I had a big pile of spare computer parts lying around recently, so I decided to put them all together and create my first homebuilt system. Surprisingly enough, it works great, but I'd like to push it a bit further. I was thinking of OCing it from 233MHz to 300MHz, but I just wonder, is this too much for a first-time OCer like me to handle? I just need an opinion, that's all.

You probably wont see a huge improvement from 233 to 300. I have 233MHz,266MHz,350MHz and 400MHz PII systems and to be honest the performance difference is pretty small. In the end, the computer is gonna be slow, if its slow at 233 or 300 makes little difference. With that said, we need to know what the motherboard model you have before we know if you can O/C this rig. If its made by Intel, you cant over clock at all. It's always fun to push them and see how fast it will go I suppose, I just haven't been using any of my older computers for the past year, and have lost my patience for them. Mattwizz3 My Super P3 PIII-S @ 1.5GHz 768MB PC133 @ 145MHz 128MB 9550 340/240 Now with a new motherboard and AGP4X!!!

Below is my computers information: Maximum Memory Capacity: 3072MB Currently Installed Memory: 640MB Available Memory Slots: 0 Number of Banks: 3 Dual Channel Support: No CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel CPU Family: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz Model 1, Stepping 2 CPU Speed: 1700 MHz Currently installed memory: 128MBSDRAM, PC133 256MBSDRAM, PC133 256MBSDRAM, PC133 Each memory slot can hold SDRAM, PC133 with a maximum of 512MB per slot.* ******************************************** Pls tell me which memory can i buy from the list below: 512MB Part #: CT64M64S4D75 • SDRAM, PC133 • CL=3 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 133MHz • 3.3V • 64Meg x 64 512MB Part #: CT64M64S4D7E • SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 133MHz • 3.3V • 64Meg x 64 512MB Part #: CT64M72S4D7E • SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Unbuffered • ECC • 133MHz • 3.3V • 64Meg x 72 Many Thanks..cheers regards Ganesh Ganesh Mayan

Lucky for me, it's an ASUS motherboard of some kind (I'll have to run aida16 to get the exact model). But anyhow, it's an early ATX mobo, so it still uses jumpers for the FSB and multiplier. The main reason why I want to overclock it, BTW, is because I've always been curious about overclocking, but I've never found a system with so much OC potential before. I'm not really aiming to improve performance (it already runs great).

The CPU muliplier is locked at 3.5x so changing it will do you no good & I'm reasonably sure that the board has no way to lock the PCI bus at it's default (33MHz). All you can do is raise the FSB from 66MHz to 75MHz...that will put the CPU speed at 262.5MHz & the PCI bus at 37.5Mhz. If your board supports 100MHz FSB, you can try it...that will put the CPU at 350MHz & keep the PCI at 33MHz, but then you have the RAM to contend with. Do you have PC100? "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

How is the multiplier locked at 3.5x? The motherboard manual clearly says that there's a jumper on the motherboard to change the multiplier (even though they reccomend against OCing, but I know that they're just saying that to cover their butts)... Besides, didn't Intel start locking the multiplier with their later chips, like the Pentium 4?

No, Intel started their locked multiplier business with the P2. However, there seems to be quite a few unlocked first-gen P2s (Klamath core) floating around. I have two unlocked Klamaths--a 233 and a 300. It wouldn't hurt to adjust the multiplier just to see what happens. If your P2 is locked, then your system will either (a) fail to POST, or (b) POST, but remain at the 3.5 setting. Watch out! Klamaths are warm-running CPUs (2.8v), so make sure that you've got adequate cooling. Running overclocked, they heat up rather quickly. The creme de la creme of Socket 939: Opty 185 @ 3.2GHz SLI'ed GTS-640s, both flashed to 625/1458/1950 4GB PC3200 Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, X-Fi A8N32-SLI Deluxe 3DMark06: 13896