Pentium 4 - Adventures In Over-clocking
Pushing the limits with the help of Asus' P4T i850 Motherboard

By Dave "Davo" Altavilla
12/11/00
 

   

 

 

We might as well just let this fly without too much explanation. 

 

Over-clocking The Pentium 4
Who would have thought we could be running a 1.7GHz. processor in the year 2000

 

CPUID and Boot-Up Verification - Click images for full view

 

 

 

 

With the Front Side Bus set to 133MHz. and the multiplier at 13X, the "Quad-Pumped" P4 bus is running at about 532MHz.   We were shooting for the highest CPU clock speed we could hit and boot with stability.  Since we have an unlocked CPU, this was the best setup we could achieve.  However, we were also able to hit a 15X115MHz. FSB for a total of 1.725GHz. and left the RAM multiplier on "auto" (seen in the BIOS shots on the previous page).  This put the RDRAM clock at 460MHz. which is 60MHz. over spec as well.  This "standard" setup using the "stock" multiplier of a 1.5GHz. P4 at 15X also produced excellent results and stability.  

 

However, our goal was top end CPU clock speed, so we chose to use 133MHz.X13 for a total of 1.737GHz.  At 133MHz. if we left the RAM multiplier at default, we were left with a 532MHz. RDRAM clock, which is too much for any module.  So, we have that set for 3X since the P4T allows this and were right back to 399,  1MHz. off the stock RAMBUS speed of 400MHz.

 

 

Overclocked P4 Benchmarks
1.737GHz. shows its muscle.

 
Here we'll show you some fairly impressive Sandra 2001 scores, at least in our book.
 

CPU 1.737GHz.

Memory 1.737GHz. FSB 532 MHz.QDR

Multimedia 1.737GHz.

 

You won't need an Electrical Engineering degree to know that this is fantastic performance.  Let's move on to something more "real world".

 


3DMark @ 1.5GHz. w/ GeForce2 Ultra @ Stock Speed - 1024X768 16 Bit
 

 

3DMark @ 1.737GHz. w/ GeForce 2 Ultra @ 283/500 - 1024X768 16 Bit
 

 

There you have it folks, a legitimate 10K+ score  on the default 3DMark test.  This should keep us up on top for a while at the MadOnion "Fastest Web Masters" site.   ;)

 

 

 

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