Can I upgrade/overclock my processor?

[Shawn780]

My cpu is a HP desktop, and my processor is an Intel Pentium II, it's clock speed is measured at 300mhz. I was wondering if I could upgrade or overclock this manufactured processor? With what, and where would I get it? The reason why I want to inquire about this is because I am too cheap to buy a new system, mainly because of college. If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it a lot. THANKS!

Shawn

[pentachris]

Hi Shawn, and welcome to the forums.

I would recommend against overclocking for two reasons. First, you asked. Overclocking is both tricky and risky - unless you know what you're doing, don't. I think other knowledgable regulars here will back me on this. Second, it's an HP. Not that that's necessarily bad by itself, but overclocking is best done on i-built-it systems with components chosen for their ability to stand up to the extra strain. In particular, a "hobbyist" motherboard, like an Asus or Abit.

Can you upgrade? Probably, yes - to a slightly faster PII, AMD K6-2, or possibly even a K6-3. A little more system info (like the motherboard or HP model #) is needed to know for sure. How much difference will it make? Probably not enough to make it worth it, to be honest, but go ahead and post back that add'l info and we'll see.

You'll come out better, I think, by taking your RAM up to 128 MB if it's not already there, and doing the little maintenance chores if you're not already (don't load more than you absolutely need on start-up, clean your hard drive of files you don't need, defragment, etc).

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[Shawn780]

First off thank you for replying. My model # is 8276. Could be possible if I did decide to go through with this, that Best Buy, who sells Chips, will install it for me, or no? Also, what kind of results would I get it? By the way I installed some more DIMMs, to max myself up to 256, that seemed to help somewhat, I mean you can not go wrong with getting more memory, because its pretty cheap. Thank you, I hope the further information will help you.

[mjc]

HP is a proprietary machine, so your chances of even being able to atempt overclocking are slim to none...

As to the processor upgrade, unless you can double your current speed you probably will not see all that much of an improvement. Information on the specifics of your motherboard will be hard to come by, so unless there is any info as to what processors you can use on HPs site you may be kind of stuck.

Anyway, what are trying to use this machine for?

You said you have maxxed out your RAM, what else have you done?

A new video card may make more improvements than a new processor, what do you have in the way of video, currently? If you have onboard video almost any kind of video card will make an improvement.

If you have onboard sound an actual sound card may make an improvement.

Don't try anything newer than Win98se on that machine, you are border line for XP and ME probably won't get along very well with your hardware.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[pentachris]

I think this is going to be a bit of a disappointment - you're not going to be able to get a cpu much faster than the one you've got in there already.

From the HP support page for your system's class:


The motherboard currently supports processors that run internally at 233 - 333MHz


Your front side bus speed is 66 mhz. To get much faster of a cpu than you've got in there you need a fsb speed substantially faster.

In addition to being a risk to overclock, HP systems (and Gateway, and Compaq, and other ready-built, low price, big name systems...) often use motherboards that aren't easy to upgrade with.

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[hiredgoonz]

ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ADVICE MAY DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER, IT IS GIVEN ONLY WITH THE CAVEAT THAT YOU TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.

Since it sounds like you've decided to give it a shot, I'll try to give you some more information.

Your P2 is one of the 66mhz front side bus (fsb) P2s. They made those up to, I think, 333mhz for desktops (for laptops they went up to 400mhz).

To overclock a chip you can do two things: change the multiplier or change the fsb. Beginning with the 100mhz fsb P2s (the 350,400,450), Intel locked the multiplier on their chips. Your chip should be unlocked, but set at 300mhz in the BIOS.

You could try to change the multiplier by enetering the BIOS and changing the multiplier to a higher setting. (right now your chips is set at 66x4.5=300) Changing the multiplier to 5 would bump the speed to 333, 5.5, if available, would make it 366. (chip speed is determined by multiplying the fsb by the multiplier)

This is the "safe" way to overclock. Changing the multiplier does not overclock the pci or agp busses, and as long as you don't change the voltage, there is almost no risk of hurting the chip this way. (actually, I don't think there's ANY risk, but there's a chance in everything)

If the chip runs at 333, then you can try it at 366. If it fails at 333, then you're probably out of luck. Your chip may not run any faster than 300mhz. That is the speed it was rated at by Intel and the only speed it is guaranteed to work at. If it won't boot at these settings, change it back to 66 x 4.5 and you should be fine.

The other way to overclock is trickier, especially with an OEM board. Do you know what chipset it has? If it is the BX, then you may be in luck. It is possible that even your chip (which should be unlocked) will not allow you to change the multiplier successfully.

