PPro Overdrive question.

I've been hearing rumors about it for years. Intel has finally released an overdrive chip for the PPro. Looks great on paper. So, have any of you fellow PPro owners upgraded? I love my 2 1/2 year old PPro, but it's showing it's age, and is a little slow, 15fps, on GPL. Will the Intel overdrive give it a little more life, or should I just live with it and wait for Katmai/Tanner in six months? Thanks Larry

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>I've been hearing rumors about it for years. Intel has finally >released an overdrive chip for the PPro. Looks great on paper. > So, have any of you fellow PPro owners upgraded? > I love my 2 1/2 year old PPro, but it's showing it's age, and >is a little slow, 15fps, on GPL. Will the Intel overdrive give it >a little more life, or should I just live with it and wait for >Katmai/Tanner in six months? > Thanks > Larry

Larry, Honestly, as a former dual PPro user (til my SuperMicro motherboard tried to fry itself), I'd seriously look at building a Celeron 300a or 333a machine. You should be able to get the basic box (case, mboard, 128mb ram, processor) for the $600 that Intel wants for the PPro Overdrive chip - and if you can overclock the Celeron, even better. If you could somehow get the Overdrive for $300, it might be worth it, but you'd get so much more by going to a PII/Celeron - DIMM slots, AGP graphics capability (still not being used in my PII-300), UDMA IDE controllers, just a more modern machine all-around. Rick

The amazing benefit of a p2 overdrive is it is basically a xeon. The ppro was and is an excellent chip because its cache runs at the processor speed, not bus speed as in socket 7 chips or 1/2 processor speed as in pentium 2 chips. So, for whatever the chip costs (I have no idea, probably too much, intel overdrives have always been outrageously expensive) you get a Xeon 333 I believe it is which is probably overclockable at least a smidgeon. What does this mean? Well, since you posted to sim groups, I assume you are interested in games performance. I don't have any numbers but I believe sequential operations, as in a business app more than a game where code is totally dependent on user input, benefit most from speedy and large L2 cache. Basically, if for some reason you would have to buy all new everything to go with a true P2, it's probably just not worth it financially to get the overdrive. If however you need superior business app performance (and I'm not sure if a dual ppro can be upgraded to dual overdrives, which would of course yield the greatest gain) or can get your hands on an overdrive cheaply, it may be something worth considering. Also, remember that the intel overdrives are marked as, for example, 120/133, which means if you are too stupid to change a jumper, you get less performance, even though you paid for more. Note that this is not overclocking, and I'm kind of shocked intel wouldn't explain that the overdrive doesn't give a shit what chip you used to have, but will (to make it easier I suppose) take the current bus speed and run with it. In other words, if you have a ppro 150, tell your computer its a 200 (or at least change the bus speed to 66 or whatever your board supports) before you go with an overdrive...

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>I've been hearing rumors about it for years. Intel has finally >released an overdrive chip for the PPro. Looks great on paper. > So, have any of you fellow PPro owners upgraded? > I love my 2 1/2 year old PPro, but it's showing it's age, and >is a little slow, 15fps, on GPL. Will the Intel overdrive give it >a little more life, or should I just live with it and wait for >Katmai/Tanner in six months? > Thanks > Larry

< Snip > < Snip > My PPro/200 is a totally competent Solaris S/W development workstation and a WIN98 sim-station with 1/4 Gig of parity EDO, Adaptec 3940UW (duel Ultra SCSI), 20 Gigs on 3 fast IBM ultra drives. Fast DATs and CD-ROM, on the second SCSI bus. In anticipation of my next computer, it has recently acquired a Obsidian2 X-24 and a Montego. The only number I can give you is 15 fps in GPL at Nurburgring, with the default five competitors, 1024 by whatever. The Montego set to Digital joystick. It's a smooth 15fps, and I would have guessed higher. But that's probably right, and kind of disappointing. It's not like I'm dropping a Ferrari engine into a rusty Rambler. But, ya' know, $600.00 bucks. If already does a fine job for development. A 333 processor with, as Patrick said, the faster cache currently available on a P2. Anyway, that's my story. Thanks Larry

I have a PPro 200MHz CPU and would like to get a little more out of it. I think the motherboard is an ABit one but I have no idea what the bus speed is - I would guess 66MHz. Are all PPros Socket 7? Can I put an AMD K6-3 and K7 into this board when they become available? I use the machine for *** only and would rather upgrade it than replace everything. Is the Overdrive the last ditch for this box? Paul

