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Some questions I'm hoping to get answered...

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VincentKyle

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2001
Hello fellow O/Cers,

I'm sort of new to the game, so I've got a few questions I'd like to ask. I had a PIII733 on an ABIT VP6 running more or less stable at 935MHz ([email protected]). Unfortunately, while I was carrying the machine downstairs, my cat ran in front of me (as he always does when I go down a flight of stairs). I tripped over him and dropped the machine. A new case, new VP6, new PIII and $400 later, my machine is now a PIII866 (cC0, Phillippines, retail box -- it was the only one I could find at a reasonable price that day).

I've tried O/Cing this chip, but have met with strange and disappointing results. First off, the machine actually seems to run cooler at higher MHz....? (at 900+ MHz, it would run at ~26C, while at default around ~29C). Also, it seems I can't get this chip even to a modest 100Mhz overclock. My two OSes, WinMe and Win2K, both have programs simply close themselves without warning, and WinMe suffers from the usual kernel faults and the like.

So what is it, then? Am I missing something or did I just get a bum CPU? Are Phillippine CPU's especially bad (the 733 was from Costa Rica), or is it the cC0 stepping (I was told somewhere to look for cB0). It doesn't make sense that the system could handle a decent overclock before, but now is not able to handle even a modest one.

Here's a quick spec list:

Fong Kai FK320 workstation ATX 300W case (4 fans going, great cooling)
Abit VP6 mobo
PIII 866 w/G-orb cooling
512 MB PC133 Micron SDRAM (1x256MB, 2x128MB)
2 Western Digital WD200 ATA100 7200RPM IDE drives (in RAID 0)
Creative GeForce2 MX
Creative SB16PCI
Linksys FastEthernet PCI
Pioneer 16X DVD

Thanks for your help and happy O/Cing,
VincentKyle
 
It's always possible to get a dog chip just as some lucky folks get the great ones. What Vcore are you running? You may need to bump up the voltage to get higher, if you haven't. When you do, the orb may prove inadequate so you must watch temps closely. Cooling is the key, and when the Vcore is raised the heat will go up fast. The EB chips are always more challenging to overclock. Intel has already selected them as chips capable of 133FSB and sometimes they don't want to go much higher. Many will though with proper cooling.
 
I have the chip running at 1.75v right now, and heat just doesn't seem to be an issue. Intel rates the chip at a maximum of 80[1]o[/1]C, and mine rarely gets above 30[1]o[/1]C, even at higher speeds (strangely enough, as I mentioned before, it actually runs cooler at higher speeds...still can't figure that one out). Should I worry about tweaking the other voltage setting (3.3v)?
 
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