The alternative, raising the fsb, may be your only chance. The board, if it is a 440BX, will allow fsb settings of 66 and 100. There are two ways to change the fsb. The first is easy. When you're in the BIOS, it may allow you to choose fsb/multiplier combos with a 100mhz fsb (like 3.5*100, 4*100, 4.5*100) if so, and if you have pc100 ram, then you can try these settings.

Of course, if the multiplier won't change properly, then your only option would be 4.5 x 100 = 450. It is unlikely that your chip will run at 450mhz. Even setting the fsb to 100 on a BX board will not overclock the pci and agp devices since it will adjust the divider accordingly.

So the bottom line is that you may have some options for overclocking, but the potential for speed gains over 366 or maybe 400mhz are slim. If the BIOS does not allow you to select 100mhz bus speeds, but you have a 440BX, there is still a way to set the system to run at 100 mhz. Follow this link:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/98q2/980514/index.html

The reason you can overclock a chip is generally the result of "binning" of chips. Say AMD has a particularly good wafer run at their fab. All the chips will run at 1500mhz (just a random number) AMD still needs to fill consumer demand at different speeds and prices. Not everyone will buy the fastest chip because of the higher cost. So AMD has to underbin the chips, marking and selling them as slower CPUs even though they are physically identical to chips marked and sold at higher speeds.

You may be in luck since you have a 300mhz P2. If it came off a good run, it may be capable of 333mhz, but was marked as a 300 due to market conditions. If you bought it when there were mostly 333 and 366 chips on the market, your chances may be better that you could overclock the chip.

Of course, 33mhz won't net you a whole lot of performance. If you are lucky enough to be able to run the chip higher than that using a 100mhz fsb, you may notice a performance increase in certain applications, but you need to make sure you have pc100 ram. PC66 may run at 100mhz, but if it won't, then you'll never know if system instability is the CPU or ram.

And again, running a CPU at a higher speed than what is was rated at can damage it, so any modifications are at your own risk.

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

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[pentachris]

hiredgoonz: thanks for posting. I've read some of the info in your post before, but don't know it well enough to explain it as well as you did. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

As for his ability to go to 100 mhz, I found his mobo info when I looked up the model number on the HP site. I still have it on my notepad "scratchpad" session for today...

D5302-69002 (Jupiter) SYSTEM BOARD 440LX/AB (66) ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 2X

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[This message has been edited by pentachris (edited 04-23-2002).]

[hiredgoonz]

LX, huh? Well, so much for a 100mhz fsb...it may very well run at 333, but that's not going to see a big performance jump...

I hadn't looked the board up, thanks

------------------
When all else fails, read the instructions.

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo)

Drivers (http://www.driverguide.com)

Google (http://www.google.com)

[Shawn780]

Since, It appears that overclocking is not going to be all that rewarding, however someone recommended a new video card, what's one of the better one's out there (more bang for the buck)? I use this computer for just basic stuff right now, although next year I'm going to be enrolling in some multimedia production and programming classes.

[hiredgoonz]

For multimedia and programming CPU speed is more a factor than the video card. More for multimedia though, programming shouldn't be too bad on a 300mhz system.

Have you looked into Evergreen CPU upgrades? Try
http://www.evertech.com/

------------------
When all else fails, read the instructions.

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo)

Drivers (http://www.driverguide.com)

Google (http://www.google.com)

[Shawn780]

Thanks for that site, it looks like it could really help me. Goonz, do you think I should a new video (graphics) card, because the one I have now is the one my puter came with. Also what about a new hardrive, to store some of the media files that I might come across?

[pentachris]

Have you looked inside and seen an actual video card? Unplug the power, take off the case, and look at what the monitor cable plugs into. Is it a card that slides into a slot? The way I read the mobo information, the video it came with was integrated...

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[hiredgoonz]

As long as you have 4 or 8mb of video memory, you should be ok for what it sounds like you'll be doing. Actually, your system should be ok for everything you have mentioned. I wouldn't spend the money unless you need a bigger hard drive. Save your money and buy a new system when you need one...in the long run, it's probably cheaper than trying to do a massive upgrade of the one you have.

I do a fair amount of my programming and photo editing on the P2 266 laptop that I keep in the living room. That way the wife doesn't have to search for me upstairs. To be honest with you, for programming there is almost no difference (except when compiling) between the laptop and my 1500mhz AthlonXP. When you're just writing code, you're basically word-processing. For photo editing, there's a bigger difference, but I don't edit my huge files on the laptop, so it's not a big deal.

------------------
When all else fails, read the instructions.

Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;rid;kbinfo)

Drivers (http://www.driverguide.com)

Google (http://www.google.com)