Anybody have any experince with Intel OverDrive processors?

[PentiumMMX]

As a side-project to the modern PC I'm building, I'm considering upgrading my oldest one, which I mostly use for the older games, to make it a little more powerful; which, after doing some research in the old, falling-to-pieces instruction book for this PC, I discovered it supports being upgraded to an Intel OverDrive processor. Before I splurge on a $100 NOS Pentium OverDrive, I'd like to gather some opinions first

Has anyone here used an OverDrive processor before? If so, how well do they work?

[BlueBMW]

I've used a few overdrive chips in the past. They're basically just plug and play as far as I can tell. I used on in a Pentium 90... overdrive to 150. And another in a pentium 133 overdrive to 200. Worked great!

You dont have to reset your bios or motherboard to compensate for the CPU speed difference. Usually the chips are designed for a few different CPUs. For example, the 150mhz overdrive chip would replace a pentium 75, 90 or 120 mhz and push it to 150mhz. The 200mhz overdrive chip was for a 90, 133 or 150mhz and pushed it to 200.

Its been a decade and a half since I installed these, but they're still working great!

[Jorpho]

I beg your pardon, but I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out why exactly you'd want to do this - especially for $100. For that kind of money, you could easily, say, get a much nicer computer that you could make a little less powerful for whatever these mysterious games are that your old computer is not powerful enough for.

I mean, if nothing else, when you start dealing in increasingly obscure parts, you're more and more likely to start running into increasingly obscure compatibility problems that you're likely to spend more and more time trying to resolve - which is fine, I guess, but isn't the goal here to play games ?

[NayusDante]

If you're playing late 90s Windows games on it, just get a Pentium II. My retro rig is a PII 266 and it runs everything up to System Shock 2 and Unreal Tournament.

Quake may run "the way it was designed" on a Pentium, but you're not losing anything by upgrading the processor to something with more oomph. The important parts of a retro rig are things like the sound card, 3d accellerator, RAM, hard drives, and OS. You can probably upgrade all of those for $100.

[PentiumMMX]

If you're playing late 90s Windows games on it, just get a Pentium II. My retro rig is a PII 266 and it runs everything up to System Shock 2 and Unreal Tournament.

I'd love to put a P2 in it, but the newest processor it can normally handle, OverDrive aside, is a 100Mhz Pentium. I did try putting a plain 150Mhz Pentium in it, but it could only use 100Mhz of that at the most. Also, I do have a 600Mhz Pentium III as it's counterpart; to handle some of the newer games (Half-Life, for example), but I though it'd be cool to push this desktop to it's limits to see what it can really do.

After all, it's processor and video card did not even meet the minimum requirements for Lego Island, yet it ran that game pretty well (It did get a bit slow if things on screen got too crowded, but it never crashed). It makes me wonder, with it's RAM maxed out, a much higher-end graphics card, and a faster processor, what it would be capable of.

Of course, I could easily get a used 100Mhz Pentium for about $5, if the OverDrive isn't worth it...

[NayusDante]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-Intel-Penti...item5ad1e8695b

This has all you need. ISA, AGP, USB, everything. Pop Windows 95 and a Voodoo 3 on there and game away.

[Kitsune Sniper]

A related question, will modern PSUs work with these older computer motherboards? I've been considering building a retro system for the past week, as a side project, but I'd really use a power supply that won't die out on me because of old age.

[NayusDante]

As long as the motherboard has a standard 20-pin P1 connector, yes. Just bend the extra 4 pins aside on a 24-pin "modern" connector and it's the same thing. The ATX standard is the best thing that ever happened to PCs, because it's created nearly two decades of compatibility.



The thing to watch out for is the flat 6-pin connectors on older boards. Most newer power supplies lack these connectors, though a few might.

[PentiumMMX]

Well, I might consider that; reuse the case from one of my dead PCs and build something new.

