Well I’m sure everyone wonders…what was Tycho’s first OC?
Technically…it was my B&G3…400 to 450 MHz via moving a jumper…but that scarcely counts (if we count that then we have to count all those retard PC users fooling in their BIOS as overclocking).
So that makes my first REAL overclock…a PowerMac 4400/200. I took this sucker (which provided me with 3 years of full time use before my G3 purchase) to 240 MHz via soldering 2 surface mount resistors. This is THE first soldering on a computer motherboard I ever did. And the 20 percent boost in speed made a HUGE difference…this was back in the 8.6 days so the comp was still relatively snappy in the finder.
So…what does the inside of a PM4400 look like? Well here it is:
Motorola 603 CPU with a TINY aluminum heatsink. 3.3v core on .5µ Al process. Pretty cutting edge :p
The resistors really weren’t that small compared to the stuff on iBook and PowerBook motherboards these days.
The resistor settings can be found over at The Mystic Room. Also…if you feel really motivated you can replace the 40 MHz oscillator crystal that provides bus clock with a 50 MHz piece (tho you will need faster rated cache to do so stably). 50 MHz bus…on 6x multiplier…300 MHz 603 PM 4400…it’d be sweet…and you know it :)
So anyway…my intuition for better cooling was intact even at this early stage of my overclocking career…and I decided that this 20 percent boost might mean instability if I didn’t provide the silicon with more cooling. Out comes the mini wheats box and scotch tape :D
You wouldn’t believe how proud of the ducting I was :D I even had my mom come over and take a look. “That’s nice…why is there cardboard and tape in our computer?” Hehehe… The final test tho is DNETC (the very reason I did the OC). Of course it ran perfectly…at 240 MHz. I didn’t know how to take desktop screenshots at the time…so I took a picture of the screen for proof of my OC success.
Of course I had to replace the obsolete PM 4400/200 case badge too :D
That machine is running stable to this day (the OC was done in Jan of 00 IIRC…because I did the G3 OC on the night of Dec 31 1999. And that goofy case badge is still taped to it :) Hope you found this educational and at the very least entertaining.
-Tycho