Overclocking P-III 600B

[RPM_Computing]

I am currently running a P-III 600B @ 600 mhz on an abit BE6-II with 133 fsb, which is stock for this chip. When the chip is under a load it gets extreamly hot to touch, I am not sure of the exact temperature but do these P-III processors run this hot under normal circumstances? I am not a newbie to computers or overclocking but I had recently purchased the new setup listed below in my sig and am overall impressed with the performance of the setup but I can not get over the heat this P-III pushes out. I have 3 120mm fans circulating air in and out of the box and have one drive bay left open. There are also vents on either side of the tower for additional circulation. The processor is using the stock Intel fan/hs setup which I personally think is lacking.

Anyway I am going to get a new hs/fan tomorow and also some cooling cream for the processor and would like to know how far the fsb can be pushed on these chips before stability becomes an issue? I am also planning on picking up an additional fan or two for the case. The VooDoo3 has been setup tonight with it's own fan for the heatsink which has dramatically reduced the temps. Any sudgestions for overclocking this cpu will be appreciated.

P.S. I know the multiplyer is locked and there is nothing we can do about it.

Thanks all,

Rick.

 

[Monaco]

you are lucky to have that CPU working at all on that motherboard! The BE6-II uses a 440BX chipset, and that chipset only supports a 100mhz bus- it does not officially support 133mhz FSB, it does not have the right PCI and AGP divisors for it.

So right now, your board is actually overclocked by 33mhz, quite respectable for that board.

A 150mhz bus is possible on that board, but only with a lot of luck and TLC. On a board that supports 133mhz CPUs, you should be able to get that CPU running on a 150mhz bus with little problems.

As for temps- if it's too hot to leave your hand on it, it's way too hot for overclocking. 45 degrees C is about as high as you ever want to see it get under 100% load. The stock Intel HSF is not very good at all- an upgrade would help a whole lot.

 

[saytan]

its a katmai chip, so its fairly near its limit

 

[RPM_Computing]

Well after some experimenting I did get my 600B to run at 150mhz fsb and load into windows, but froze after the desktop loaded. I am figuring that with some additional cooling to the cpu that 150 fsb will be possible, mabey more I will update if something of ay significance is acheived.

Anyone hear anythng as to how good the P-III 800 overclocks? I have a slot 1 370 adapter with overclocking jumpers on it and was consciderng pickng one up.

Your thoughts and experieces are welcome,

Rick.

 

[funnyperson1]

Well after some experimenting I did get my 600B to run at 150mhz fsb and load into windows, but froze after the desktop loaded. I am figuring that with some additional cooling to the cpu that 150 fsb will be possible, mabey more I will update if something of ay significance is acheived.

Anyone hear anythng as to how good the P-III 800 overclocks? I have a slot 1 370 adapter with overclocking jumpers on it and was consciderng pickng one up.

Your thoughts and experieces are welcome,

Rick.

imho the PIII-800 isnt worth it.....the performance increase isnt big enough...for the price 140$ you may as well save 20more dollars and get a celeron tualatin and an Abit tualatin mobo and oc it to like 1.5-1.7GHZ....

 

[BadThad]

Do you mean a 600E? ....or a 600EB? If it's a 600E@133 you're running it at 800 MHz now (6 x 133). If it's a 600EB@133 then you're in spec (4.5 x 133). If it's a 600@800 then that would explain the heat.

 

[BadThad]

...oh...I don't see anything about voltage! Is this a cumine, socket 370 cpu on a slotket or a katmai (slot 1) cpu? As I recall, the default voltage for the katmai is 2.0v whereas the cumine is 1.65v. There's a big difference. We need more info.

If you're running a cumine on a slotket at 2.0v I can understand all the heat for sure.

 

[jazztrumpet216]

No, slot 1 has nothing to do with Katmai or not. The Vcore is the best indicator. They make slot 1 CPUs up to 1GHz on the Coppermine core (the 1000E chip that overclockers love actually debuted as a slot chip, not a socket chip).

As a 600B, that is a Katmai chip, it is NOT a Coppermine, so it's around it's top end (however, it was a bit of an oddity at the time, as it was the only Katmai chip to use a 133MHz bus). Try a lower setting between 133 and 150MHz if one exists (my Asus P2B-B was similar and it went 133, 140, 150, so I'd try to find maybe a 140MHz bus for 840MHz...). At 150 you're around 900MHz and I definitely think that chip will have problems with that.

 

[RPM_Computing]

Thanks for clearing that up jazztrumpet216. The mobo I am using has SoftMenu-III which allows me to adjust the FSB in 1 mhz incriments, as well as adjusting the voltage in .1 volt incriments. Would you recomend the "E" series of P-III processors for overclocking? I am leaning towards the GHZ but am working on a strict budget for the time being untill I am moved next month.

And the Katmai I am currently using has a locked multiplyer of 4.5 so with a 150 mhz FSB I am able to obtain 675 mhz from the chip. I am certain the 600B is capable of more but I am thinking the VooDoo3 may not be able to operate properly e.g. being able to load into the os and mouse pointer still moves but nothing else happens. The voltage is set at 2.05 which is the default, pci is set to 1/2 agp is set to 1/3 of fsb.

I am heading to town tomorow morning "it's my weekend" and may pick up some additional fans and do some case mods for better air circulation, the hard drives are also generating lots of heat and if I am lucky i'll be coming home with a new cpu

Thanks for the insight.

