How big of an increase from FSB increase?

[CharlesWA]

My trusty PIII 450 is running at 4.5x100 as it's supposed to. I can't change that (thanks to Intel and the SE440BX board they made, which has run flawlessly for a good long time now). I can't upgrade to a faster CPU using that baord either (and officially can't run a Celeron on it, though I want to check into that). I'm contemplating moving up to an ASUS P3V4X motherboard (with the PIII 450 for now). That will give me much greater flexibility (bus speeds up to 133 according to the ASUS site, maybe higher un-officially?) as well as future upgradability. Am I going to see any improvement (crusching Seti WU's) if I move things up to, say, 105 Mhz FSB? Obviously if/when I pop something newer & faster in, it'll crunch faster.

The upgrades have to start somewhere... and end (for this round) with the installation of a nice big dual processor G800 this fall.

Charles

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A few computers, some with Matrox stuff...I'll add details later.

[Assimilator1]

Whilst the Asus P34VX is a good board the VIA chipset it uses has slower memory throughput performnace than a BX chipset board.I would say around 10% slower.
http://www7.tomshardware.com/mainboa...308/index.html

So there's a good chance that running 4.5x105 MHZ would actually be a little slower than your current setup.

HOWEVER ,your PIII 450 is a good chip to overclock 4.5x112MHz 504MHz will be a breeze ,& 4.5x124MHz 558MHz is certainly possible.I have even seen posts where people have run those PIII 450's up to the 600MHz area and higher with a good heatsink /fan! (4.5x133 600MHz).
Of course the beauty of the P34VX is that it has a 1/2 AGP divider to keep the AGP bus speed in spec as well as a 1/4PCI divider.
Also you can set the memory bus seperatley from the FSB by 0 ,+ or - PCI speed.
Now with at least 504MHz you should see a small improvement ,with higher options possible.
And yes the P34VX does go over 133MHz ,upto 150Mhz if I remember rightly.

Read this review to find out more
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1199



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I guess I won't recruit for my team here TA

[CharlesWA]

I think I'll be picking up a new board early next week (I'm gone all weekend...). Anybody have any suggestions for a good over-sized heatsink/fan for the CPU (and where to get it on-line)? I think my CPU is a "retail" packaged one, so I'll have to fight with it a bit to get the Intel heatsink off (didn't they rivet the things on?). I can get the board locally for about $120, so if the place with the heatsinks has the board for about that (or less) all the better...save the tax maybe. Same story with a 128 meg chunk of PC133 SDRAM.

I always suspected that my PIII had a few extra Mhz hiding in it...

[This message has been edited by CharlesWA (edited 18 May 2000).]

[CharlesWA]

I've found out how to yank the Intel heatsink/housing off of the PIII retail CPU without destryoing it.

Check out www.3dfxcool.com/install/p3.htm

Is anyone running one of their CPU coolers? They look pretty impressive, especially the Alpha cooler with the Peltier, but I think that might be overkill for my situation.

[Dyre]

3dfx cool is crap.

goto <a href="http://www.2cooltek.com">2CoolTek</a>. They have better prices, more selection, nicer service, and faster shipping! i would suggest a VOS32, thats what i have. Its huge and relativly cheap.

[CharlesWA]

I think I'm going to get the ASUS board locally and then pop the CPU in and make some measurements to make sure that whatever fan/heatsink I get will fit ok (they've got dimensions over at www.3dfxcool.com , but not the best prices).

What does everyone think of the Alpha 3125 cooler? What about it with a Pelitier? I like the looks of the kit at 3dfx Cool. Maybe get their kit (if it's worth it) and get the cooler from www.2cooltek.com/ (and save $8-$10 in the process). Am I just wasting my money if I get one of those at this point (PIII 450 -> ???)

Has anyone run any tests on one board/CPU using the same work unit and incrementing the bus speed to see what it does to SETI computiting time? If not, I might have to see if I can get some time to run that one. Of course that would mean I'd slip a few spots in the standings for those few days... But it might help others tweak their systems a bit more.

[Mr D. Ackerot]

I have a Alpha P3125 on my P!!!450@600 (2.0 V) and it won't even get warm to the touch.

On my AOpen AX6BC the boost of 33% in FSB gave me a decrease in WU time by ~13% (Win98 running the SETI@Home Win 2.04 Client).

[Assimilator1]

Mr D. Ackerot

What WU times do you get?


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I guess I won't recruit for my team here TA

[jms]

Good memory performance makes all the difference.
Here's something from alt.sci.seti:

Don't know if anyone is keeping track or interested... I ran a new
Celeron 2 533a through a couple of seti units. It's running at 824MHz
(8*103) and average time is ~7.5hrs / wu.

[The CPU is running at the default voltage (1.5) and only using a
FCPGA Heatsink / Fan (if you care to know).]

This CPU replaced a Celeron 300a@450MHz which was doing the same units
at 10.5hrs on average. Using the graphical version 2.03 client for
Windows w/ blank screen enabled.

Hope this was useful to someone.

PS. My best times were on QUAD PII XEON System, 450MHz w/ 2MB
Cache... was down to <5hrs per workunit (Each CPU took ~5hrs) in WINNT
using 2.03 CMD Line clients. That ought to tell you how the cache
plays a roll in WU processing. :-)

Kind of dissapointing really...
jms

[CHHAS]

Well, that takes care of my thoughts about a Celeron 2.

I think my next system will be either a Coppermine at really high FSB (150+ MHz) or (more likely) a Thunderbird with DDR ram.

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,HS61 004G ,mar BM 691 , 065@005 iamtaK
BG 31 0234 rotxaM, BG 03 +04 rotxaM

[Mr D. Ackerot]

Assimilator1

My average time/WU this week: ~ 7h 15min

/Daniel

[Brian R.]

In addition to the information in CharlesWA link, it is easy to remove the backplate from the cpu without damaging it. It is reuseable if you simply remove it by compressing the barbs holding the backplate in place and pulling it off the cpu. Also, the stock heatsink/fan from Intel is reuseable if you remove it the way shown in the reference. To reinstall the stock fan/heatsink, use a punch and gently tap the pins back through evenly until all four are inserted the same depth and are bottomed out. (New heatsink paste is necessary also)

[Kruse]

Mr D. Ackerot, I get WU times around 6 hours (from 5.5 to 6.5) on my P!!!450@558 running Win98SE and the 2.4 CLI version.

You should be able to do even better with the somewhat higher FSB (mine is at 124 MHz).

[Mr D. Ackerot]

Kruse:

I’m running Win98 (4.10.1998) and have the last weeks had Access97 running for 4-5h/day, and that shit doubles my WU time.

I have tried the 2.4 CLI version but it won’t retrieve WU

I'll give it another try then I have completed this WU.

Another WU/day that would make me

Edit: Testing the edit function


[This message has been edited by Mr D. Ackerot (edited 23 May 2000).]

[Mr D. Ackerot]

It's working

Lets se if it's faster

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I can't find anything god to put here