Overclocking
(Or how to fry your computer)
Soon after I got my Slot-1 adaptor card and the 1.3ghz Celeron Tualatin installed around winter of 2004, I decided to to try overclocking the Celeron. Well, to first begin; I decided I'd start by increasing the FSB speeds. Most motherboards at that time allow you to adjust your FSB frequency from the BIOS. My board was old however and the frequency was instead adjusted by jumpers on the board. Well, I began acting like a "jerk"
Not knowing any better; I set the FSB frequency jumpers to the highest possible (133mhz) then noticed more jumpers on the board. Well; I also began messing with those which controlled the core voltage. I went from the recommended 1.30 volts to 1.45 instead. All was going well until one night. I was using the computer and thought I'd put it on standby while I ate dinner. Now here is what went wrong; the QS440BX board had a feature in the bios that allowed you to shut off the CPU fan when the computer is put on standby. This wouldn't be a problem with the original 450mhz P3 running at normal speeds but for an overclocked Celeron; it wasn't good...................
I returned to my den an hour later to find a computer that wouldn't wake up and a very strong "overheated electronics" smell. I turned off the computer but it never did turn back on. Fearing the worst, I imediately opened the case up and placed my fingers on the heatsink. You should have heard me yell. The heatsink had gotten so hot that the fan was actually beginning to melt. Both my CPU and board went up in smoke. Ok, so I learned I shouldn't crank everything up to full speed on the first try and that you should always check your settings and watch closely so you'll catch anything that may wrong before it is too late.
This story does have a happier ending though; When I told my friend what happened the next day; he said he had a spare, unused Pentium 4 Motherboard (ECS 848P-A) and gave it to me for free. I went to Fry's Electronics the next day for a 2.4 Ghz P4 and 512 MB of ram. Got home, installed the parts, and had everything working again in time for me to finish an essay for my english class.
Although many reviews say the the 848P-A isn't really the best motherboard and AMDs overclock better than Intels, I still fool around with overclocking although I'm more careful now. The 848P-A allows you to adjust your system bus speed from 200-250mhz. I first pushed my P4 to 2.50 with the stock Intel cooler and it went fine. Currently, it runs at 2.60 (System bus speed set at 217mhz) with a Vantec Aeroflow Heatsink