Overclocking the Pentiums (coppermine and celeron II), it’s easy! (General Comments on Processors)

Member Name: Amiteo

Product:	General Comments on Processors
Date:	22/09/00 (448 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Faster processor for a cheaper amount

Disadvantages: Need some time and effort, need to buy other harware carefully

Want the faster processor, but at a no extra cost? Silly question really, but it really is easy. Previously overclocking has always been thought of as some sort or mysterious voodoo art as people pushed their Pentium 133 right up to 150Mhz.

Well, in the modern day the gains are potentially much larger. The coppermine, one of intel’s new range and also the celerons can be overclocked in a matter of minutes if you have the right hardware.

Obviously if you don’t like playing with the innards of your computer then this ain’t for you, but believe me, contrary to popular belief your computer won’t explode if you take the casing off and if the overclocking doesn’t work you chip won’t melt immediately; it’ll just lock up to start with (at which point to switch the computer off and reset the bios and try again).

The tools of the trade are a good motherboard which good options on changing the fsb in small increments up to 150Mhz and a voltage adjust option, good RAM (PC133 is recommended), and a chunky fan for the processor – oh and of course the processor itself.

I use an Abit BE6-II board - though the VIA Apollo series are better as they allow you to use an AGP graphics card without pushing it too much – a P600E, some PC133 RAM and a Globalwin VNS04.

Overclocking works by changing the fsb, and as the multiplier on the processor is locked you multiply the two together to get you computer speed. For example, the P600E is locked at 6.0x and fsb is 100 as standard; i.e. the speed is 600MHz. Now by pushing the fsb up to 133 the speed becomes 6.0 x 133 = 800MHz – not bad eh?

Of course it runs hotter, hence the better cooling fan (there are many UK distributors of overclocking supplies now – try www.overclockers.co.uk). Sometimes it takes a bit of tweaking of voltage or fan placement or fan seating, but it really isn’t much of a hassle for what should
easily be a 33% increase in speed. My 600E can actually run at 842 – but I run it at 800 with a modest fan – it’s more than enough for me at the moment, let’s not be greedy!

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