Wrapping It Up
If you're looking for the best Celeron to
overclock, then you can stop looking. The Celeron 366 SL36C is it. I haven't
seen a CPU overclock this well since the first Celeron 300a and the SL2W8
P2-300.
AMK LAN0334 17" Case
It takes a lot more than just slapping on a
big heatsink to the Celeron to make it run at 605Mhz. You have to look at the
air flow inside the case very carefully. Luckily
AMK Services took care of that problem with their new LAN0334 17" case.
This case was designed for overclocked LAN
party systems. Nice and small and easy to carry to LAN parties. It comes with
4.75" "blow hole" on the side to bring cool air in. There is a 3" chimney fan
blowing out and another 3" fan on the back blowing out. Add the power supply fan
which also blows out and you got over 108 cubic foot of air moving though the
system every minute. The case is worth every penny and it looks damn cool to
boot. Look for a complete review soon.
The question you should ask is do you take
your chances and just pick any Celeron 366 SL36C up or should you buy a
pre-tested CPU? From the results I got I would say stay with the pre-tested
CPUs. Of course even with a pre-tested CPU you might not be able to get 605Mhz
like I did. Most vendors only test their C366 to 550Mhz. You are still taking a
chance. However having 550Mhz as a base to start from is better than 366Mhz.
The only way to get a pre-tested CPU is by
buying them from vendors who sell pre-tested chips or finding a vendor that will
let you test the chip before you buy. Pre-tested chips always command a higher
price but the little extra you have to pay is more than worth it. In my case,
the pre-tested chip went all the way at 605Mhz and even POST at 682Mhz!
Here is a short list of places that have at
one time claimed to carry Celeron 366 pretested to 550Mhz. You may want to
cruise their sites to verify the information. Also note that, from the few I've
visited, the ones that mention voltage say 2.2 OR LESS at 550. Personally I'd
hate to get one that requires 2.2 volts. All the usual disclaimers apply (I
don't work for them, aren't responsible for them, yada yada). Some of these
have waiting lists and some claim to have them in stock
Another good method is to find out the week
that a good CPU was made. As you saw from my testing, the week 21 Celerons did
way better than the week 18 Celeron. Since both week 21 Celeron made it to
605Mhz, there's a good chance that another week 21 celeron can also do 605Mhz.
Overclockers.com has a nice database of CPUs listed by weeks and S-Spec. You
can use that to help you find the good weeks. Then it's just allot of calling
around to computer store asking if they have that CPU in stock.
You can buy Celeron 366 in prices ranging
from as low as $79 and up. Pre-tested CPU will command as much as $125. Still
this is a lot better than paying over $400 for Pentium 3-500 :-)
Find The Best Prices For Celeron 366
