Another favourite CPU for overclocking? by CPU-zilla (22 Oct 99)
Just as any other normal Friday evening, I was prepared to go home and have a good rest to prepare for the coming hectic weekend. However, before I got to do so, Jackie and Jereme gave me a call and invited me down to Sim Lim Square for an exciting revelation. Of course, I jumped into the invitation knowing that there's going to be a good deal in town.
When we got to Sim Lim Square, we headed right to Marketplace, where they informed us that they managed to get hold of a recent batch of Pentium !!!-450 that was capable of running at 133MHz FSB. That automatically translates the total speed to a whopping 600MHz, which is currently the fastest Pentium !!! CPU you can get in the market. What's more, it runs at 133MHz FSB, which means, you can buy a relatively cheap Pentium !!!-600B CPU. Now, is that a good deal or what?
I guess this isn't really new to some of you, as I know that some have already been running their Pentium !!! 450 overclocked to 600MHz. However, getting a piece that really work at the desired frequency has been somewhat of a gamble.
Anyway, we went to test the CPU and was really amazed at how overclockable it was. We managed to push it up to 140MHz FSB (140x4.5=630) on the P!!!-450 CPU, but at a voltage of 2.30V. At 133MHz FSB, we managed to get it up and running at the default voltage. That's really something considering the fact that all other P!!!-600 CPUs are running at a default voltage of 2.05V. Running the Pentium-!!! at bus frequencies above 133MHz (133x4.5=600) is really pushing your luck since most Pentium-!!! CPUs are somewhat limited to only about 600MHz. Why then do you think that Intel didn't release a 650MHz version to counter AMD's K7, but instead, released a 133MHz FSB version? Well, if you are really lucky, you may just get one that could run higher than 630MHz, but you should be aware that your PCI and AGP clocks also increase with the FSB. Make sure your devices are not affected by the increased bus speed.
Oh, alright, enough of babbling, let's take a look at some numbers, shall we?
|
Test Configuration |
|
| Motherboard: | MS-6163Pro/Asus P3BF |
| Processor: | Pentium
!!! 450 SL37C (FPO/Batch#:9940207) |
| RAM: | 128MB Mitsubishi PC100 SDRAM |
| HD: | IBM Deskstar 22GXP 9.1GB |
| Operating System: | Windows 98 SE |
| Video Card: |
Voodoo3 2000 |
| Other cards : | Promise Ultra66 IDE Controller |
I managed to run only CPUmark99 and FPU Winmark tests on the MS-6163Pro. I couldn't get anything else to run on that motherboard as it didn't like the Voodoo3 video card. The Voodoo3 kept displaying garbage on the screen and the system hanged whenever any video intensive tasks were undertaken. However, other cards like the Creative Riva TNT or even the Creative GeForce 256 was problem free. This is really an issue that Microstar should try to tackle. We have already informed MSI of the problem, and only time will tell if they could come out with a fix.
Surprisingly, the Asus P3BF handled the Voodoo3 very well, and I managed to run Winstone 99 and 3D Mark 99 Max on the Asus P3BF system. Here's a comparison between the Pentium !!!-600 and the Pentium !!!-450 (overclocked to 600MHz).
ZDNet WinBench 99 and Winstone 99 benchmarks
(o/c 600MHz)Wintune 98 1.0.39 benchmark
(o/c 600MHz)140.1365
* benchmarks were performed on the Asus P3BF motherboard.
As you can see from the ZDNet benchmark scores above, the 133MHz P!!!-600 is only slightly faster than the 100MHz FSB version. The Winstone 99 scores are pretty close and it is pretty hard to tell if there's any direct benefit in using a 133MHz FSB, since both tests were performed on different motherboards.
In the Wintune benchmarks, the overclocked P!!! was a little slower. This doesn't really make much sense since the overclocked P!!! should be a better performer due to the increased bus speed. I'm really beginning to doubt Wintune's benchmarking accuracy. Anyway, we can safely say that the overclocked P!!!-450 is just as good as (or better than) the 600MHz version.
What are you waiting for?
This baby is now available exclusively at Marketplace. The three of us (Jackie, Jereme and me) loved it so much, that each of us bought one for ourselves, and all of them could reach 600MHz (only one of them needs 2.05V to run stably). If Caesar was around, he would have said, "I came, I saw, and I bought it!". So, drop your books and go to SLS right now and get one for yourself, while stocks last. We only know that Marketplace carries this new batch of stock. We're not sure if you can find it elsewhere, but if you spent too long looking for it, you might just miss this golden opportunity. Now, don't say I didn't warn you. :)
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