Overclock Warehouse System Bundle
Overclock Warehouse System Bundle

OverclockWarehouse also sent us some memory, that deserves a look at. I didn't have any standard PC133 available in-house in time for this review, so no head to head comparison against my favorite Corsair PC133 was possible. Take a look at the specs!!

More on how far I got with FSB later, but running this stuff at 133, CAS2, and fastest timing was a piece of cake. One area of a system build you can really go wrong on is choice of memory. Prices do tend to vary, but in my view, it's always best to pay the bucks and get what works. SDRAM is not an area to trim the budget IMHO. This stuff isn't as cheap as good standard PC133, but it's really got the headroom to take you farther than most PC133 I've tested can go. Not a lot of places will guarantee PC150, and not a lot of memory will run at CAS2 at 166mhz!

Intel's Pentium3 700 FCPGA represents, at this point in time, the "sweet spot" CPU for the Intel CPU overclocker. With Intel's CPU's having multiplier locks (and it appears they are on their way for AMD) all overclocking is done via FSB. The now "cb0" stepping cores, which are currently the cores of choice, appear to have a ceiling of around 1Ghz, perhaps a tad more. The P3-700 runs with a 7x multiplier, on a 100mhz FSB (math even I can handle). By pumping FSB to 133, you can theoretically get this CPU to 933mhz, and on the VIA and i815 chipset boards, do so and leave AGP/PCI and memory bus clocks within specs. With any of the faster P3's (750+) you are apt to run into the chips thermal limits by running them at 133FSB. Indeed 3 of the P3's above 700 (some of the 800's, the 866, and the 933) are already at 133FSB, so there's little room to gain, and of course those are all much more expensive than the 700. With the right components, getting a cb0 stepping P3-700 to at least 933 is supposed to be a good bet. Let's take a look at one more piece of the puzzle, before we go see how I did. One of the most important pieces, the CPU heatsink.

Alpha is a respected manufacturer of heatsinks. Included in my bundle of goodies from OverclockWarehouse was an Alpha FC-PAL 35, essentially a repackage of their  PEP66, with tiny plastic feet for compatability with the FCPGA CPU's. This Alpha lives up to the task of cooling this P3. Believe me, you don't want any pesky OEM sink when you're trying to overclock a CPU. The heatsink comes topped with a Sanyo/Denki 60MM fan, rated at 26CFM, which is quite good for a 3800rpm low noise fan. All in all, this is a heatsink that should be up to the challenge.

Finally! Glad we got done with all that stuff aren't you! :)

Next page: Putting it together

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