Overclocking a katmai 550 mhz: another question ;)

[Michal]

Hi all! :)
In the last post I have sayd to be quite happy by having overclocked my cpu up to 634 mhz.
But in these days I was thinking some things :).....things like why don t apply a water cooling system?
There's only a question that is stopping me from making a workable water cooling system and it is:
Does my external cpu cache will be able to be setted at 366 mhz? (133 x 5.5/2).
Personally I think that with a good cooling system there will be no problems by putting my core working at a frequency of 733 mhz (133 x 5.5). The question remains: Will the cache be able to do it too?
After having done a proportion the cache will work at a frequency greater than the original by a 33%
Bye :)

# Michal

[outhouse]

The cost of a water cooling setup will be to much for the performance your going to gain, you would be better off getting a good copper HSF like the Goldengate which is on sale now for 19.99 with a Delta, the only way i would recommend water cooling your rig is if you were going to use your water cooling setup for a upgrade later. The money you would spend on water cooling you could buy another CPU that would blow the water cooled Katmai away. As far as your Cache I dont really understand your question but I have never heard of Cache holding anyone back so you dont have anything to worry about there. One note check the CPU database and see what others have done with your CPU and see if the cost will be justified.

goodluck

[Michal]

Hi outhouse ;)
Thanks for your reply but you see the question is another:
I think (and hope I think bad :) ) that the external cache of katmai series has a limit. You know this limit is expressed in 'ns' (nano seconds) like in all memory chips. So I think that my cache will never go upper than ~634 mhz.
Infact disabling the external (second level L2) cache my core can rich a frequency of 700 mhz without a particular cooling system.

# Michal

[funnyperson1]

....i dont know about that,ive never heard about cache having limits, but i dont suggest water cooling either, because if you have water cooling you might be able to get 700, but it wont be much of an increase, for the kinda money a watercooling setup costs, you might as well get a Coppermine 700E, then with air cooling you could pronly get aroun 850...

[Michal]

Hi funnyperson...about the watercooling system you re right :) ... it is too expensive. But as you can see you got a coppermine core on your PIII slot 1 processor. And it is the best series for having very good results in terms of overclocking : 100 mhz FSB, 0.18 core, internal and syncronous cache with a new advanced transfer method. These are all the things that gave you the possilibty to do what have you done :)
The worst component of any katmai cpu is the external cache! And personally I think that there is nothing to do.
Bye.

# Michal

[cdadare]

Hey Dude, us poor Katmai users don't get much respect, but after much research, I have my Katmai 500 up to 675mhz. Many say that's amazing and I guess it probably is. I WOULD NOT go with a Water Cooling system. If I can get my Epox P2-133, VIA chipset board to O/c my Katmai to 675, I would think many could have the same success. It does depend alot on your board though. See my "Seeking expertise on the Katmai" posts and see if they help.

[Mike D]

Michal I think you're absolutely right about your cache being the limiting factor of yours and all Katmais. I've read repeatedly that the cache on these chips is one of the largest stumbling blocks in Katmai overclocking. I also had a 550 Katmai and could not even boot into windows at 616(112 x 5.5). I was quite sure this was caused by the cache but was discouraged from trying with the cache disabled because of gross registry errors that forced a reinstall. Good luck but I would give up on this chip and go for a cCO celeron 600, these chips are cheap and are almost guaranteed to get to 900 at default or slightly above default voltage. And because of the better cache design of these chips they'll do far better than the 550 Katmai even though they have 1/4 the cache. As for cdadare, congratulations on your overclock but I believe you were one of the lucky ones to have more capable cache chips than the rest of us.

[Michal]

Hi MikeD :) :) :) :)
Thanks for your presence!
Hmm....you see just now when I am writing my Katmai cpu is going at a frequency of 662 mhz but is a lot unstable. Can t play any game!
Can only go around on the net :)
I have build a very good hand-made hair cooler :) but it seems to be still poor. Bah....and the bad thing is that in my town it is impossible to find any good katmai heatsink.

Thanks all :)

# Michal

[Michal]

Hi All...here I am again ;-)
Ok...for those who are interested in the katmai's worl :) there is a link:
http://bxboards.com/katmai.shtml
that explains the cache limits of any katmai cpu.
So my supposition became true.
Well...I don t remember which speed my cache has cause I applied on it two small heatsinks.
Katmais 500 mhz for example got 4 ns cache speed. So what does it mean? Hehehe....it means bad things :) Calculate this:
1000 mhz /4 ns = 250 mhz. So a katmai 500 cache will never theoretically go upper than 500/2 mhz (250 mhz). I said theoretically cause there is always a small overclock margin that could be expressed in a 12/15 %

p.s. I don t surrender :) Am going to adapt a Hedgehog 238M with a delta fun hoping in a miracle :)

Bye all :)

# Michal