chip doesn't want to go just as high as the other one, you will need to lower the speed a little bit. Concerning the FSB, I have seen people who have had there fsb up to 180 and had there computer running for 2 years+ now. Cooling is everything. IF you want to do some extreme overclocking i suggest a watercooled peltier. A peltier is a 2 ceramic plates that one side generates heat, one side generates extreme cold. For example, i had a peltier on my Celeron II 600, and it idles @ -5C and full loads @ 10C. Those results were with a heatsink. IF you watercool the peltier, it will be much much lower. If you want to just get the job done, get a Alpha heatsink/fan combo, of a Swiftech heatsink/fan combo. They work very well. I recommend the PEP66.

Also, as you overclock, you will have to run the voltage up slightly. Only when you find your computer unstable raise the voltage. Go no more than 2v, 1.95 is what you should stick to though. Anyway, if you have any problems, feel free to ask, this forum loves to answer questions of fellow overclockers.

[batboy]

RC3, there are no guarantees in overclocking. It's true if you push the PCI bus way out of spec, that sometime you might have problems. The controller is on the PCI bus, so the harddrive(s) can be corrupted as your friends are telling you. But, that's when you're doing extreme overclocking. With excellent cooling and using common sense, you should be able to find a good compromise that is 100% stable for the long term.

I'm a little confused when you said you're getting dual 1 gig chips and then said your friends told you not to go anymore than from 100 to 133 MHz FSB. I bet those 1 gig P-III CPUs are already 133 bus chips. If so, then you'll have to go over 133 FSB in order to overclock. I'll bet that a 140 FSB will work just fine and give you good stability, if you have all the right components and address the cooling properly. At a 1/4 PCI divider, that's only 35 MHz on the FSB which is good. Gives your PCI bus a nice buzz without overdoing it. Should be ok for the long term.

[Shadow ÒÓ]

few things that make OC'ing a little easier. One, if you have the disk space...make an image of your hard drive. No question you're going to try to find the limits of your board/processor/memory and you're probably going to find that YES it's going to corrupt your OS. If it does, you simply image back your drive and it's 20 mins or so later you're looking for another way to "tweak it".

As for going from 100 to 133 or above.....no question there either. Most (depending on their setup) can go that far and well beyond. But take baby steps. Don't shoot for 133 to start.....shoot for 110 or so....and do some benchmarks. Bump it up a bit and do some more benchmarks. Find your weak points and improve on em.

EXPECT FAILURE! It's part of the game. Not failure as far as frying components, but limitations. Stop BEFORE you fry something. This in itself is an art. Push too hard and you may fry something. Push a little and look for resistance.

If you have a 100 mhz fsb chip you're in a good place to start. One thing you may wanna buy is 133 mhz memory. Even tho your chip isn't 133, you'll know your memory isn't your bottle neck.

READ.....there are TONS of pointers that can help you here.......read a bit....try something....test it...then read some more. No doubt you'll learn more than your friend knows, and maybe help him OC his system sooner or later.

Most of all.....enjoy. This is quiet a bit of fun!

[[OC]_SR20DE]

RC3 (Apr 20, 2001 06:08 a.m.):

Im about to overclock for my first time as soon as i will have my dual p3-1ghz here.
--->> wow..

But my friends tells me overclockning a 100fsb to 133 is maximum ! and if i overclock anymore than that i will start haveing problems after some months when the ram cant take it no more i told him i found this 166pci ram but they keep tellning my it doesnt matter you will get errors and disk crashes.
--->> yes, your friends who told you that are newbie.

Tell me that this is just bull **** !
--->> yah, in some cases.

I've seen you guys running fsb far over 133, so how good is it ?
--->> true. many RAM out there can do far beyond 133. be sure you have a good ram, you need it.

Even if it runs stable for a week or more how will overclockning be after 1-2 yeas if ill have my computer that long.
--->> even you sys is severely OC'ed, it will last whole lot longer than 1-2 yrs. est. approx.: 5+ years at least.

[RIGGER]

duel 1g's must be somewhat crazy I think that it will be fast enough for you unless you plan on being a server of a few dozen people and serious gaming

[Pinky]

100Mhz FSB PIII 1 Ghz? Interesting, won't say they don't exist, just never heard of them.

Cooling's the key, and good ram for anything above 133mhz. So far the feedback you've received has been right on. Don't push too hard, tweak to the max, then back it a bit to be safe.

I have Never overclocked past 133MHZ, I'd rather settle for a better chip than spend the time forcing something inherently inferior. IE -- celerons are great for pushing (667 goes to 1000 without breaking a sweat), but PIIIs are flakey at best if you're to get any noticeable performance increase. Save yourself the time and build another machine to share the burden (which is why you'd be overclocking to begin with) -- maybe start a P IV box?..

[UFF-DA]

Hi P3 1 gig right here running 150 fsb 100% stable. I wont get into long drawn out conversation about o/c a P3 ill let the others do that. But yes a P3 is overclockable if you take your time and like the others said dont push it too much. With the right tweaking and right hardware, cooling etc etc. its very stable at least for me it is.

[batboy]

Both the Celeron and P-III versions of the coppermines are, for the most part, excellent overclockers. I've had both and had great sucess with both. Pinky is asking for a big debate from the P-III crowd. Chips like the P-III 700 are classic overclockers, almost a guaranteed 933 MHz and many of them will do over 1 gig. Besides, if he wants dual procs, he has to use P-III chips because the Celeron II CPUs won't work in dual proc mode.

The P-4 is not a good idea right now, high end P-IIIs and Athlons whoop it. The next generation P-4 is the one to wait for, it should be out by the year's end. Requires a different motherboard (socket) than the current Willamette P-4 chip.

Also, just because UFF got his rig to run 150 FSB stable, doesn't mean everyone can. He also stressed good cooling, components, etc... It's partly luck, especially finding two CPUs that will overclock to the same degree. Good luck.

[Doug]

Cooling is everything !!! The bigger question is why would you need to O/C a dual 1 ghz ???