I want to overclock a Pentium III 550

[Garfield]

How would I go about doing this? I want to overclock my Pentium III 550 CPU. I saw on this site that people got into the 900's. Oh, and I don't want to use water-cooling or anything but a fan. I can buy a new fan it if is neccessary.

Thanks.

--Garfield

[Bmxpunk86pl]

ok what kinda motherboard do you have? if the bios lets you, go and kick the front side bus speed up a little and see what happenes. what kinda cooling are u using?

[Garfield]

I'm not quite sure of my motherboard. How do I find out?

So, that's how you overclock? You just work with bios?

>> what kinda cooling are u using? <<
I'm just going to buy a fan. Nothing fancy (water-cooling, peltiers).

Can it be done?

--Garfield

[Yodums]

OK

Several things to discuss here:

1. Your 550 maybe either the coppermine or the katmai.

If you have the katmai you might be out of luck if you have the coppermine you are in lots of luck.

So this is what you do.

Either download SetiSpy.exe open it up ignore the error on the left menu click processor on the right frame type out the CPU Type.

Should say something like
CPU : Pentium III(Katmai) or Pentium III(Coppermine)
CPU Speed:
L1:
L2:

A OTHER WAY go download the Motherboard Monitor from google.com(search it)

and check your CORE VOLTAGE and if its 2v its Katmai if its 1.65 or 1.75 its Coppermine.

Thats the basic step we need to know right now. Reply ASAP.

[Yodums]

By the way I recommend you to go to the overclockers.com main page and then reading the Beginners Guide which is on the left menu.

[Garfield]

Well, I don't have the 550 right now. My friend is going to sell it to me fo $12. Is this overclocking complicated and dangerous?

--Garfield

[Yodums]

Its not dangerous when its properly monitored.

What kind of motherboard do you have?

Download Sisoft Sandra to find out.

[Garfield]

>> Download Sisoft Sandra to find out. <<

Where??? Can you supply me with a link? Why does the motherboard matter to OCing? Thanks.

--Garfield

[batboy]

The motherboard is the heart of the system. Without the right motherboard, you cannot overclock. You have to have a motherboard that has adjustable FSB and voltage settings to be successful. You need to research more about your motherboard and basic overclocking. If that 550 is the old style Katmai core, you won't be able to overclock it much past 600 even with the right motherboard. Additionally, cooling is critical when you do overclocking.

[Garfield]

Can I count on you guys to walk me through this? I really...really don't want to screw up my computer. I want to up the speed, though.

I got an idea. I told you that I'm getting the 550. Well, I have a celeron 366 right now. Should I test on that for now? No loss if something goes wrong. But, I read that your hd and other stuff might be affected.

>> Download Sisoft Sandra to find out. <<
Oh, and can you get me a link? I'd like to find out my motherboard.

--Garfield

[batboy]

Actually, that's not a bad idea as a test. That 366 Celeron has a multiplier of 5.5X and a default FSB of 66 MHz. First step is still to research what motherboard you have and determine whether you can adjust the FSB or not. Many motherboards are not adjustable and those that are have different methods of changing the settings depending on the brand. Some adjust the FSB in the BIOS, but older motherboards required you to physically change jumpers. If you can, set the FSB to 75 MHz (5.5X75=412.5 MHz). That Celeron should easily overclock at least that much and your PCI cards and harddrive will have no trouble running at that mild of an overclock.

[Yodums]

http://www.downloads.com/

and in search just type in "Sisoft" without the quotes and it'll give you the program.

As for the testing I think it is a great idea. Once you have Sisoft you'll be able to determine your motherboard and you should get back to us ASAP.

And by the way didn't your system come with manuals or anything ..? If it did come with manuals there should be a manual for your motherboard.

[dr0p0ut]

o/cing is done buy change fsb from your default speed
of 66 to 100 to achive 900mhz. it depend on the board, some popular board have bios that will allow u to change the value
other have jumper or dip switch that you have to change yourself.
in this part, worse could happen is your chip not boot. reset the bios
through jumper will allow u boot back to default 550mhz.

once u change the fsb, if your chip still not able to get the speed u wanted, u then will need to change the voltage that sent to the chip.
in this part, if thing go terriable bad, you will fired your chip.
also not all board support voltage tweaking.

so its all in the motherboard. once u can determine what company make it and modle number, u will get more detail tip form people here

have fun :)

dr0p0ut

[Garfield]

hmmm...I just downloaded Sisoft. Now I have to run setup.

Can't I just find out my motherboard in "System Settings"? I was looking there, but I wasn't sure of what I was looking at.

Thanks.

--Garfield

BTW have do you change the voltage of the motherboard?

[trapper]

Originally posted by Garfield
hmmm...I just downloaded Sisoft. Now I have to run setup.

Can't I just find out my motherboard in "System Settings"? I was looking there, but I wasn't sure of what I was looking at.

Thanks.

--Garfield

BTW have do you change the voltage of the motherboard?

i have just got into overclocking my self in may/june and i had some of the worries that you have ,let me re-assure you if you dont go and do stupid things (like i did) you will be ok i have lost a mobo and found i was running crap ram but the board went cos i ran my chip (cellie 600@900 with far to high temperatures i.e. 72c!!)and i just dicovered the bad ram then too, if you go to [www.fosi.da.ru] you can dload the pro version of S.A.N.D.R.A (si-soft sandra) which is far superior to all the linx to sandra standard as in the pro version all the modules work and as u probably know dont in the standard version,,,,run a couple of the modules specifically 'cpu&bios' and the 'mainboard information'
write down make model of motherboard and every thing that mentions bus speeds - voltages - temperatures - makes models and versions of everything too, then if you post all that here i will chip in anything i can and so will everyone as place is full of good guys who are right into helping ppl out...i said this in one of my first posts how responsive and welcoming the ppl here are compared to other forums and i was admin on a forum that got banned for being to arrogant so i know and here is a fine place where you will enjoy coming to(ps. go to folding at home forum and down load F@H and join team 23 sorry if im baffleing you post back details of comp asap :burn:

[Garfield]

Okay, I just downloaded Sisoft and now I have to run the setup file. Hopefully, the next post will be what my motherboard is.

Thanks again!

--Garfield

[Yodums]

Open Sisoft and then click Mainboard information.

It should under System Summary.

As Model, it'll show your chipset and then in brackets your motherboard ie:

i440bx-w0fi03 (BE6)

And then you would read manufacture.

Mine gave me the abit website and the BE6 thing.

[Garfield]

I was told that my emachines motherboard won't be allowed to overclock because it's Intel. So, I decided that I'm going to build my own, overclocking useful, computer. Might be awhile 'til I start, but I'm going to do that.

--Garfield

[batboy]

I don't know if those emachines use an Intel motherboard or not, probably some generic cheapie off-brand. Regardless, it's highly unlikely that it will have any overclocking features, I would be willing to bet the bank on it.

[Garfield]

Yeah, I'm just going to build my own system (a system good for OCing).

[Yodums]

Here's my recommendation:

1:

Pretty Expensive, One of the top systems now..

Epox 8kha+
AMD 1800+
SK-6
AMD Approved PSU
New Case
Some good case flow


2:

Cheap good performance

Abit ST6
1.2 Tualatin
PSU
Ram
CASE Fans
SK-6

[Garfield]

tsunami, goto my new thread "Computer Building Project" at http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49583

I welcome you suggestions/opinions.