Want to build a fast, absurdly overclocked system without any hassles? Well, forget those Athlons, T-birds, Durons, VIA or i815/i820 chipsets, or whatever. Go back in time and get a $100 BX chipset motherboard and a shiny new PIII 700 FC-PGA. Why do so many guys kill themselves with all these difficult projects? Here's the recipie I followed:
Soyo SY-6BA+IV BX mobo
PIII 700 SL45Y cB0 FC-PGA
Iwill Slotket II
Alpha PEP66
128 MB Generic Mosel SDRAM
3D Prophet DDR-DVI GeForce
SBLive! XGamer
AOpen HX45A Case with 250W PS
Maxor 15 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
After slowly burning in over about a month or so, I'm now running at 1011 MHz at 1.89V. The Alpha PEP66 and Rain 2.0 keep the CPU cool (current temp 20C), and the GeForce has no problems with the 96 MHz AGP bus even though it's O/C'ed to 150/350. The Mosel is great, running at CAS2 (2-2-2) with the FSB at 144.5 MHz. There are no special drivers required, no incompatibilities with anything, no subpar memory bandwidth, no AGP issues, no nuthin'.
It's almost as if the PIII 700 is alive. I started out at 829 MHz, then moved to 840, 869, 882, 933, 970, and now 1011 MHz. I wait a few days at each setting, and when it's completely stable, I move to the next FSB setting. And, somehow it works at the next FSB! My previous Celeron and Katmai CPUs would reach their limit, and that was that. Maybe you could try for another 10 MHz, but if it was unstable the first time I tried, it stayed unstable. This thing just keeps building up momentum. All with air cooling, no peltiers or water pumps, no blow holes.
The funny thing is that I always kind of resented Intel, and have always wanted to go with AMD. But I'm glad I stuck with those bastards because it sure has worked out better than I ever thought it could.
Oh, and I have to thank this forum for all the good info that comes from all the members here. You can learn alot from the successes and problems of others. We all should share what we've learned from our adventures to add to the collective knowledge base here. I try the best I can to help others because it's the only way I know to thank everybody!
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