Bringing the Pentium-M to the desktop

[crazyotterhound]

Hi, my current system is a P4C (Northwood) 3.2 running @ 3.5 with 230FSB. My mobo is an Asus P4GPL-X and I have been doing an awful lot of reading on the various forums about moving to Pentium M. I'm in the process of buying the CT-479 adaptor. I've been offered a Dothan 750 for around 100 euros. I have a couple of questions:
1) Would a 740 be a better way as a guarantee to booting at 200FSB? Is there a problem on this board booting below 200FSB?
2) Does anyone know for sure if the P4GPL-X board supports vcore adjustments? I've read conflicting reports about this.
3) Is this really a worthwhile upgrade from what I currently have? I use my system for mostly for gaming (7800GT vid card)
4) I believe the Arctic Freezer 4 will fit the CT-479 without any mods. Anybody tried this?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[BrianH2O]

1) The multiplier should be unlocked for 8 to 14. I am running my 750 at 11 x 245 on a P4P800-SE. I was also running at 10x270 for awhile
2) Not sure but proabably. If not, use the simple pin mod to increase to 1.55v
3) I had a P4 2.4A oc'ed to 4ghz .... what a difference! At 2.7g is abount the save as 4.5 to 4.8ghz of a P4
4) The Zalman 7000cu fits with very LITTLE mods (flip over the screw down bracket) and provides excellent cooling


Good Luck

 

[crazyotterhound]

@BrianH2O, thanks for the reply. I've since purchased a Dothan 740 and a CT-479. I'm going to try the AC freezer 4 first and post back my findings!

 

[Zanai]

Bit of a stupid questions but my laptop had a 735 1.7ghz model in it was wondereding if they are overclockable (basically just wanting to know when my laptop dies at some point in the next few years whether its worth turning it into a pc), a nice 2.5ghz cpu be ok for a background pc.

 

[crazyotterhound]

Hi, I bought a used CT-479 that came without the 4-pin floppy to molex connector. However, my PSU has a 4-pin floppy connector which I used instead. My system didn't POST (although the fans powered on). I guess I have 3 questions:
1. Does the 4-pin floppy connector from the PSU pump out 12V (like a 4-pin molex does)?
2. I didn't clear the CMOS after removing my P4. Could this be the cause of failure?
3. I presume the 12V 4-pin cable required for operation of a P4 does not need to be plugged in when using the CT-479. Thanks!

 

[muddocktor]

Hi, I bought a used CT-479 that came without the 4-pin floppy to molex connector. However, my PSU has a 4-pin floppy connector which I used instead. My system didn't POST (although the fans powered on). I guess I have 3 questions:
1. Does the 4-pin floppy connector from the PSU pump out 12V (like a 4-pin molex does)?
2. I didn't clear the CMOS after removing my P4. Could this be the cause of failure?
3. I presume the 12V 4-pin cable required for operation of a P4 does not need to be plugged in when using the CT-479. Thanks!

1. Yes, it does. I'm using the floppy connector off the psu on my system.
2. Possibly.
3. I would assume that the 12v cable is needed anyways. I always have hooked them up on mobo's that have that connector, including my P4C800E-Dlx my Dothan rig is using.

 

[Evilsizer]

1. yes
2.i can tell you NO, but its always a good idea to clear the cmos after changing cpus.
3. this is the failure, the 12v P4 connector needs to be plugged in on the mobo.
lol beat by one min.

 

[shleepy]

I have a p-m 760 (right? 2.0GHz / 533MHz FSB) on an AOpen i915Ga-HFS. With the last couple of BIOS revisions, they've finally allowed tweaking voltages for RAM and chipset. I have 2Gb PQI DDR2-667, and I want to finally try OC'ing the processor to around 2.5Ghz or so - not TOO much, but I understand that 2.5GHz is pretty standard. Thus, I'm wondering - does anyone know how I should go about overclocking it? The RAM is rated at 2.0v, and I don't want to mess with vcore (what with the pin trick) unless I really have to. CPUz says it stays at a little over 1.3v, which is the default. I'd settle for a slightly lower overclock if I wouldn't have to adjust vcore, but I'm obviously fine with adjusting RAM voltages and timing, as well as the chipset voltage.