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> The amazing benefit of a p2 overdrive is it is basically a xeon. The ppro > was and is an excellent chip because its cache runs at the processor speed, > not bus speed as in socket 7 chips or 1/2 processor speed as in pentium 2 > chips. So, for whatever the chip costs (I have no idea, probably too much, > intel overdrives have always been outrageously expensive) you get a Xeon 333 > I believe it is which is probably overclockable at least a smidgeon. What > does this mean? Well, since you posted to sim groups, I assume you are > interested in games performance. I don't have any numbers but I believe > sequential operations, as in a business app more than a game where code is > totally dependent on user input, benefit most from speedy and large L2 > cache. Basically, if for some reason you would have to buy all new > everything to go with a true P2, it's probably just not worth it financially > to get the overdrive. If however you need superior business app performance > (and I'm not sure if a dual ppro can be upgraded to dual overdrives, which > would of course yield the greatest gain) or can get your hands on an > overdrive cheaply, it may be something worth considering. Also, remember > that the intel overdrives are marked as, for example, 120/133, which means > if you are too stupid to change a jumper, you get less performance, even > though you paid for more. Note that this is not overclocking, and I'm kind > of shocked intel wouldn't explain that the overdrive doesn't give a shit > what chip you used to have, but will (to make it easier I suppose) take the > current bus speed and run with it. In other words, if you have a ppro 150, > tell your computer its a 200 (or at least change the bus speed to 66 or > whatever your board supports) before you go with an overdrive... > >I've been hearing rumors about it for years. Intel has finally > >released an overdrive chip for the PPro. Looks great on paper. > > So, have any of you fellow PPro owners upgraded? > > I love my 2 1/2 year old PPro, but it's showing it's age, and > >is a little slow, 15fps, on GPL. Will the Intel overdrive give it > >a little more life, or should I just live with it and wait for > >Katmai/Tanner in six months? > > Thanks > > Larry

PPros are socket 8 not 7. >I have a PPro 200MHz CPU and would like to get a little more out of it. I think >the motherboard is an ABit one but I have no idea what the bus speed is - I >would guess 66MHz. Are all PPros Socket 7? Can I put an AMD K6-3 and K7 into >this board when they become available? I use the machine for *** only and >would rather upgrade it than replace everything. Is the Overdrive the last ditch

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>for this box? >Paul >> The amazing benefit of a p2 overdrive is it is basically a xeon. The ppro >> was and is an excellent chip because its cache runs at the processor

speed, >> not bus speed as in socket 7 chips or 1/2 processor speed as in pentium 2 >> chips. So, for whatever the chip costs (I have no idea, probably too much, >> intel overdrives have always been outrageously expensive) you get a Xeon 333 >> I believe it is which is probably overclockable at least a smidgeon. What >> does this mean? Well, since you posted to sim groups, I assume you are >> interested in games performance. I don't have any numbers but I believe >> sequential operations, as in a business app more than a game where code is >> totally dependent on user input, benefit most from speedy and large L2 >> cache. Basically, if for some reason you would have to buy all new >> everything to go with a true P2, it's probably just not worth it financially >> to get the overdrive. If however you need superior business app performance >> (and I'm not sure if a dual ppro can be upgraded to dual overdrives, which >> would of course yield the greatest gain) or can get your hands on an >> overdrive cheaply, it may be something worth considering. Also, remember >> that the intel overdrives are marked as, for example, 120/133, which means >> if you are too stupid to change a jumper, you get less performance, even >> though you paid for more. Note that this is not overclocking, and I'm kind >> of shocked intel wouldn't explain that the overdrive doesn't give a shit >> what chip you used to have, but will (to make it easier I suppose) take the >> current bus speed and run with it. In other words, if you have a ppro 150,

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>> tell your computer its a 200 (or at least change the bus speed to 66 or >> whatever your board supports) before you go with an overdrive... >> >I've been hearing rumors about it for years. Intel has finally >> >released an overdrive chip for the PPro. Looks great on paper. >> > So, have any of you fellow PPro owners upgraded? >> > I love my 2 1/2 year old PPro, but it's showing it's age, and >> >is a little slow, 15fps, on GPL. Will the Intel overdrive give it >> >a little more life, or should I just live with it and wait for >> >Katmai/Tanner in six months? >> > Thanks >> > Larry

No, PPro's are socket 8, and they are (to my knowledge) the _ONLY_ chips designed for socket 8. If you don't want a new motherboard, your only solution is a P2 overdrive. I also don't believe any PPro boards (at least officially) support higher than a 66MHz bus. It's possible that a more recent high quality PPro board might have jumper settings for it though. If it does, you can squeeze significant performance out of an overdrive. (I would assume they are multiplier limited, if not locked, so you could get 5x75 = 375MHz or if you are really lucky, 5x83 = 415MHz) Otherwise, despite the obvious benefits of a fast L2 cache, it probably wouldn't be worth the money at this point. Now, if the overdrives were like 300 dollars, rather than the 600 I suspect, it may be better than a new motherboard/ram/P2, even if you got a celeron and overclocked it (which of course holds no guarantees) -Bo >I have a PPro 200MHz CPU and would like to get a little more out of it. I think >the motherboard is an ABit one but I have no idea what the bus speed is - I >would guess 66MHz. Are all PPros Socket 7? Can I put an AMD K6-3 and K7 into >this board when they become available? I use the machine for *** only and >would rather upgrade it than replace everything. Is the Overdrive the last ditch >for this box? >Paul <snip>

