I tried going for the 133Mhz. FSB straight out but it didn't turn out too well. Though I could boot properly, I couldn't run Prime95 with any success. Looking at Motherboard Monitor 4.17's temperature readings, I immediately found that the culprit was heat. 54C wasn't exactly my idea of a comfortable temperature.

Looking at the stock HSF that came with the processor. I really wasn't too impressed. It looked as if it could keep my processor happy at stock settings but really nothing much above that. Hey! Look! Marlboro gets a free ad placement. They really should think of doing the OC scene too. ;-) Anyway, only one thing came to mind with regard to the flimsy stock cooler.

Enter Alpha!!! Since I had an Alpha P3125 laying around, I thought I'd might as well use it. If you'll remember our Alpha P3125 vs. Global Win VOS32 comparo, you know that the Alpha bested the Global Win, but only by a measly 1C. I have no doubt in my mind that the VOS32 could've done the same thing, but I don't have any of my own so this decision was made.

Removing the stock cooler isn't such a big thing. Just align a case screw with the holes for the pegs on the backside of the processor and push down. Do the same for the other three and away it goes.

Here's what it looks like underneath. Notice the absence of the L2 cache chips like what we had before with the Katmai and older Slot format processors. They're gone because Coppermines have their 256Kb. L2 Cache on-die and running at the full speed of the processor, as opposed to the Katmai's off-die 512Kb. L2 Cache running at half the speed of the processor. For overclockers, the Coppermine method is a definite plus since cooling the processor would translate to cooling the L2 Cache as well, which will add more megahertz to your overclock.

There we have it. The Alpha P3125 installed and ready to go.

Read on. The next page shows the results I got.