Lets try this question instead...

[rumble07]

Not many responses to my previous question so I'll try another angle here. I will be using the Abit SA6R mobo. I may look to do a conservative overclock. I'd really like to have 1GHz performance without buying a 1GHz cpu, so what PIII should I buy, that with conservative overclocking, would attain or surpass the 1GHz mark. I don't know much but I assume a 933EB would easily do that, but how low could I go without really having stress my system to get to 1GHz?

 

[Thalasi]

Since you want a conservatively overclocked processor I would suggest you go with the P3 933eb. The stepping on that guy is 7 so you would have to run a FSB of 143MHz which would equate to 1001MHz. Having the 866 O/C to 1007MHz is an overclock of 13% where as having the 933 O/C to 1001MHz is only a 7% overclock. The 1GHz mark is attainable with the 866(using a FSB of 154MHz) but since the price difference between the 866 and the 933 isn't too much I would go with the 933.

 

[rumble07]

Thanks Thalasi. I guess I would better to go with a 'boxed retail' version as well right? Seems to me I saw on here or elsewhere that they generally overclock better than OEM..something to do with having to pass more stringent quality control tests because of the full warranty given with retail.

 

[Thalasi]

Yeah, the boxed retail version would be the one to go with, it is what I purchased. Plus it comes with the fancy Intel HSF which performed quite well even when my P3 was overclocked.