What I want to know are what are some "combinations" (e.g., leave vdimm at 2.0, raise chipset voltage to ___, and see if 160MHz FSB works stably) or at least "patterns" (e.g., raise FSB by 10, if not stable, increase chipset voltage by __, try again, ...) that might be worth trying? Like I said, I don't want to go too high, so maybe even 2.5GHz is a bit ambitious without raising vcore, but I believe tomshardware.com did it easily a while ago with the Asus adapter (without adjust vcore).

Thank you!

 

[Sjaak]

Almost a year gone by...i just added the most recent overclock by Basic

 

[DoubleE]

Made some tweaks here and there and now have the following:

Super Pi : 26.657s http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/DoubleE_photos/SPi_28350.jpg
3d01 35060 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/DoubleE_photos/3d01_35060.jpg
3d03 21516 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/DoubleE_photos/3d03_21516.jpg
3d05 9935 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/DoubleE_photos/3d05_9935.jpg
3d06 5200 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/DoubleE_photos/3d06_5200.jpg

I managed 9945 in 05 but no pics.... need to get over that 10k fence...

 

[DoubleE]

Whoopla... raised mem clock and...

 

[Sjaak]

 

[lowfat]

I set myself up a Celeron M 340 desktop last week to hold me off till Conroe.

Anyone else running a Celly? Because this thing is one poor overclocker. I can't boot higher than 127FSB. And if i try to clockgen higher, for some reason, the highest clockgen will even let me is 130.34FSB, anything higher it just jumps back to that clock.

 

[Gautam]

Dang sorry about that lowfat, but no worries, Conroe is coming soon.

Revisited my Dothan to stick it in my mom's rig...getting the same weirdness I got last year, my VCore is stuck at 1.55v no matter what board. Even using a P4P800 VM which has no vcore adjustment...lol. When I had good cooling the extra vcore was welcome, but right now I just want it to be stock to put it in a little microATX rig.

Edit: The weirdness just continues...pinmodded it for 1.356v and it STILL is at 1.55v...

 

[imperiousleader]

p4p800 deluxe definately works

For anyone out there who has been scouring the net for info on this
motherboard with the ct-479 adaptor and dothan cpu, the answer is
that everything seems to work except multiplier adjust. that is
vagp, vcore, vdimm, fsb. also pat/mam can also be enabled at 100+
fsb with ram on 3:4 ratio ,have not tried over 125fsb yet but will add
more later.

 

[krick]

I have a P4P800 Deluxe v1.02 w/ CT-479 Adapter.
My cooler is a Zalman 7000B-AlCu.

I am able to get my Pentium M 730 up to 2.7GHz (12x255) but no further.

At 2.8GHz, it bluescreens when booting into windows.
If I try to bump it up to 2.8GHz in windows using clockgen, it crashes.

I've done the CT-479 adapter mod sold here...

http://www.under-the-ice.com/index.php?cPath=35

...and described here...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82191


I've even done the P4P800 "droop mod" pictured here...

http://people.freenet.de/Joipoi/p4pdroop.JPG


After doing all the modding, the voltage seems to fluctuate less but the cpu runs a bit hotter during Prime95 torture test (~65C). However none of it seems to make any difference as I can't get over 2.7GHz.

Any ideas on what I should try next?

 

[Evilsizer]

I have a P4P800 Deluxe v1.02 w/ CT-479 Adapter.
My cooler is a Zalman 7000B-AlCu.

I am able to get my Pentium M 730 up to 2.7GHz (12x255) but no further.

At 2.8GHz, it bluescreens when booting into windows.
If I try to bump it up to 2.8GHz in windows using clockgen, it crashes.

I've done the CT-479 adapter mod sold here...

http://www.under-the-ice.com/index.php?cPath=35

...and described here...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82191


I've even done the P4P800 "droop mod" pictured here...

http://people.freenet.de/Joipoi/p4pdroop.JPG


After doing all the modding, the voltage seems to fluctuate less but the cpu runs a bit hotter during Prime95 torture test (~65C). However none of it seems to make any difference as I can't get over 2.7GHz.

