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My new 2.53 C1 overclock

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JimGreen

Registered
Joined
Jan 23, 2003
Location
Ashburn, VA
I posted a question here about a week and a half ago about whether I should get a 2.53 from Newegg or a 2.4A from PC-Nut - about the same price. I wanted a C1 stepping. After reading all your responses and some other posts (thanks for the input!) I decided to get the 2.53 from Newegg and take my chances.

Two days after the order the 2.53, an Albatron "silver" MB, and a 512 MB stick of Corsair XMS PC3200 arrived. I must say that Newegg had great service. I paid $3 extra for same day shipping which they did. BTW, the 2.53 *was* a C1! SL6EG - Costa Rica, 3245A841-1249. Good going Newegg!

This setup was to upgrade my wife's system which formerly was a P2-400 with 128 MB PC-100 RAM on an old ABit 440BX board. She has been complaining for a year about it being "too slow" and running out of RAM with Win2000 and OfficeXP, etc, etc, etc, running.

I started it at the default speed and voltages. Did I mention that the "retail" 2.53 still has the stock Intel heat sink/fan, but I peeled off the Intel-supplied mating foil and applied a dab of Artic Silver-2 to install the heatsink. It booted and ran Win2000 with no problem. Temps below 30C.

I set the RAM at 2X FSB to isolate the processor and started increasing the FSB. It would go to 154 (2.926 GHz) no problem, but failed to boot at 156 (2.964). I checked the temps at 154 and they were both about 30C. I thought, great! I then raised the Vcore to 1.6V, the V-RAM to 2.5V, and set the RAM to 2.5X and 2,3,3,6. It booted and ran again at 154 (now DDR 385), and the temp was only about 31C! Wonderful! I then increased the FSB to 158 (3.012 GHz, DDR 395). It booted and ran OK. At 3 GHZ, and temp only about 32C.

I decided not to go any further, although more was probably available. This is *not* "stress testing" with Prime 95, but it's probably typical of my wife's use typing e-mails on the internet. For her I lowered the FSB back to 154 (2.926 GHz) for stability's sake, as I don't want any calls at the office "My computer froze! What do I do?!".

I consider this a very satisfactory overclocking experience. I plan to upgrade my Celeron-600 at 850 sometimes this spring, and I will push that one to the limit. Thanks again for all the responses and comments that helped me make a very good decision on this upgrade.

Regards, Jim Green
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JimGreen,

welcome to the forums.

nice OC btw.:)

I'm glad to hear you clocked back a bit for extra stability....
yet did you keep it at the last vcore setting?

I would still test with prime95 anyway.

I'm so glad things turned out great sofar.

mica
 
Yes, I left the Vcore at 1.6V and the RAM at 2.5V, for "stability" at the overclocked 2.9 GHz speed. This is my wife's computer, and she doesn't want any glitches. But when I upgrade my computer I will go "all out" to 1.7V or higher and see how far I can go.
 
Jim I would just keep this in mind, if the next chip doesn't overclock as well as this one, you can always pull the ole switheroo......I did that with my kids, they were OK with it......:)
 
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