Overclocking PIII 500

[Polski-Krol]

Hey everyone,

Need some help overclocking a DELL XPS T500 system... the cpu is a pentium iii 500 mhz processor and the board is a SE440BX-3. I know it is possible to overclock with software such as softfsb but is it possible to hardware overlcock through a method of covering up a pin on the processor for example. I have KingMax PC133 memory on the way and should be in on monday. Would appreciate any help...

[SolApathy]

what are the details on that PIII 550

[Todd a]

Likely you are looking at a .25 micron P3 Slot1 CPU with 1/2 speed 512MB "on package" L2 memory cache. These things only made it to 600Mhz and even with good cooling and extra voltage 650 was beyond most. Very few made it to 700Mhz. Just see if you can get a Slotket addaptor and a Celeron 1Ghz or something like that. Probably cost you under $100 and really fly. Maybe a new graphics card while you're at it, but I'm not sure if you have an AGP slot. Otherwise you are stuck with something like a GeForce4 MX420 or slower.

[dfgsd]

damn 512mb of cahce....that thing must kick ***.


yea as i remeber early p3s didn't overclock well....probaly not even worth trying

[Polski-Krol]

The processor is a slot 1 100 mhz bus pentium 3 katamai processor... if you need specifics like l2 cache speed information then i dont have that.

[Justintime]

Originally posted by dfgsd
damn 512mb of cahce....that thing must kick ***.

[SolApathy]

-all of the proc info will be silkscreened on the side :þ


ex- 550/512/100/2.0v S1

99201150-0401 Malay
'98 SL3F7

[Dacs]

I suppose that is a Slot 1 processor. You can actually cover the A14 pin to have a default FSB of 133 MHz (though I tried it with my PIII 450 and it didn't work)
I have no idea about your mobo but it may offer some settings on FSB. From there you can tweak it.
It also helps to post the stepping of your PIII 500.
And though it has 512 kb L2 cache, it only runs at half the CPU speed. So a PIII 500 would have a 256 MHz L2 cache.
And FYI, my PIII 450 can go up to 600 without problems (@ 2.20 V).

[Polski-Krol]

Alright guys, here are the specifications...

Processor
------------
Intel Pentium III 500 MHZ
500/512/100/2.0V S1
99110267-0016 MALAY
i '98 SL365

Motherboard
----------------
Intel SE440BX-3
Cypress 149 Clock Generator

Memory
---------
2 X 256 KingMax PC-133 ECC (Is in the mail and I am waiting for it)

Video Card
--------------
Nvidia TNT2

If you need any other info please let me know as I want this thing to fly! Many thank!

[Dacs]

I took the liberty on going to www.overclockers.com and to it's database and I've seen a PIII 500 with the same stepping as yours overclocked at 650 MHz with retail heatsink. So there you go, you might just reach 650 (it is on 130 FSB) with retail HSF.
You can try CPUCool to change your FSB within windows provided the PLL is supported (go to their website and have a look at it)

Good Luck!

I'm not really familiar with the motherboard so I can't say for sure on tweaks regarding your mobo. But maybe others can help on this

[Polski-Krol]

I know the motherboard supports software changing of fsb as I was able to clock it to about 105 fsb before it conked out on me due to my ram being early pc100 memory. Wondering if there is a hardware way of overclocking it... like my covering a few pins or undocumented jumpers... looking at all options available..

[Dacs]

I'd recommend waiting for the memory. Your PC100 memory is keeping you from getting higher. Intel has loooong locked their multiplier so you can only change the FSB.