Overclocking a 233MHz PII

[paulspage]

My old 233MHz PII is starting to show it's age a bit now and I was wondering how overclockable these things are. In some diagnostic program I've got, it says the CPU temperature is 3C. Is this obviously wrong or does it just mean I’ve got a good heatsink and fan? My motherboard is an Intel AL440LX and I have 64MB of 66MHz RAM. Would boosting the FSB to 68MHz make that much of a noticeable difference?

Thanks

[MadCat]

I doubt that small a boost would do much good. The theoretical limit of Intel's older Klamath core PIIs is around 300-333mhz. Without any extra cooling, you should be able to reach 263mhz (3.5x75). And, if your motherboard supports it, you could make it to 290mhz (83.3x3.5) or 300mhz (75x4.0), but for that I would suggest better cooling.

As for the temp: I doubt you have excellent cooling, you either dont have hardware temp monitoring on your motherboard or you are using a program like CPU monitor and you didnt configure the voltages correctly.

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[9503371m]

I've been running my own PII 233 (Philipines SL264) at 300Mhz since February.

If you overclock and fry the chip within a month so what ? It will let you have some fun whilst you wait for that nice new Celeron to get delivered.

[Baloneyflaps]

My old machine was a Klamath PII 266 (SL28L). It wouldn't even overclock to 300 well. It got very hot, and liked to corrupt registries, etc. Go ahead and give it a try though, if it fries just drop in a Celeron 333.

[peterfelgate]

Hmmmm. The Intel Atlanta AL440LX can only run a 66MHz bus. The PII 233, unless manufactured before about Sept 1997, has a fixed multiplier. So you can only run the two at 233, unless you take surgery to the 233 and alter the multiplier (probably not worth the bother). Even a new motherboard would only take the 233 to around 300 at best. Instead of overclocking, try a Celeron for a low cost boost. If you go here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~billselk/al440lx.html

you will find advice as to how to update the AL440LX BIOS (even if it's an OEM version such as from Dell or Sony) and advice as to which slot 1/socket 370 converters will work if you want say a Celeron 466 in this beast...You could then get a new motherboard later to overclock the Celeron it if funds are tight.

HTH