Overclocking

The Overclock

After our disappointing experience with the P3-600s, we didn't know what to expect with the P3-700. We tested a couple of P3-800s last month, and they were able to reach 952MHz and 976MHz. We hoped that our 700 would yield similar overclocking results.

We used our usual overclocking equipment: Abit BE6-II, Abit Slocket III, Golden Orb cooling fan, and Radio Shack thermal compound. After punting our stuffed Charmander across the office for good luck, we were ready to overclock.

The P3-700E has a 100MHz FSB and a 7 multiplier. We edged up the clock slowly and eventually got the processor stable at 917MHz (7x131MHz) -not spectacular, but respectable.

Test System

Intel Pentium 3 700E@700MHz (7x100MHz)
Intel Pentium 3 700E@917MHz (7x131MHz)

Abit FC-PGA to Slot-1 adapter
Abit BE6-II motherboard
Apacer 128MB PC133 SDRAM

AMD Athlon 750@750MHz(7.5x100MHz)
Abit KA7-100 motherboard
Apacer 128MB PC133 SDRAM

Western Digital Caviar ATA-66 hard drive

ASUS V6800 GeForce 256 32MB DDR
Driver version: Detonator 5.22

Windows 98 SE

Benchmarks

Winstone99 - Business
Winstone2000 - Content Creation
Winbench99 - CPU Marks
Winbench99 - FPU Marks

SiSoft Sandra2000 - CPU Dhrystone
SiSoft Sandra2000 - FPU Whetstone

3DMark2000 - 800x600x16
3DMark2000 - 800x600x32
3DMark2000 - 1024x768x16
3DMark2000 - 1024x768x32
3DMark2000 - CPU Marks

Quake 3 Retail 1.17- 512x384 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Quake 3 Retail 1.17- 640x480 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Quake 3 Retail 1.17- 800x600 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Quake 3 Retail 1.17- 1024x768 Fastest, Normal, High Quality
Quake 3 Retail 1.17- 1280x1024 Fastest, Normal, High Quality

Nocturne - 512x384x16
Nocturne - 512x384x32
Nocturne - 640x480x16
Nocturne - 640x480x32
Nocturne - 800x600x16
Nocturne - 800x600x32

Notes

We chose to put the overclocked CPU up against the non-overclocked as usual, and we threw an Athlon 750 into the middle of traffic.