Ever since it’s first die, the L2 Cacheless 266Mhz Covington Core, the
Celeron processor from Intel has always been the Overclocker’s Champion
Chip. The 266, 300A, 366, and 566Mhz versions have been known for going
from the 66MHz to 100MHz system bus, without major changes in CPU core voltages,
and remaining at that voltage for the duration of it’s long life. The
reason Celerons aren’t known for overclocking in terms of the clock multiplier
is because Intel hard-codes the chip with a certain multiplier from the factory,
which can not be changed without being to solder within .35, .25, or .18
microns, which is impossible for any human with a handheld soldering iron.
Right now, the Celeron 566 using the Coppermine core is the champion of
overclocking, easily making it to 850Mhz a wide number of times. Many
wonder, including me, why this is true.
Currently, the Celery 566 has the same die size, and transistor count as the
Pentium iii Coppermine. This can mean only one thing. Intel produces
only ONE type of chip core, and then tests these cores. The ones that have
faulty L2 Cache, simply get half of it disabled (The Pentium iii has 256KB of
L2, while the Celeron has 128KB) and the latency, or speed, of the cache raised
from “0″ to “2″. Raising the Latency makes the cache
slower, and therefore, the Celeron won’t cut into the market share the Pentium
iii currently has. That’s Intel’s Theory.
The lay-man’s theory, is to take the Celeron, make it go faster, and
therefore are more cost efficient than the Pentium iii, most of the time, if not
all of the time performing better than a Pentium iii at the same cost.
Doctor’s Diagnosis: You paid too much for that CPU
Doctor’s Rx: Celeron128 (Coppermine Core) at 566MHz, and overclock
General Tech Advice
The Hard Drive has to be the most overlooked component of the PC when it
comes to performance. That is because most users look at the Hard Drive in
terms of storage space, and not speed. It’s been common tech advice that
if you’re operating system isn’t loading fast enough for you, you need more
RAM. That might not be the case. You can not overlook the Hard Drive
in situations like that. The interface, and the rotational speed of your
hard drive may be bringing your boot time down. Now, Hard Drive manufactures
are marketing IDE hard drives with the 66MB/s interface, and a 7200RPM
rotational speed for about $120 retail. That means you can probably find
the same drive for $100-110 OEM (OEM means that the drive comes alone, no disks
or manuals, just the drive.) In all reality, the rotational speed comes into
play when figuring Hard Drive speed much more than the interface speed. It
can be thought of as a funnel. Pouring water into the small end won’t keep
the large end full. That’s the same as having a low rotation hard drive on
a high speed interface.
Doctor’s Diagnosis : Slow Boot speed
Doctor’s Rx: Make sure you have twice the recommended amount of RAM
for your Operating System, then upgrade your HD to a 7200RPM, ATA/66 Drive.
