440BX - Holy Moley!!!

[Clevor]

I've been playing around with motherboards on this 600E flip chip I have. Highest I could go was 142 on a P3C-E (Intel 820) and 144 on a P3V4X, at 1.80 volts. I stuck it on a P3B-F last night and after installing Win98SE, just for fun, I tried booting at 150 (@1.70 volts!).

Was I surprised the monitor light went back on. I figured, naw, won't boot into Win98SE. It not only stormed in there, but I ran 3DMark2001 and it passed. Got a 6473 score! Remember, this is not 3DMark2000. Pretty darn good for a 900 mhz CPU, I would say!

Man, this 440BX chipset smokes. I got 37.5 fps in the Nature sequence, the best I got was 28 on the P3V4X (running a Radeon 8500).

I was concerned the P3B-F only offers 140 and 150 FSB, and nothing in between, but heck, on this CPU, who needs it?

I'll test more for stability tonight, but nothing seems to phase this robust chipset. No problems with sickly hangs during the boot sequence or when entering Win98. Too bad you can't set the FSB on the P3B-F higher than 150; I bet it's every bit as capable as a BE6-II (I'll be trying that board out soon, too).

 

[JaY_III]

Its the BX chipset, all the way
LONG LIKE THE KING

 

[Clevor]

I ran 3DMark2000 and got a 7435. The 440BX only runs the AGP at 2x, people say. Who needs it! AGP bus at 100 though, but no problem on the Radeon 8500.

The system is totally stable at 150 FSB, at a VCORE of 1.75 actually, not 1.70.

I have an 850E SeccII I thought was a dud, since it would only do 110 FSB on the P3V4X and and P3C-E. It's running at 124 FSB (1055 mhz) on the P3B-F, and needs 1.85 volts to clear the IL-2 Sturmovik tracks w/o hanging.

I'm pretty happy. I figured 115 for sure, perhaps 120. It won't post at 133, but that's too much to ask (1130 mhz). I'm burning in the chip now.

Only problem is I can't run the Alpha P3125 on that SeccII since it doesn't fit on the P3B-F, so I have to use a regular-type heatsink, although it does have a copper insert. The thing is running hot, around 46-47 under load. I need to move the 120 mm fan I have so it blows over the sink, and reverse the fans on the sink so it sucks.

But yeah, 440BX rocks. If it boots into Win98, it's pretty much stable in everything. Haven't had it lock up yet in the boot sequence.