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pman68 · Apr 22, 2003, 03:12 PM

Just wondering how common overclocking is. I've done my B&W G3/400 upgraded to a ZIF G4/500mhz overclocked to 550 (easy - jumpers) to my Powerbook G4 400mhz, which went to 500mhz (hard - soldering). Both worth it and both very stable.

It's much easier to overclock 2-3 year old equipment than brand new gear.

Axo1ot1 · Apr 22, 2003, 03:31 PM

In my experience overclocking is a waste of time. I OCed my G3 400 to 450 (wouldn't go any higher) and it isn't the slightest bit faster.

CyberGreg · Apr 22, 2003, 04:15 PM

My iBook 500/66 is o/c to 600/100 and is well worth it. It has been 100% stable for the past 4 months.

I also o/c my B&W 300 to 400, that too was worth it. It has been running for like 2 years at that speed.

bradoesch · Apr 22, 2003, 04:43 PM

Err, overclocked a K6-2 from 450 MHz to 500 MHz. Machine is still unbearably slow. For some reason my P2 233 MHz is a much faster system.

mac freak · Apr 22, 2003, 04:52 PM

Uh, I o'ced a P4-3066 to 3298... it ran stably, but I failed to see the point. So I clocked it back down.

I've been too wimpy to try and o/c any of my Macs -- they're all perfect as-is!

derekn · Apr 22, 2003, 04:57 PM

I OCed my old Beige G3 500 upgrade to 533, seemed to run fine. It was a speed boost over 266Mhz either way. LOL

There's no way I'm OCing my dual 867 though, it runs fine as is.

Besides if I were to do it, I'd bump the bus up to 167 and would need faster RAM. LOL

AssassyN · Apr 22, 2003, 05:33 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Err, overclocked a K6-2 from 450 MHz to 500 MHz. Machine is still unbearably slow. For some reason my P2 233 MHz is a much faster system.

Probably because the earlier AMD chips were horribly weak compared to Pentiums. Their newer CPU's, however, are preferrable over Pentiums to me. My 1.2Ghz AMD T-Bird is still going strong after nearly 3 years of hard daily usage. Plus, it costs less and gets the same job done.

suprz's ghost · Apr 22, 2003, 05:55 PM

my B&W G3 *was* at 350mhz and i oc'd it to 400mhz it's very stable and i can tell the difference. i was thinking of going to 450mhz in the near future

cocamix · Apr 22, 2003, 07:08 PM

I've overclocked lots of Macs. One G3 233 to 300, and another to 266.
One G3 400 to 458.
My B&W from 300 to 350.
All of the just entailed moving around some jumpers.

I currently run an 800Mhz G3 at 850, which required NO jumpers or even a restart!
(Powerlogix G3 ZIF.)

Whether or not anyone thinks it's wortwhile is open to debate. I do, and the machine is definitely faster, whether or not you are able to tell.

drHo · Apr 22, 2003, 10:32 PM

yes overclock! i had my B&W 450 o'c to 500mhz for uhmm...5 months? it was defenitely quicker BUT openGL games (wcIII etc) would crash after 10mins of playing. then just about 1 month ago i was getting lots of 'application unexpectely quit' crap. tried to go higher 550, 600, 650..and it wouldnt boot..so tucked my tail between ,my legs and went back to 450

it was fun while it lasted. now those 800mhz g3 zifs are looking mighty tempting..o'c on the fly! whoo hoo!! in xlr8yourmac they ran it stable (for a bit at least) at 900mhz..with stock cooling. HMm...maybe i can keep it at 900mhz with my bigger fan..maybe even 1000mhz :-O

spiff41398 · Apr 23, 2003, 01:19 AM

I overclocked my G4/400 to 500 MHz by just removing a resistor. I've been running it flawlessly for over a year now. It's the cheapest 20% speed boost.

eyadams · Apr 23, 2003, 12:39 PM

I have had mixed success with overclocking Macs.

I had a 6100/60 that wouldn't go any higher - no boot, no nothing. Reports at the time suggested I might have been able to go to 83MHz, but could definately go to 66MHz. Neither turned out to be true with my machine.

I've also had mixed results with my Beige G3. It started life as a 266, and I was able to overclock to 300 with no problem. I then got a deal on a G3/300 which was guaranteed to run at 466MHz. It ran great for 9 months and then died. Four processors later (all replaced under warranty, thank god) I got a G3/500 as a replacement that's been running at 500MHz with no problems.

I think that for most processors slight overclocking (like my original 266 --> 300) is not a problem. But going significantly beyond a processor's rated range (like my 300 --> 466) simply won't work in the long term.

LegendaryPinkOx · Apr 23, 2003, 05:33 PM

I overclocked my Yikes! G4 400 to 450, wont boot any higher. I was bored and to me it wasn't much of a waste of time. (took me 15 minuits with the little resister thingies and some tweezers) and I got a whole 4 more fps in quake 3!

JB72 · Apr 23, 2003, 07:30 PM

I want to OC my MDD1x2 to 1.16. No higher than that though.

dr.george · Apr 23, 2003, 08:08 PM

i overclocked my gigabit G4 from 400Mhz to 500 , but it didnt worked well ... so i just clock it down to 450Mhz and has been running flawlessly for almost 2 years ..

mrwalker · Apr 24, 2003, 09:01 AM

It wasn't until I rad this thread, just got my soldering iron out & my cube 450 is now a 500 - it wouldn't boot at 550.

I'll let you know how she holds up. If the processor fries, I'll buy one of the dual upgrade cards.

-mrwalker

Dace · Apr 24, 2003, 01:53 PM

How do you overclock a Mac? I have a sawtooth G4 400MHz, can it be overclocked.

CheesePuff · Apr 24, 2003, 03:29 PM

I overclocked by Power Mac G4 733 MHz Quicksilver to 800 MHz, and now it only runs with the case fully open. When I close it after I get it running, it freezes (Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X).

littlegreenspud · Apr 24, 2003, 05:43 PM

I overclocked my B/W from 350 to 450 and it has run like this for about 2 years. It is much faster than before and enabled me to put up with it for a lot longer before I "had" to upgrade!