P3 Celeron

[bonestonne]

ok, so i'm not exactly worried about this little system anymore, i used to baby it along, but since i have a technically faster PC upstairs that i can use, and spare processors to use, i was wondering if it would be a fun little project to take out and store my 1.1GHz celeron, and put in a 1.0GHz P3 and OC it. it uses the 370 pin socket, 1.75v...

it says Intel '01 Costa Rica 1000/256/133/1.75V on the top, at the bottom its got a serial number i guess, and Pentium III SL52R under that.

would it be wise to do to my system being as its old? or is it better to leave alone? i just want this thing to be a little faster if i can get that out of it, the nLited XP has worked, but i want to well round my experience with computers if possible.

when done i will be adding a 70mm case fan in the back to blow out the heat, there are vents in the front for intake, but with only two fan controllers on the board, one for CPU and one for case, i don't have many choices...i'll also be swapping the 4500RPM CPU fan for a 4700RPM CPU fan to suit it.

i see this as more of a done for the experience kind of thing, so i'd love to hear some input about the idea and how much performance i can get out of it. i've also got my GeForce FX5200 inside, but thats staying how it is, i'll be needing it in years to come. [i'm a fan of PCI because it uses less power]

thanks for all comments/ideas in advance, and my reason for not using the 1.1GHz processor is because i don't want to kill my best socket 370 for fun.

[jcarle]

Personally, I'd overclock the Celeron instead of the PIII since the PIII 1GHz was one of the jewels of it's generation.

[bonestonne]

ok, i find that reasonable, i have a few 370 socket processors around so its not like i'm killing myself either way, i also have one other PC upstairs which has a 1.4GHz p4, but i don't want to mess that one up, i kinda like it with its 5 PCI slots and 3 5.25" bays, and 3 internal 3.5" bays...its not much, but i got it for free, so i like it a lot. i also have my Xeon Board which i'm on the verge of finishing. a temporary setup for, although it may end up as permanent unless i get a real move on the case.

how am i able to overclock the celeron? i know its max speed is 1600MHz [found that out with Aida32] and i've read a few ways to overclock, but i want to be careful about it [sounds a little like an oxymoron, but i am new to this]

[jcarle]

You just have to go progressively, you can't dammage the processor by running the FSB faster, where the chances for damage can start is when you start raising the voltage. Start by raising the FSB, try something like 145MHz see if it's stable, and keep going up until it's unstable, when it becomes unstable, raise the voltage a little bit to see if it can help the stability.

There's a lot of articles on the net which go into great detail on how to overclock.

[puntoMX]

I would keep the Celeron 2 CPU. When you OC it you won’t get much performance out of it not even when you swap it with a 0.1GHz lower clocked CPU with double the cache. I noticed in the time that I OCed some 600MHZ Celeron 2 CPUs to 1130MHz that the design of motherboard and CPU didn’t gave any, or lets say almost nothing, performance boost. This was on a BX chipset by the way, best ever made chipset for the PII/PIII (ASUS CUBX).

[nmX.Memnoch]

The Celeron 1.1GHz should have the same amount of cache as the PIII 1GHz. Once Intel reached 1GHz with the PIII's they didn't go any higher. Technically, there are higher speed PIII's, but they're marketed as PIII-S (S for server) and have double the cache (512K). At that point, they doubled the Celeron cache to 256K just like the PIII 1GHz and lower CPUs.

[DL.]

The Celeron is running on a 100 MHz FSB, while the P3 is at 133 MHz. With the same amount of cache the P3 would be faster, despite the Celeron's higher clock.

The overclocking possibility depends on the mainboard, make sure the BIOS is updated (sometimes newer versions unlock more options).

By telling us the board name/brand you make it easier to help you.

Overclocking the P3 won't do much unless you can set fixed AGP/PCI clocks, you can only overclock the FSB a few MHz or the AGP/PCI clocks get too high. Since the P3 has a 7.5x multiplier you will only get 1050 MHz on a 140 MHz FSB, which won't make any noticeable difference.

You could try setting the FSB to 133 MHz (with the Celeron) to keep the AGP/PCI clocks at reasonable levels. But be careful, setting it incorrectly might result in data corruption if you're unlucky. The Celeron has an 11x multiplier which will give you 1.46 GHz on a 133 MHz bus (if the CPU can handle it).

Edited January 22, 2007 by DL.

[nmX.Memnoch]

The Celeron is running on a 100 MHz FSB, while the P3 is at 133 MHz. With the same amount of cache the P3 would be faster, despite the Celeron's higher clock.

No doubt. But starting with a 100MHz bus could give him more head room for overclocking. If he manages to reach 133MHz FSB on the Celeron it'll be faster than the PIII at 140MHz FSB.

bonestonne: What motherboard is in the system?

Edited January 22, 2007 by nmX.Memnoch

[DL.]

No doubt. But starting with a 100MHz bus could give him more head room for overclocking. If he manages to reach 133MHz FSB on the Celeron it'll be faster than the PIII at 140MHz FSB.

Yes indeed, it sure will.

[puntoMX]

The Celeron 1.1GHz should have the same amount of cache as the PIII 1GHz. Once Intel reached 1GHz with the PIII's they didn't go any higher. Technically, there are higher speed PIII's, but they're marketed as PIII-S (S for server) and have double the cache (512K). At that point, they doubled the Celeron cache to 256K just like the PIII 1GHz and lower CPUs.

yeah you are right, but I never saw the non "S" versions in Holland altrough (as OEM/retailer versions (IPI)) Compaq-HP some times had diferend CPUs, like the Slot 1 900MHz PIIIs. Even the 1100MHz PIII(S) were hard to get, just with the Turion core witch needed a modefied mobo or one that was made for the Turion...

[DL.]

@puntoMX:

Don't you mean Tualatin, not Turion?

And yes, some of them were hard to get.

[puntoMX]

DL.,

Yeah Tualatin indeed, thanx for pointin me. I think I´m getting old .