Pentium Motherboard

[ladyJ8us]

I have a GA-586TX motherboard, with a Intel MMX 233MHz CPU. Can I overclock my CPU without having trouble? The reason I would like to overclock, I just purchased a Toshiba CD/DVD drive that calls for a minimum processor of 266MHz or better. I really don't want to purchase another board. Thanks

[wildbuffalo]

If you have FSB settings higher than 66, I would say give it a try. 3.5x75 is 266, and even better would be 3.5x83(290) and best would be if your m/b supports 100. Try 3x100. Offcourse, you need to make sure you have good cooling and air in the case as you may have to bump the core voltage (default is 2.8v and you can go as high as 3.0v with good cooling)
One word of caution is that with 75 and 83 you may be overclocking the PCI bus as well.

Wild

[Peter M]

Your CD/DVD drive doesn't exactly need a faster CPU to work at all.

What will happen is that DVD _replay_ might be jerky. If so, you'd maybe want to replace your display card with one that has DVD decoding hardware (and maybe a TV-out connector so you can watch your movie on the big screen). PCI Cards using ye olde SiS 6326DVD graphics chip (the first one to have DVD decoders at all, that was back in 1997) have both, and retail for around US$30. According to SiS, DVD playback is possible with the CPU you have.

If you don't have DVD decoder hardware anywhere, then you need something around 350-400 MHz for proper DVD replay. 266 MHz or whatever overclock you can squeeze out of your 233 MHz just won't cut it.

Regards, Peter

[ladyJ8us]

Thanks - Peter and Wild. The only thing I have to say is, I am a new computer dabbler and I do not understand all the abbreviations. I think however I do understand that I need a card that would support DVD's. I just purchased a Creative Live card and I think this will take care of the problem. If I'm incorrect please let me know, so I won't burn up anything. Thanks again. Jerri