DDR for Pentium III: 10 Boards with VIA Apollo Pro 266

Overclocking: Fixed Clock Multiplier

It's common knowledge that the majority of Pentium III and Celeron processors have a lock on their multipliers, which, unlike AMD processors, cannot be unlocked. The only possibility of overclocking this kind of CPU is to pump up the front side bus.

Two prerequisites must be met in order to overclock a P3 successfully and painlessly - the FSB should ideally be adjustable in increments of 1 MHz. In addition, increasing your CPU core voltage in small increments of 0.05 volts keeps your system more stable. Although Asus has a good reputation for stability and capability when overclocked, when compared to the other test candidates you can see that the Asus CUV266 we tested does not offer increments of 1 MHz for the entire FSB range. The range remains, however, very large - it reaches from 66 MHz to 202 MHz. Don't take the last number too seriously, though - this setting is only interesting in theory and would violate all the laws of electrical engineering.

The Chaintech CT-6VJD, the Shuttle AV30 and the Soyo SY-7VDA are good overclocking candidates, since they meet all the criteria for 1 MHz FSB and the CPU core with 0.05 volt increments.

Test Configuration