Given: Pentuim 4 506, 2.66 GHz Target: 3.6-4 GHz

[miha2]

Hello everyone, my friend from a country far-away is having slow speeds with his rendering from 3dmax, and I told him that for his money (very little, like $100 for now, later he wants to build a more powerful PC) the best choice will be to overclock his old guy (pentuim 4) to about 3.6-4 ghz. Am I right? So, if I am right, what is the best way to do it?
So, the components given:
CPU : P4 506, 2.66
Mobo : (some basic and cheap) Biostar G33 (something, forgot)
Memory : 2Gb; PC-5300 1 GB, PC-6400 1GB
Cooler : (didn't find much info about this specific, but anyway, think it's okayish) DeepCool Killer Whale (800 - 1800 rpm, 78.31 CFM, 31.8 dB max, copper.) It looks chinese, and couldn't find it at Fry's or NewEgg, but it should work fine, for some time...
PSU : 280W

So, is it overclockable on the given system? How far? And if the motherboard is "dead" I guess he should raise the multiplier, right? And it sholud be what? Like, 100x40? Or 133x30? Or maybe 150x26? Any ideas are welcome. Any comments like "are you crazy to overclock such old cpu" are not. Thank you.

 

[miha2]

anybody?

 

[Snipergod87]

I dont know anything about that cooler, but the system has a locked multiplier, do you will need to raise the FSB, and will probably need to bump up the voltage too, while lowering the FSB: DRAM ratio so the RAM isnt overclocked and makes the system upstable. I dont know if he will be able to hit 3.6 or even 3.0. my P4 540 was only able to hit 3.6 from a stock setting of 3.2.

Every system overclocks differnetly you may want to search for a Pentium 4 Overclocking guide. Alternativly you could find a cheap Core 2 Duo processor for under $100

 

[jitpublisher]

The multiplier is locked, you cannot raise it. You have to overclock this the old traditional way via buss and memory speed. But no matter what you do to this thing, it isn't going to make much difference in the end, it will still be as slow as molasses in winter for what he is trying to do.

 

[miha2]

oh, wow... ok then, i thought it's not locked and he could raise multiplier instead of FSB on his old guy. Thanks for the reply.

 

[miha2]

Best answer selected by miha2.