 

[jazztrumpet216]

Yes, I'd recommend the "E" series of chips. The PIII 800E has an average of 980MHz overclocked, and the PIII 700 (100MHz FSB, not available in 133) can often do 933 without problems (our own Mr. B has one of these chips, I think). The 1000E's are guaranteed cDo stepping (well, the newer ones are), and those can usually hit at least 1240, sometimes 1333. Just make sure the BE6-II has Coppermine support (if it doesn't check Abit's download page and see if a newer BIOS might). You'll most likely have to use your slotket.

 

[Clevor]

I've been playing around with a BE6-II Ver. 2.0 lately and careful, it's a bit flaky compared to the Asus boards.

And your ram settings can play a big role. I found that out last night.

For example, I can run a 600E at 150 FSB and ram at 2-2-2 no problems on a P3B-F, but I can't overclock it at all on the BE6-II unless I set the ram to 3-2-2! Exact same problem with an 866EB. It will barely do the default 133 FSb at 2-2-2 on the BE6-II (I actually thought the chip was defective), but at 3-2-2, I can hit 143 FSB.

The Abit board stinks if you ask me, since the ram I have is 7 ns Infineon chips (essentially Mushkin Rev. 3), and they should do over 160 2-2-2. I was insulted that I even had to resort to one 3- CAS setting for my ram on the BE6-II.

However I can get an 850E to 124 FSB no problem at 2-2-2 on the BE6-II. I didn't try the ram at 3-2-2 so that will be interesting the next time I put that CPU in.

So it seems some CPUs work better than others with ram at 2-2-2, and the motherboard itself is also a factor.

I'm gonna try that 866EB on the P3B-F. I'm hoping to hit 150 at 2-2-2 on it. In my hands, it's a stabler board than the BE6-II, but not as feature rich.

 

[RPM_Computing]

Well here are the results of overclocking my system so far:

P-III 600B @ 648 mhz (4.5 x 144, 2.1v)
VooDoo3 3000 @ 180mhz 2/3's of fsb
RAM @ 2 x 2 x 2

I am having no issues with my RAM set at 2 x 2 x 2, the board is not "flakey".

These settings allow stable use of the computer. I am able to boot into windows at 675mhz and run applications and benchmarks but stability becomes an issue, and whats the use of more mhz with sacrificed user ability right?

 

[Clevor]

Maybe my 866EB got burnt in or something, but I am getting much better results now. I can hit 155 2-2-2 with one stick of 256 MB PowMan ram. I can hit 160 2-2-2 with one stick of 128 MB Mushkin Rev. 3.0, but 3DMark2001 will lock up at some stage. I think it's my AGP running at 106 mhz.

If I use two sticks of 256 MB PowMan, I can do 150 2-2-2. This CPU might even go higher than 160 (never tried it), but think it's the ram or AGP bus holding me back.

There is also something strange with this BE6-II Ver. 2.0 going on. I have the latest BIOS but my memory scores are wretched: 236/240 or something. No way it should be that low at 150+ FSB and 2-2-2. It should be at least twice that. It's almost as if the BIOS allows you to boot real high FSB but is jacking back the memory for stability. I tried reinstalling SisMark Sandra as well as my OS to no avail. Sandra says the memory is running 2-2-2 but I keep getting those low memory scores.

 

[RPM_Computing]

Clevor, I agree with you on the AGP / RAM issue, I feel my video card is also holding me back at this point. I too have tried different RAM sticks on the board and two different video cards, both being agp... Hmm, the thought just came to mind that I have an old 16 mag tnt pci video card lying around, mabey i'll test it out and post the results.

As for the RAM testing low i'll run one on mine and let you know how it turns out.

 

[Lancelot]

I'm also using a BE-6II (read my siggy). Your (pretty rare) 133Mhz FSB Katmai CPU defaults to 2V, so you should be able to take it higher with some extra cooling. Now something you have to check up on is if your AGP speed is set to 'normal' (1x) and if the 'AGP aperture size' is set to 4MB (4 is the minimum and means 'off') in your BIOS setup. The Voodoo3 doesn't support AGP texturing and since your AGP is running way out of spec, AGP 2x and/or any large texture size might be holding you back some.

 

[RPM_Computing]

Well I picked up a GeForce 2 MX 400 today and now have the FSB @ 150 solid and able to load programs at 152 fsb, so it's currently running at 675 mhz I figure I should be able to clock it at 154-155 in the near future with some patience.

My AGP aperature is set to 64 mb and the speed set to fast, i'll update when anything worth mentioning is achieved

BTW: Clevor I too experienced the same issues with my RAM when the fsb is set higher, for some reason the memore benchmarks take a hit but the performance is boosted greatly.

Till the next time!

 

[Clevor]

"BTW: Clevor I too experienced the same issues with my RAM when the fsb is set higher, for some reason the memore benchmarks take a hit but the performance is boosted greatly. "

I'm gonna ask Abit about this, because I am getting lousy 3DMark scores with such low memory benchmarks. A P3B-F motherboard has much better memory marks at the same 150 2-2-2, and seemed a lot faster than the BE6-II board.

I might even try flashing to an older BE6-II BIOS, if I can find one. The main thing about the latest BIOS is it shows settings up to 1.1 gig Coppermines.

BTW Rpm_Computing, try running 3DMark2001/2000 with that Geforce2 card. Maybe it's better than a Ti, but I found a Ti 500 doesn't like a 100 mhz AGP bus (150 FSB), and RainMaqer said his Ti200 won't run over an 89 mhz AGP bus (133 FSB). If so, you will keep locking up running 3DMark2001. I'm kinda surprised because I heard Geforces will run high FSB.

I have a Ti 4600 on order so I shall soon find out about that card .