Legendary Celeron 300A overclocked @ +700 MHz

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Sampsa

n00b
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
6
Maybe some of you still remember the legandary Intel Celeron 300A and overclocking it to 450 MHz ;)

I managed to find Abit BE6-2 motherboard and good Mushkin SDRAM memory and planned an overclocking session with dry ice cooling:

cel300_12.jpg


cel300_16.png


cel300_13.jpg


In the end I managed to overclock Celeron 300A to +700 MHz with 2,7 volts and got CPU-Z validation and ran SuperPI 1M, Pifast and wPrime 32M "quickly".

Good memories :D

More pics and details:

http://muropaketti.com/artikkelit/y...sta-me-tulosten-metsastysta-celeron-300alla,4

Here is a list of Celeron 300A results and rankings on Hwbot.org:

http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/pentium_2_celeron_300a_slot_1/
 
Red Falcon

Red Falcon

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Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
11,909
Oh wow, this is so classic.
These CPUs were awesome back in the day; it's hard to believe these were so long ago.

Great job on the OC, definitely [H]ard! :cool:
 
M

mnewxcv

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Mar 4, 2007
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8,908
2.7 volts.... hook it up to the 3.3v rail and see what it can REALLY do. :p
 
Brackle

Brackle

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Jun 19, 2003
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Ahhh I remember having mine to 433mhz playing quake 3 arena on my 3dfx video card...

Those were the days
 
DejaWiz

DejaWiz

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Celeron 300A was the way to go. Much better choice than the $800+ Pentium II 300.
 
C

Celeryman

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Good memories... I love it! This is where my forum name came from though it is often misinterpreted. Lol
 
D

defaultluser

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Jan 14, 2006
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Nice, excellent idea to first test the board and memory to the limits with the 180nm P3 600E. I'm sure the Celeron didn't survive for long at the massive voltage :D

I had fun back in the day on my BH6, first overclocking my 300A to 450, and then upgrading to a 533A, which I ran at 896 MHz 1.65v with the bios flash voltage trick.

Good times, got two amazing processor upgrades (each only cost me $120 to buy, compared to $500+ for the equivalent P2/ P3) out of a cheap motherboard! And that was important, because I was a cash-strapped undergrad at the time, so gaming was a relatively expensive hobby to have :D

That overclocked 533A was beefy enough to last me through the end of school, and then I could afford to play with Athlons and high-end cooling. But I've never lost my budget-minded approach - I've only once paid more than $200 for a CPU, and that was the awesome Athlon 64 x2 3800+
 
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S

Sampsa

n00b
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Jan 20, 2006
Messages
6
RazorWind said:
Couldn't have said it better myself. How long did it run?

Also, did you play any Quake II on it?
Click to expand...

I already did some testing few years ago in 2009 with Vapochill LS single stage compressor cooling and Abit BH6. Back then I was able to run some 3D-tests @ 558 MHz:

Quake II with Voodoo 5 5500:

Celeron 300A @ 300 MHz: 52,8 FPS
Celeron 300A @ 558 MHz: 93,4 FPS

X-20090331191645343250.png


X-20090331191451109205.jpg


X-20090331191346750192.jpg
 
D

Dawill

Limp Gawd
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Mar 26, 2006
Messages
397
Holy crap, it's been over 16years since that cpu came out?!?! I feel old now. I still remember having dual 60mm delta fans on that bad boy. I had to dynamat my case to make the noise level bearable. Oh those were the days.
 
M

MikeRotch

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Aug 23, 2013
Messages
415
the 300A is the first CPU I had that turned me into an "enthusiast". The first CPU I went crazy with aftermarket cooling. Someone remind me, was it slot A, or slot 1?

EDIT: n/m a quick google search edumacated me.

Slot A was for Athlons
Slot 1 was for Intel
 
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D

Doward

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I love that most of the people commenting are nearly 10+ years members of the [H]!

Great memories!
 
P

PeaKr

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Sep 6, 2004
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Good times indeed. O, how the guys used to envy my 3DMark 2001 numbers at the lan parties. Sometimes we never got to game, just overclock and benchmark all night. My Vapochill has been collecting dust for a decade now.
 
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weebling1

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Aug 31, 2002
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That chip got me reading [H]ardOCP in the first place.

I can't believe you STILL have one....and the MB and memory to power one up.
 
JustLong

JustLong

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Impressive.

I still remember driving a hour away with my friend to go pick up his 300A, he was so happy getting 450Mhz out of his cheap little Celeron.
 
D

Deezus

Gawd
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Jan 16, 2001
Messages
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Dawill said:
Holy crap, it's been over 16years since that cpu came out?!?! I feel old now. I still remember having dual 60mm delta fans on that bad boy. I had to dynamat my case to make the noise level bearable. Oh those were the days.
Click to expand...

I had three in my case... You could hear the damn thing running from outside my house.
Those were the days indeed!
 
S

Skud

Gawd
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Sep 4, 2002
Messages
587
Oh man, so many memories!!

I missed the Celeron 366. When it came time to order I was told there was a shortage on them. I ended up having to go with a pair of Celeron 400s in an Abit BP6 and hoped to god that they would both do 600Mhz (6.0x100Mhz). I got super lucky and they did. Beta tested NT5.0 (Windows 2000) and then later on "Whistler" (Windows XP) on that. Used to take a couple nights to download new builds via 33.6k dial-up.

Ah, the Mhz sweats from hoping your new CPU would give a good overclock... Good times.

That machine lasted me a very very long time. I remember being disappointed how unresponsive my next machine, a Duron 700 @900Mhz felt because of the single core.

Good times.....

Riley
 
M

MikeRotch

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Aug 23, 2013
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My profile may only say 1.6 years, I've been been reading [H] for at least 15-16 years, since I was in university.
 
G

Gweenz

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 18, 2003
Messages
1,216
First computer I ever built was a 300a/BH6. Thanks for doing this, cool stuff.
 
S

sean.b

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Dec 9, 2011
Messages
147
be6-II brings back memories, too. i remember oc'ing a p3 800 SL3XR to over 1ghz with dual peltiers, and people coming over to see it. 440bx/seattle-2 ftmfw.

its hilarious and awesome to see a headline like this on the H and its not from the 90's or early 2000's.
 
Ur_Mom

Ur_Mom

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May 15, 2006
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20,647
The reason I made a 'blowhole'. Made a hole in the top with a fan blowing air out. That was my hipster moment.

I was able to hit 464 with stock cooling. Those things were almost guaranteed to overclock. The good old days when you can overclock and see a huge increase in frame rate. Now, it's mostly benchmarks that you see the biggest difference. Not as visually noticeable anymore.
 
H

HARDHEAD

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2000
Messages
253
DogsofJune said:
I loved my BP6. I miss that board. Had a couple of Celery 366's at 500. It was sweet at the time. Enough so that I picked up the VP6 later.





He's right ^^ :)
Click to expand...


VP6 yep loved that board. Primitive water cooling 5 gal paint bucket reservoir and pet store fish tank pump.
 
T

toast0

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Jan 26, 2010
Messages
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My 300a went out of service about 2 years ago :~( failing power supply, small form factor, and it living 350 miles away from me, made it not worth fixing.
 
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