Written: 10/22/2000
Written by: MotoŽ
Introduction:
I'm sure we've all heard stories about the horrors of overclocking. How it blows up CPUs and destroys the components inside your computer. Neither Intel nor AMD supports overclocking or overclockers. You will lose your warranty if you overclock your CPU. Lots of people ask me is the risk of overclocking worth it? My reply has always been "In most cases, you are not really overclocking your CPU at all." Let me explain.
A friend of mine recently built a new computer for his dad. He wanted to give his dad a non overclocked system. His plan was to use PC-133 RAM and a 133Mhz FSB Pentium 3-800EB CPU. His first mistake was his choice of motherboards (well, I guess you can say his first mistake was not talking to me before he went out and purchased all this stuff).
He chose a BX chipset based Abit BX133-RAID motherboard. He didn't realized that when running at 133Mhz front side bus, the BX chipset is overclocked as will be his AGP video card. So just by running his CPU at stock speed, he still had an overclocked system! However, that was not what really ticked him off.
What really set my buddy off was when I told him his P3-800EB was nothing more than a P3-600E and that he could have saved himself $135 Canadian by getting a 600E instead. Of course he claimed that then the 600E would be "overclocked". What he didn't know and I'm sure what many people don't know is that the Pentium III 600E and the Pentium III 800EB are THE SAME THING. Don't believe me? Read on and I'll prove it to you.