Overclocking the FC-PGA Celeron

The Motherboards

For those users that still have BX motherboards (there are quite a few of you out there), the Celerons make perfect sense since they allow you to get the most out of your setup without having to upgrade to a new 133MHz FSB platform, which would require a new motherboard in addition to your new CPU. 

In spite of what you may have heard, your BX motherboard does not need to support the 8.0, 8.5, and 9.0x clock multipliers of these new Celerons in order for them to operate properly.  Rather it needs to simply boast BIOS support for the processors and you should be good to go.  Remember that the clock multiplier is a function of the pins on the CPU and not a function of the motherboard (i.e. the CPU can dictate what multiplier it will use, the motherboard can only attempt to “suggest” what multiplier it would like the CPU to use, and since the Celeron is clock-locked, the CPU “ignores” any suggestions made and simply uses whatever clock multiplier it was designed for). 

For our BX platform test bed we used an ABIT BE6, which does not currently have a released BIOS revision that officially supports the new Celeron processors.  In spite of this, we did not have a problem during our tests, but this does not mean that the setup will be problem free.  Our advice is to make sure that your motherboard has specific BIOS support for the new Celeron before shelling out for the processor. 

For our VIA 133A platform test bed, we used the ASUS P3V4X. 

In order to get our FC-PGA Celeron to work in these Slot-1 boards, we used the Microstar MS-6905Master converter card that specifically supports FC-PGA processors.  If you plan on using a converter card to get your CPU to work in a Slot-1 motherboard, be sure to get one that specifically supports FC-PGA processors; at the same time, if you plan on using your new Celeron in a Socket-370 motherboard, make sure that the motherboard supports FC-PGA processors, because in that sense, the Celeron is no different from the Pentium III. 

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