Celeron 266 - What to get?

[Lord Tion]

I have a Celeron 266 (Slot 1) that I bought from a friend. It was an HP with an Asus or Abit Motherboard and was previously running at 302MHz stable with no special cooling or anything. The motherboard broke somehow in all the moving around after I bought it and I was wondering what a good motherboard would be to get for overclocking. I would like to have a fast FSB and an AGP slot for gaming. Also support for PC 133 RAM. Price range is $50 or less hopefully but I can spend more if I need to. Graphics cards recomendations are also welcome. Does anyone know if the multiplier is locked on that chip?
Thanks

[batboy]

Yes, the multiplier is locked on all Celeron CPUs. Usually those 266 CPUs will easily do 100 FSB for a total of 400 MHz. The classic motherboard to use in my opinion would be an Abit BH6. As far as using it for gaming, it's sort of old and slow for the games I play nowadays.

[Lord Tion]

I thought so. As far as using it for gaming, yeah, it's kinda slow, but I'm not chock full of cash at this point. Also, it's what I use when I don't have a Duron on hand. It'll still work for most games if I put a good video card in it I think. I have a friend who has a K6-2 @ 300MHz and a Voodoo 3 and it runs Counter-Strike pretty good with Windows 98.

[DeathScyth_Hell]

where can you get a board that old though??...unless you auction over ebay...but i really don't trust buying second hand computer components...

[batboy]

Try the classified ads page right here at overclockers.com there is a link to it on the home page.

[Lord Tion]

Yeah, I spent all day yesterday trying to find one on an online store. The Abit website said that the mobo supported 450-700MHz, though, so will it take a 266? Is that just the latest version of the board? And thanks, I'll check the classifieds.

[JetMech]

The Celly 266 has no L2 cache. This lets it overclock very high because back in the day the slow L2 cache was a deterent to high overclocking. Look for an ASUS P2B, Abit Bh6/BX6-II, or BE6. These are all good overclockers from that timeframe and can pretty much guarantee a 400mhz overclock. To run games on that chip at anything approaching good framerates look for a TNT2 chipset video card. Anything older and the lack of L2 cache will take a big hit. Be advised that the K6-2 300 was running on boards such as the FIC 503+ that could have as much as 1mb of Pipeline Burst Cache so it cannot realistically be used to compare with the Celeron 266. What you will see is the same thing the AMD people are throwing at the P4 folks. High Cpu speed on the Celeron not keeping up with the K6-300. But then again I could be over stating the situation.

[mackthehack]

Lordy - Lordy

As my Subject indicates I just happen to have what you need. Fergit the "others".

This little sucker ran for two years at 450mhz. (No Games) and still does. Along with this is 64megs of PC100 generic ram.

Check out my Homepg.

If yer interested or have questions? Drop me a line at tmcclean@home.com.

** mackthehack,

Where this isn't a "blatant" ad, I'm going to leave it. Be aware, however, that posting items for sale in the forums is prohibited by Forum Policy. In future, please do one of three things;

Put the item into our Classified Ads, found on the front page here.

E-mail the other party.

PM the other party.

Any future posts along these lines WILL be deleted.

Thanks!

Mr B
Forums and Classifieds Moderator **

[Mr B]

Lord Tion,

I'd try to put together a few bucks, and aim a bit higher. Prices for "older" equipment have come way, WAY, down (even some "newer" stuff, too). 266, or even a 300A is just getting further out of date, and will continue to do so. Soon, these chips will not be enough to run a lot of the newer programs commercially available...

Let's look at a couple of different options;

Motherboards:

The Abit BE6 was mentioned above. I'd look for one of those, or better yet, the BE6 II or Soyo 6BA+IV. All of these boards are great for overclocking, are ATA66 compatable and would run chips much faster than a C266 or C300A. All of these boards should be found for around $55 to 75, used but in good working order, if you look around enough.

