Is it possible to overclock a p2 450 on an

[surferpop]

intel 440bx chipset? Dell says no but
I'd really like to hear from some of the
very knowledgeable people who frequent
this board. If it is possible,what do I need
to do?

[ALBPM]

Hi surferpop,

I bet ya we have the same system - XPS R450

I have the SE440BX motherboard, probably the same as yours. The fastest processor you can put in this one is a 450. And there is unfortunatly no way to overclock it. But, this Sunday I did successfully put a P3-450 in mine.
Now, DELL's Bios does not contain support for P3's. So you must get the Intel Bios file for the SE440BX board and extract it to a 3.5" disk per Intel's instructions.
I had to use the recovery procedure for the Bios flash as outlined in Intel's procedures.
intel.com/design/motherbd/se/se_confg.htm

There is only one set of jumpers on this board. To use the Recovery method just remove the jumper while the system is off. Then put the 3.5" disk in and start it up. You won't get any video support during this phase of the process. You will hear one Beep then see the "A" drive light flashing, then two beeps and see the drive light flasing some more. When it finally has stopped, turn the system off then on again with the 3.5" disk still in the drive and follow the instructions to complete Flashing the Bios. When it boots you should see a nice "Intel Motherboard" logo.
I restarted mine a couple of times to check it and then replaced the PII-450 with a P3-450. It's been running beautifully without any problems since. If you want to try this just email me and I'll help you through it.

Paul

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P3-450, SE440BX, 192MB PC100, MILL G400-32MB on BNC, Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24 on D-sub, 21"Trinitron, SCSI CDR/RW, SCSI ZIP, USR Voice Faxmodem Pro(USB Ext) WN98
and a (Very Messy Desk);oP

[surferpop]

ALPBM,
Yep, I've got an XPSR450,the same mobo and the same amount of ram.
After ordering a Max I'm not sure I want to
buy a new cpu right now but for future
reference I've got a couple of questions.
1)What's the cost of the P3450?
2)Have you noticed any differance in performance? Is it worth the cost?
3)Did you have to change the mounting
and if so where did you get the new hardware?
4)Did flashing the bios effect any of your installed programs?
5)Did you look into changing motherboards
as an alternative?

Thanks for your response and advice.
Steve

[ALBPM]

Hi Steve,

1) I paid $275.00 for the retail P3 450

2)For the most part it runs as fast or a bit faster. As more software is optimized for the SSE intructions there will be a boost in graphics performance. For under $300.00 it has more potential than the PII.

3)I did not change the mounting. The P3 fits snug enough so I haven't done that yet. That would also void my Dell warranty.

4) The only effect I've seen so far is that my system boots a bit faster. It used to fail to boot every 6-7 times and I would have to re-start in safe mode. This hasn't happened since I installed the Intel Bios.

5) I'm thinking about getting a new motherboard since the P3 is very overclockable. But,I'm not sure I'm ready to void my warranty yet.

I just realized that the warranty is almost up on my wife's system and it still has the LX chipset (SE440LX) Hmmmm.. Looks like a new mobo for the P3 may happen sooner than I thought.

Paul

[M Ragsdale]

Hey Paul,
When you chunk that LX board, make sure you get yourself the finest board out there bar-none-->the PCChips board.
Matt

------------------
Is this some kind of bust?
Yes, it's very impressive.

[chuck]

forgot my sig

[This message has been edited by chuck (edited 07-21-99).]

[chuck]

M Ragsdale-> that may be the meanest thing I've ever read!
chuck

ps surferpop, get an ABit BH6. You'll be glad you did.

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(erswhile cjolley) celery 333@500mz 2.2V, 64meg@cas2, 10gig IBM 7200rpm UltraStar, Princton EO75, $15 sound card(!),V3 2000 PCI (still waiting on my MAX!)

[Guyver]

Yo! www.pricewatch.com - lists PIII-450 @ $226 + $10 shipping (US Dollars)

Go with whatever motherboard you feel most comfortable. Everyone has their favorite for their own reasons. Some like ASUS, some like ABIT, some like Intel (not sure why though )

Personally - I like the ABIT line - but they have their own quirks... BX6 R2 - not stable at or above 133 without some tweaking or disabling L2 cache. BE6 - limited number of units that reset voltage disregarding BIOS settings, to 2.0V. Otherwise great boards....


------------------
Running an ABIT BX6 R2, PIII-450 @ 581Mhz, 128MB (64x2) PC100SDRAM (running @ 129), Matrox Mystique G200 8MB, SBLive! Value, Adaptec AHA-2940UW (Dual Channel)
All kinds of other SCSI and ATAPI goodies....
-------------
Waiting for my G400Max Impatiently, increasing system performance to give it a good home.....

[ALBPM]

Don't worry Chuck. Matt said that because he swears at - I mean by PC Chips boards

Paul

[M Ragsdale]

Like I said in another post, I just swear anyways. Swear, Swear, Swear, Swear! PCChips...isn't that a new brand of Doritos?
Matt

------------------
Is this some kind of bust?
Yes, it's very impressive.

[Wombat]

Why are you guys so hard on PCChips? What could you possibly have against a company that sold motherboards with fake L2 cache?

Wombat

[Steve C]

And even NOW, if you disable the L2-cache on any PCChip mobo, it will STILL say that there IS cache installed on the mobo....
I could list out everything wrong with PCChips from my experience if you really want.... might kill this forum again though!

Cheers,

Steve

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Yeah, you know the score...
(ICQ: 29468849)