Overclock P3 600

[scg]

I have a Pentium 3 600 and shall be getting an Athlon XP shortly, but in the meantime am looking to squeeze as much performance as I can from my current system.

I am new to overclocking so would appreciate it if someone could answer my questions in case I do anything wrong! My CPU currently runs on a 133Mhz FSB (4.5 X multiplier). The next step on my motherboard seems to be 150Mhz. Will my memory be able to cope with the increased speed?

I assume the mulitplier is locked, so if all goes to plan I should get (150 X 4.5) 675Mhz. Is there anything I can do to get any more? As I will be upgrading I don't really want to have to invest in any additional cooling, although I don't want to break anything either.

My full spec is:

P3 600
250W PSU
Abit VA6 motherboard
320MB PC133 SDRAM
GeForce2 MX400
SB Live etc

My 3D Mark 2001 score is pretty abysmal. I have installed all the latest drivers for everything, but is this limitation caused by the graphics card, or the PC in which it is running, i.e. will this graphics card be the bottleneck in a new Athlon?

Cheers.

[muddocktor]

It all depends on whether your P3 is a coppermine core or a katmai core processor. If you have 512 k of 1/2 speed off-die cache, then you have a katmai and 600 was about as fast as it will go. If it is a coppermine with 256 k on full speed on-die cache, then I would say that whatever the fastest speed your motherboard/memory is stable will be your oc limit.

Run Sisoft Sandra or WCPUID and see if you have 256k or 512 k of L2 cache and you will know your limits.

[scg]

thanks for that. I have WCPUID somewhere so will have a look later.

[Yodums]

You have a coppermine and your 600EB is an excellent overclocker.

You will need a very good heatsink to get some heat off that chip to overclock the best you can ...

The average overclocked for that chip is 740mhz....

So with a good heatsink and good luck you may get it above 800mhz.

Just raise the fsb more and more and more until you find your max with stable oc and full load temperatures of a max of 45-50 Celius full load.

Flash the lastest bios.

[Racoon]

Your graphics card could be the bottleneck. It depends on the kind of games you play. If you play flight simulations then a powerful cpu is probably more important than a graphics card. If you play FPS then a good graphics card is more important. A Geforce2 MX400 will run fine at 1024x768x16 in most FPS but at higher resolutions/32bit colour you'd want something more powerful e.g. GeForce2/3 Ti, Radeon 8500.

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by tsunami
You have a coppermine and your 600EB is an excellent overclocker.

You will need a very good heatsink to get some heat off that chip to overclock the best you can ...

The average overclocked for that chip is 740mhz....

So with a good heatsink and good luck you may get it above 800mhz.

Just raise the fsb more and more and more until you find your max with stable oc and full load temperatures of a max of 45-50 Celius full load.

Flash the lastest bios.

how do you know he has a Cumine?

[Yodums]

Originally posted by funnyperson1


how do you know he has a Cumine?

I kind of got mixed up didn't know Katmai goes to 600.

Although if he has trouble getting past 675 then I think he has a Katmai... :/

[scg]

I do have a coppermine (thanks to WCPUID) and it is now running stable at 675Mhz with 150Mhz FSB.

The temperature seems to be around 35 degrees although different diagnostic tools give different readings within +- 5 degrees. Which one do I believe?!

Also this is the highest FSB setting on my motherboard, and if the multiplier is locked, how can I go any higher? Will flashing the BIOS give me more options?

Cheers.

[tainice]

i don't think so. Anyway, it is a pretty good ocing, for i cannot even get my 300a to boot at 450.....:mad: With most powerful slot1 cooler!

[RainMaQer]

The temperature seems to be around 35 degrees although different diagnostic tools give different readings within +- 5 degrees. Which one do I believe?!

Personally as a rule of thumb I go with the highest reading... it may not be accurate... but what if it is;)