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The most difficult Pentium processors to find


eightbit

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What is your most difficult to find Pentium processor that you have either found or are still looking for? For me bar none was the Pentium Overdrive 180MHz:

 

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium/Intel-Pentium%20MMX%20overdrive%20180%20-%20PODPMT60X180.html

 

This processor must have been something of an afterthought release...something to appease the few people left at the time still running 50 and 60MHz FSB systems. When I found it existed and could upgrade my Gateway P5-120 (originally 120MHz system) I was on a mission. What a mission it was. I was extremely lucky and found ONE, never to find another again!

 

Other than that, most PIII Slot 1 100MHz FSB CPU's 750MHz and faster have been challenging to find!

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Well, I'm still looking for a Pentium III 850/100 in Slot-1 flavor.

 

You must be following me ;) I just purchased one of these. Been looking for one for a while as well...just found one tonight (which sparked my mood to start this thread). Now my PIII 750/100 is up for grabs :)

Edited by eightbit
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I installed my 850/100 PIII Slot 1 tonight. This was an incredibly good score ($35 shipped) but it took me about a half a year of daily-semi daily searching for it. A moderate speed bump over the previously installed 750/100...which is kind of rare in its own right. Now if only I can find the elusive 1000/100 PIII slot 1 at a price that I consider "normal" ($50-$100 is the max I would spend). If not, the 850 does me just fine. This machine screams with it :)

 

I wonder why the 100MHz FSB models are so darn rare? Is it that everyone moved on to 133MHz by the time the higher speed models were around and these were released in limited quantities or something?

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I think it had to do with the sales mentality. People were moved to the higher bus speeds under premise that you needed that higher bus speed to feed a faster processor. Which is kinda true. So the 133 speeds are more plentiful.

 

Have you thought of going to a Tualatin? This is a 1400MHz PIII running on a 100MHz bus, with a full-speed cache.

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No Tualatin for me ;) I am a slot 1 fan...the whole reason I built the machine. I don't count those slotkets as legit :) I mean, I know they are legit processors, but in my eyes a slot 1 machine should only have a true slot 1 CPU. Guess I am weird like that. The farthest I will go with this would be the true slot 1 PIII 1000. If that never happens I am happy at 850 :)

Edited by eightbit
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Ohh.. I rather like the extra power stability provided by slockets. And they put much less stress on the motherboard's regulators and capacitors. They're more "open-air" than the early Slot-1 parts, you can easily put any fan and sink on them, changing the grease is easier - even if I do it only every 6 years. I learned a little secret decades ago about the paste. Do about a 1:25 mix of Mentholatum and the usual silver compound. It'll never dry out. All others seem get hard and flaky no matter what I used.

 

I wouldn't call my self a purist as far as sockets go. I just wanted the fastest chip I could put in there. And the only reason I'm looking for an 850 is nostalgia and benchmarking. I still have the PII-266 that I first used when I built the rig in the late 90's.

 

In an amusing way they remind me of the CPU cards of the S-100 era. Good times because we would build our blanket forts & caves and write sci-fi stories about stuff like this.

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