Any ideas on what I should try next?

unless your going to cool with PHASE there is not a thing you can do. as they all pretty much toped out @2.7ghz one air/water. even my dothan with the asus stock hs toped out at 2.7ghz..

 

[mcoleg]

welcome to the forums m8

2.7 is a pretty good result for 730 on air; it's probably all you can get unless you go some sub-0 cooling. concentrate on getting the most out of your ram and you'd be sitting pretty.

 

[krick]

unless your going to cool with PHASE there is not a thing you can do. as they all pretty much toped out @2.7ghz one air/water. even my dothan with the asus stock hs toped out at 2.7ghz..

Yeah, it's frustrating. My 1.6GHz dothan can do a stable 2.7GHz with the stock crappy ASUS heatsink/fan. I just had to bump up the voltage a little bit.

In my quest to overclock this thing further, I've purchased a Zalman 7000, a mod kit for the ct-479, and a variable resistor for the droop mod. Not a damn bit of results.

I just realized after reading through some of the older posts here that with the VCCA mod on my ct-479 and my jumpers on the 400MHz setting, I was probably overvolting the hell out of my CPU. Whoops! No wonder it hit 65C during the prime95 torture test. I just set the jumpers back to the 533 setting so it should be at 1.8 VCCA now.

I just cleaned the heatsink and re-applied some arctic silver paste. I'm running a torture test at 12x230 (2759MHz) right now and it seems to be stable and only hitting about 40C max. If I could only get that last 3MHz!!! Grrrr!

I really don't think that cooling is the problem at this point. And after the overvolting I just did with no results, I'm pretty sure lack of voltage isn't the problem either. I think I've just hit the wall for this CPU.

Incidentally, for anyone who cares, the reason I'm doing all this is to build a new computer for my MAME cabinet. I have another computer with an AMD Opteron 148 overclocked to 2.8GHz and this Pentium M 730 @ 2.7GHz beats it in almost every MAME benchmark.

Of course, Intel had to rain on my parade with their Conroe chips. The latest MAME benchmarks show them wiping the floor with everything else on the market.

On the other hand, I got this P4P800 Deluxe for free as a hand-me-down from a friend and I got my PM730 and CT-479 for about $175 total from eWiz.com so it didn't really cost me that much to experiment.

If I wanted to play with a Conroe, I'd need all new parts including a motherboard, memory, and a video card. I'm not ready to go there just yet.

 

[Evilsizer]

Yeah, it's frustrating. My 1.6GHz dothan can do a stable 2.7GHz with the stock crappy ASUS heatsink/fan. I just had to bump up the voltage a little bit.

In my quest to overclock this thing further, I've purchased a Zalman 7000, a mod kit for the ct-479, and a variable resistor for the droop mod. Not a damn bit of results.

I just realized after reading through some of the older posts here that with the VCCA mod on my ct-479 and my jumpers on the 400MHz setting, I was probably overvolting the hell out of my CPU. Whoops! No wonder it hit 65C during the prime95 torture test. I just set the jumpers back to the 533 setting so it should be at 1.8 VCCA now.

I just cleaned the heatsink and re-applied some arctic silver paste. I'm running a torture test at 12x230 (2759MHz) right now and it seems to be stable and only hitting about 40C max. If I could only get that last 3MHz!!! Grrrr!

I really don't think that cooling is the problem at this point. And after the overvolting I just did with no results, I'm pretty sure lack of voltage isn't the problem either. I think I've just hit the wall for this CPU.

Incidentally, for anyone who cares, the reason I'm doing all this is to build a new computer for my MAME cabinet. I have another computer with an AMD Opteron 148 overclocked to 2.8GHz and this Pentium M 730 @ 2.7GHz beats it in almost every MAME benchmark.

Of course, Intel had to rain on my parade with their Conroe chips. The latest MAME benchmarks show them wiping the floor with everything else on the market.

On the other hand, I got this P4P800 Deluxe for free as a hand-me-down from a friend and I got my PM730 and CT-479 for about $175 total from eWiz.com so it didn't really cost me that much to experiment.

If I wanted to play with a Conroe, I'd need all new parts including a motherboard, memory, and a video card. I'm not ready to go there just yet.

no not really....ddr and ddr2 / agp and pci-e all for $55 add e6300 for $200..zing!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092