Used equipment.... yeah, I'd rather new myself, but if money is tight, used will do just fine. Buying things thru online auctions (ie, e-BAY, et-al) is a good way to find working used 'puter parts. Just know what you're looking for, and ALWAYS look for the line "Guarranteed to arrive not DOA" in the listing. If they won't guarrantee that it will arrive working, look further, you'll find someone who will. Sometimes you'll still find one of these boards brand new, in the box, for a bit more money, but they're getting far and few between...

CPU's:

I'd forgo the older Mendencino cored Celerons, and step up to the newer FC-PGA Coppermines. These start with the 533a, and go up to the new 1.1GHz model. I've seen TONS of the 566 and 600MHz versions at e-BAY for under $60. These chips will overclock to 850+, and a good percentage will hit 1GHz. (my C600 (cC0) will run 1053MHz (1.05GHz) I got it for $56 on e-BAY last winter).

The newer 800MHz and up Celerons run at 100MHz FSB. These are acquiring a pretty good rep for overclocking very well. Looking thru pricewatch.com's listings shows the prices for these chips new, to be not too much higher that the prices I outlined above.

Celerons are decent for gaming, but cannot touch the performance of the P///. The much superior L2 cache of the P/// just leaves the Celeron in the dust, and prices for these are dropping too, now that intel is pushing the P4 hard. Two chips I'd reccommend are the P/// 600E and 700E, in either SECC2 or FC-PGA format. These have a good rep for overclocking well, but are indeed a fair amount more $$ than the Celerons. More, but certainly worth it.

Also..let's think one more thing here....I was looking at this myself. A bit more money to outlay, but this rocks! These prices have come way, WAY down of late.

AMD Athlon T-Bird 1.4GHz 266FSB, AHYJA-Y stepping (the GOOD one...lol) $99 (pricewatch.com)

Abit KT7A motherboard, runs PC133 SDRAM, 4x AGP, bla, bla, bla... $68, refurbished. (newegg.com.)

So..for about $175 or so...can you say 1.6GHz? I might...:D

I know these ideas far exceed you're search of $50, but I'd consider them at least. A 266 or 300A just begs to be upgraded, even on its best day.

Good luck, in whatever direction you choose!

Mr B

[Lord Tion]

Wow, thanks for all the advice, you guys are great. My thing is that every few weeks I am getting a new Duron at 700-900MHz. Usually I sell it so I can get some money. Plus, I get to use it while I have it, so win-win, right? I've sold a few so far so that I make about $100+ or so. But in between sales (I have a very slow turnover) I'm without a computer. Which really bothers me. So I figured, hey, I got this old Celly doin' nothing, maybe I can get a cheap board to hold me over in between Durons. Also, I want to build a permanant fast gaming machine but that I figured would be a way off. That price on the Athlon is really good, I never imagined prices would be that cheap on computer stuff. So, if I save up, I could buy the Athlon after maybe a month or less. Sounds good. Maybe I'll just get a cheap board for the Celly and sell it. Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. Because I can get a few hundred for a complete system and buy the Athlon 1.4GHz with that. Course, I'll need a new power supply and case....and probably a new hard drive...hmmmm. Man, that's so fast, though. You know Intel has a 3.5GHz P4 (http://maximumpc.com/features/feature_2001-08-28.html)? Whew. Anywho, thanks a lot. ;)

[Mr B]

Umm....er.....*ahem* Might I ask how "every couple of weeks you are getting a new Duron"??

I....er...**AHEM** Might be interested....LOL :D

PM me, would ya???? hehehe

[BigRed]

!!!!!!

3.5ghz!
Me want!
Me want!
:)

[Lord Tion]

Yeah, even if Pentium 4's aren't as good as a 400 MHz slower Athlon (let's just say, for the sake of argument, whether you agree or not, which I do), then that still makes it like 1.5GHz faster than the fastest Athlon. period. Well, at least 1GHz faster, even I have to admit that. That's friggin fast! My gosh. Anywho...