I have overclocked my 2 year PPro 200 to 233 and it work fine without any major problem. I think it is a little faster than it used to be :)

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>No, PPro's are socket 8, and they are (to my knowledge) the _ONLY_ chips >designed for socket 8. If you don't want a new motherboard, your only >solution is a P2 overdrive. I also don't believe any PPro boards (at least >officially) support higher than a 66MHz bus. It's possible that a more >recent high quality PPro board might have jumper settings for it though. If >it does, you can squeeze significant performance out of an overdrive. (I >would assume they are multiplier limited, if not locked, so you could get >5x75 = 375MHz or if you are really lucky, 5x83 = 415MHz) Otherwise,

despite >the obvious benefits of a fast L2 cache, it probably wouldn't be worth the >money at this point. Now, if the overdrives were like 300 dollars, rather >than the 600 I suspect, it may be better than a new motherboard/ram/P2, even

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>if you got a celeron and overclocked it (which of course holds no >guarantees) >-Bo >>I have a PPro 200MHz CPU and would like to get a little more out of it. I >think >>the motherboard is an ABit one but I have no idea what the bus speed is -

I

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>>would guess 66MHz. Are all PPros Socket 7? Can I put an AMD K6-3 and K7 >into >>this board when they become available? I use the machine for *** only >and >>would rather upgrade it than replace everything. Is the Overdrive the last >ditch >>for this box? >>Paul ><snip>

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>I have overclocked my 2 year PPro 200 to 233 and it work fine without any >major problem. I think it is a little faster than it used to be :) >>No, PPro's are socket 8, and they are (to my knowledge) the _ONLY_ chips >>designed for socket 8. If you don't want a new motherboard, your only >>solution is a P2 overdrive. I also don't believe any PPro boards (at

least >>officially) support higher than a 66MHz bus. It's possible that a more >>recent high quality PPro board might have jumper settings for it though. If

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>>it does, you can squeeze significant performance out of an overdrive. (I >>would assume they are multiplier limited, if not locked, so you could get >>5x75 = 375MHz or if you are really lucky, 5x83 = 415MHz) Otherwise, >despite >>the obvious benefits of a fast L2 cache, it probably wouldn't be worth the >>money at this point. Now, if the overdrives were like 300 dollars, rather >>than the 600 I suspect, it may be better than a new motherboard/ram/P2, >even >>if you got a celeron and overclocked it (which of course holds no >>guarantees) >>-Bo >>>I have a PPro 200MHz CPU and would like to get a little more out of it. I >>think >>>the motherboard is an ABit one but I have no idea what the bus speed is - >I >>>would guess 66MHz. Are all PPros Socket 7? Can I put an AMD K6-3 and K7 >>into >>>this board when they become available? I use the machine for *** only >>and >>>would rather upgrade it than replace everything. Is the Overdrive the

last >>ditch >>>for this box? >>>Paul >><snip> The OD PII pumps a Pro 200 up to 333 and the bench marks suggest a SIGNIFIGANT improvement in performance in all area's..intel has the Specs and some third party tests on their site. Unfortunately, the price is also SIGNIFIGANT (over 500 bucks) so its in that "Muddy" area where in the long run it might be worth dropping the other 300-400 to get a real PII, a new Mobo and new memory etc

This was something that was pondered by many, but was found that the BX and LX boards would not recognize the PPro OD. There was hope that the ALi (?) PII chipset would recognie the chip, allowing 100MHz FSB with the riser card, but I am not sure of the outcome yet. Anyway, from the benchmark results I have seen on Intel's forum that have been posted by people who have bought the chip show that it is very fast. Eric Giles >: You could put a P Pro overdrive chip in a PII 440 BX board such as >: the Abit BH 6 and run it up to 133 bus speed if you get an adapter >: for the socket 8 to slot 1 they are called riser cards, then you >: could overclock it as much as you dare!

: You could put a P Pro overdrive chip in a PII 440 BX board such as : the Abit BH 6 and run it up to 133 bus speed if you get an adapter : for the socket 8 to slot 1 they are called riser cards, then you : could overclock it as much as you dare!