It'd still be cool to see how much farther I could push a 15-year-old desktop (Which it can currently go almost unnaturally far with it's stock 75Mhz Pentium and 40MB of RAM, no overclocking or anything), but if it's not really as feasible as I originally though, I'll likely go this route instead

[NayusDante]

Keep in mind that there were some Pentium II boards with TWO processor slots. If you can find one of those that also has AGP and ISA, it's probably your best bet.

[Darkman2K5]

Do you know if your machine is a socket 5 or a socket 7? If its a socket 7, you can try this: http://cgi.ebay.com/PNY-Technologies...item230f2f3fc4. I upgraded to one of these from Pentium 100 back in the day, and it was a great upgrade. Heres the wikipedia article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinChip

[megasdkirby]

PentiumMMX,

I do have an old Tyan motherboard that takes Pentium III, either Slot 1 or Socket 370. May be a bit highter but thought you might be interested.

It should still work too. Need to test, just in case. Comes with what I believe is a 1Ghz Pentium III Socket 370.

[Kitsune Sniper]

And I have a sound card for it. >_>

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

As stated in my sales thread, I have a huge stash of older pc parts covering a wide range I am willing to sell, including cpus, ram, motherboards, graphics cards, etc. If anyone wants, someone could send me a request list. I could sell a K6-2 cpu/motherboard combo that would be a hell of a lot cheaper then that Pentium Overdrive the Op mentioned.

[bobotech]

I'm sorry but I just don't get the idea of cranking up an old pentium 1 system. Like everyone has mentioned, going the ATX/Pentium II or better route just seems much easier.

Is there some games that will not run on an ATX based motherboard compared to the AT style motherboard on the early early pentiums?

[Jorpho]

Is there some games that will not run on an ATX based motherboard compared to the AT style motherboard on the early early pentiums?

The most relevant compatibility issues have nothing to do with ATX vs AT.

[bobotech]

The most relevant compatibility issues have nothing to do with ATX vs AT.

That just reinforces my point. Why bother souping up an old pre-ATX style computer when you can get an ATX based computer that has both ISA and PCI slots and a much faster cpu than a pentium 1 such as the pentium 2 or 3.

[NayusDante]

That just reinforces my point. Why bother souping up an old pre-ATX style computer when you can get an ATX based computer that has both ISA and PCI slots and a much faster cpu than a pentium 1 such as the pentium 2 or 3.

A Pentium II board with AGP and ISA is pretty much the desired board for a retrogaming rig. Fast enough for Windows games up to about 2001, and compatible with DOS games back to '81. If you're specifically wanting to play the older stuff, I can see wanting an older setup that doesn't require MoSlo.

[PC-ENGINE HELL]

A Pentium II board with AGP and ISA is pretty much the desired board for a retrogaming rig. Fast enough for Windows games up to about 2001, and compatible with DOS games back to '81. If you're specifically wanting to play the older stuff, I can see wanting an older setup that doesn't require MoSlo.

Pentium 2 stopped being really efficient enough for 3D based Windows games when Direct X 7 hit in Sep. 99. It was already showing its age on up to that point during the short lived DX 6.1 era. By the time DX7 hit, graphics cards and games started utilizing more advanced features like FSAA and Hardware T&L. The Pentium 2 was a severe bottle neck for graphics cards like the Geforce 256, Geforce 2 TI, Voodoo 4/5 and Ati Radeon, which all benefited from mhz speeds well past 500 mhz.

A cpu that could handle 3d based Windows titles up till 2001 would be more along the lines of a Duron 750, Athlon 700, or Pentium 3 733 mhz, paired with a Geforce 2 TI or Geforce 3 and 256 megs of ram. A 900mhz-1ghz cpu would be ideal. At that point you could handle most anything to at least 1024x768@ 32-bit textures and color. Quake 3, RTCW, Max Payne, Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, MDK 2, NOLF etc would be fine from that point on.

[NayusDante]

Pretty much any of the games you listed, I would run on my main rig. It's the older stuff that has funny compatibility with modern hardware, or has special benefits for using old sound cards with SoundFont support and such. At the 2001 mark, it's not really retro gaming anymore.