OK, Alfie, RAB and Paul...you got me into this!

[RAB]

Time to get out the drill!! On the side of your case, directly above your CPU, drill several ventilation holes. If you are careful, you can put them in a tasteful pattern that has some WAF. Make it look like a little speaker grill. This will allow the main fans to draw in air right next to the CPU and maybe that will get enough cooling to keep the case on! Just take the case off before you drill the holes. CPU's don't work as well with holes in them.

RAB

[Bixler]

Oh God! I knew you were gonna say that! While we're at it, I could run a little duct-work out of my refrigerator, through the attic and down into my case.

I'll come up with something and let you know.

[Bixler]

Well, I said I'd let you know, and I haven't. You evil gamers will be disapointed to know that I've returned to my senses, and allowed my poor orphan K6III to operate at a more stately and measured pace.

She was stable at 95fsbX5 & 2.8v core, but I couldn't figure out a way to explain to my wife of 27 years why in the hell I needed to start drilling on my case.

(Well, that and My DVD wouldn't act right)

So I've dropped her back down to 95x4.5 case on and stable with a 2.6V core. I did find an interesting use for one of those card coolers, which is why I could finally put my case back on. I Bent the bracket and mounted it Right at the very top of my ATX Mid tower case, and it sucks just enough air rising from the Alpha cooler so that I'm OK.

If I ever really NEED the speed, I know what to do. It was an interesting adventure, but I'm my adult, mature self again. BWAHHHHAAHAHAHAH (Not!)

[RAB]

Congrats Tim!! 427mhz is quite sensible for a K6-III. That ought to keep you going for a year or so. So when are you getting the 21" monitor? Just kidding, we don't want you getting too satisfied with your computer. What fun is that?

RAB

[Alfie]

Hey Tim,
Here's a cooling device that will help you out!
http://www.2coolpc.com/2coolpc/index.html


[This message has been edited by Alfie (edited 19 February 2000).]

[Bixler]

Alfie:

You're kidding, right.

If I can't explain the metal shavings and drill (in our den) to my wife of 27 years, how'm I gonna justify this? Hehehe!

Putting the case back on, I've lowered the decibel level by 20 Db or so in our living space and I think I'd best leave things as they are.

I've bookmarked your link though! (evil grin)

RAB:

There is no such thing as satisfaction. Mfrs. know this. It used to be my bread and butter in audio. May we chase technology forever--the best mission of mankind!!!!!

------------------
AMD K6III 400 @ 426 On a SOYO SY5EMA M/B. Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
CDBurner, Creative DVD, Promise Ultra 66 Controller
two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
Parallel Port Scanner,
All stuffed into a Mid-tower ATX case with no device slots left!

[Jon P. Inghram]

I've finaly dumped my crapy old K6-300 and Gigabyte 586SG, and moved up to a "real" computer! :-)

It's a Epox MVP3G5 and a K6-2 450 running at 500 @ 2.3v with 128 megs of what is supposed to be PC133 CAS2 SDRAM.

Is it unusal for a K6-2 450 to run stable at 550? I had it run FS2K PRO at full detail overnight, and the thing never crashed or got up to the 50c BIOS alarm temp. I had the voltage at 2.4v, 2.3v wasn't stable for more than about 10 minutes.

I've tried just to up the FSB, but something in the system just won't take it. My HD's a Maxtor UDMA66 drive, and I figured that it might be too picky, but the system still wouldn't overclock when I switched back to a UDMA33 cable.

Bye bye!

[Alfie]

Bumped my k6-3 400 to 450,2.7v.Running good so far.
Was unable to do it before due to one lousy fan,thanks to Tim for being the brave one.
May get a better fan and try for a little more!

[Bixler]

Alfie:

Just my own experience, and I know they vary, but my K63 with a 2.4v core spec. was quite stable at 476/2.8v core. Just ran a little hot is all. On my K63 I couldn't hold Windoze for more than 10 min. or so at 2.7v.

The credit for going farther goes to Greebe, by the way, who coached me through the testing on ICQ one night. (Of course he had the courage of playing with MY MONEY, and MY COMP In the midst of testing, I did boot and run with 2.9v, but found more stability at 2.8. (Whew!)

BTW, I was browsing through another thread yesterday (don't remember which) and someone posted that K6's respond better to O/Cing when they are 'burned in' at higher core voltages for a while. Is there anything to that?? Sounds odd to me.

[Wombat]

Bixler,
my old K6-2/350 was a 2.2v core, but I eventually got it up to 400@2.4v. That wasn't stable initially, but after keeping the CPU at full load for a day or two at 2.5v, it was happy at 2.4v.
Greebe and I disagree on this all the time. I offer no explanation, and try only to present the facts of my particular situation. I know how those gates work, and the higher voltage should shorten their life, but I don't know what's going on in there, apparently.

[Bixler]

This is getting interesting!

As things stand right now, I'm far more stable (having now dropped back down to 428/2.6v) than when I was first testing with these exact same settings (I can now keep my case on ), and the only difference is that I ran the old girl 24/7 at 476/2.8v for about two weeks.

Of course, I had no inkling or intention to be 'burning in' anything, but I can only say that I'm having the same experience. (I think)

Of course, it could be my imagination too.

[RAB]

I was hoping burn-in would help my K6III-450 2.4volt, but alas, nothing. I still can't get it to boot at 500 even at 2.8 volts and I've had it now for nearly five months. This should be plenty of time to "burn-in". On my other computer, I've had a K62-350, 2.2 volt for two years and can still only get 400 at 2.4 volts (which is OK), the same as when it was new.

RAB

[Alfie]

Right now I only have a cheap but cool heatsink with two small fans on it,it seems to be doing a decent job,however.
With a standard heatsink and fan the 400mhz ran at an average temp of 110F(2.2v),with this new fan setup it runs at an average of 107F,overclocked to 450mhz.(2.7v)
Perhaps Rab could check on his Epox board and see what temp reads he gets.
I think I've reached the highest it will go with current heatsink,but I'm working on different cooling solutions and will keep you posted!
Now on to my new g400!
Does anyone have ideas for best drivers,etc.?

[Wombat]

RAB,
I had the same result with my 350@400. As for the 450, the 2.4v models are very bad overclockers.

[RAB]

Heat is not the problem. I don't have an Alpha, just an oversized single fan heatsink. But before I lost one case fan (bummer) the 450 was running 43C (110F) at 450 and stayed well under 50C no matter what I did trying to get it to overclock.

I probably need better memory as my PC100 is really just that - it won't go over 100mhz FSB. Even 4x112 will not work, but 4.5x100 runs for days without problems. (Does that sound familiar, Tim?) But 5x100 won't work either. Oh well, memory is getting cheap again, so maybe I'll get some PC133 soon and try again.

RAB