Pentium 4 overclocked to 8GHz: let's see your fancy Core 2 try that

Back in the olden days, before Abraham Lincoln put an end to the megahertz myth -- or was it Theodore Roosevelt, we always get so confused -- the Pentium 4 ruled the land, with its deep instruction pipeline and PR-friendly xtreem clock speeds. Luckily, Intel wised up and started beefing up the quantity and efficiency of cores instead of just the megahertz, but the megahertz myth still lives on in our hearts, and OC Team Italy keeps that hope alive with its latest achievement: an 8000MHz (8GHz in layman's terms) overclocked Pentium 4. The lucky chip to reach such ridiculous frequencies is a "Cedar Mill" Intel Pentium 4 631, with a standard clock speed of 3GHz. It wasn't just a case of flipping a few pins here and there, the OC folks used a modified ASUS P5B motherboard, with an added copper pipe and a few voltage modifications, along with a little bit of your garden-variety liquid nitrogen to keep it all cool. Golf claps all around, OC, now can you do something to rev up a processor that's actually going to be useful for something? Wait. What's gotten into us? Keep up the good work!

[Via Slashdot]

[Andrei Vassiliev @ Jan 24th 2007 7:21AM]

Ok, I don't care what kind of processor it is. That is definitely impressive.

[bsm0f0 @ Jan 24th 2007 7:43AM]

lawl @ liquid notrogen.

[wargarurumon @ Jan 24th 2007 7:50AM]

is this thing stable ?

[strider_mt2k @ Jan 24th 2007 7:58AM]

Technically it's awesome, but was it actually usable for anything other than a diagnostic?

I mean I'd be firing up some major gameage for the time the Liquid Nitrogen lasted.
Do you think they "piped a little cold" over to the video card too?

[disciple83 @ Jan 24th 2007 8:38AM]

There are lots of tools that can take advantage of an 8Ghz processor. Unfortunately, not many people process quantum physics at home, although, I am not exactly sure what the day job is of someone carrying liquid nitrogen around the house either. To answer wargarurumon, it will be stable as long as the liquid keeps flowing. The power requirements probably aren't any different from a stock P4 since the resistance has dropped due to the cold temperature, they may have a 550W PSU backing it up. Strider, if they are using the same setup I have seen before to do extreme OC'ing, there is a large pipe, (like 2ft tall) coming out of a case on its side that is sitting right on top of the P4's heatsink. The only cold the video card is getting will be from ambient chilling as the pipe sucks all the heat away from everything around it to boil the nitrogen.

[Richard Lai @ Jan 24th 2007 1:24PM]

Since I won't be processing quantum physics at home, I would rather use the liquid nitrogen to make extra-smooth ice cream (yes it really does work! beats most ice creams in the shops), and watch Prison Break on the Pentium 4 computer while eating the ice cream.

[Didou @ Jan 24th 2007 8:46AM]

Any info on the power consumption of that thing ? At least the 5 minutes it was running at that speed. :-P

[Peter McNulty @ Jan 24th 2007 8:47AM]

Of course the power requirements have changed. You'll need a higher voltage to get the transistors to switch faster combined with low temperature (low resistance) results in increased current, hence, increased current + increase voltage = increased power.

[Matt @ Jan 24th 2007 9:02AM]

Wouldn't 8000MHz be 7.81Ghz? Last time I checked a gig was 1024, not 1000.

[Bryan Jackson @ Jan 24th 2007 9:09AM]

About gigahertz: It's 8000 MHz.

The confusion comes because there are 8 bit in a byte so storage gets off sometimes (1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, etc).

[Jamie @ Jan 24th 2007 9:12AM]

Hertz are metric - bytes are not, so 1000mHz does mean 1gHz

[homer jay @ Jan 24th 2007 9:16AM]

"Wouldn't 8000MHz be 7.81Ghz? Last time I checked a gig was 1024, not 1000."

No, this isn't bits/bytes its frequency.

1/time = frequency

no bits/bytes involved here.

[Mike Cerm @ Jan 24th 2007 9:52AM]

Personally, I'd rather have a 5-GHz Athlon 64 4000+, but that's just me.

[John @ Jan 24th 2007 9:55AM]

lol try that diagnostic test on Windows ME ;)

[Frankenstein Black @ Jan 24th 2007 11:12AM]

MEH!

----------
FB a.k.a LDM
Water-bending Master
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/ldm_master_builder!.jpg

[Gilbert Garcia @ Jan 24th 2007 11:25AM]

Why does it say "let's see your fancy Core 2 try that"? I wouldn't be surprised if a core 2 duo can go past 8ghz on just regular old ice or liquid natural gas. Especially when Intel starts making their 45nm chips. The core 2 duos are already extremely overclockable (is that a word?) with stock cooling cause they are extremely efficient compared to the heat monger Pentium 4 series. What kinda speeds would it get with liquid nitro? I can only imagine. Wouldn't it be cool (but probably not possible) if we could install liquid nitro systems in computers, for when you need that extra bump you just turn on the juice and let it fly into overclock for a quick boost? I'm running at 3ghz, then woosh its 8ghz muh haha. (the point? its like nos in a pc! and its just so ridiculous it has to be awesome!)

[4ham @ Jan 24th 2007 11:58AM]

Who has liquid nitrogen in the lying around the house? My high school physics teacher did.

[Eric @ Jan 24th 2007 12:00PM]

Bah, Single Core? That's so 3 years ago.

[rod @ Jan 24th 2007 1:11PM]

well we have plenty of liq. nitrogen in the lab to freeze various cell lines so I guess I could try to do this with my aging desktop... except I guess I'd have to bring the desktop to the lab.

[mindbleach @ Jan 25th 2007 9:02PM]

http://totl.net/Eunuch/index.html

Took me a while to find this, but I had to after I saw this post. The link is to the EUNUCH project. Long story short: $30 486 DX 25MHz system, lots of ethanol-based coolant *cough*, 247MHz.

[Alexander @ Jan 27th 2007 3:12AM]

Where I can see video file with process of overcloking and results? ;)

[tom_squick @ Feb 12th 2007 11:43AM]

Overclock me baby.

[guitarcrazy @ Nov 4th 2007 6:36PM]

you can have all the speed you want, but if the front side bus speed isn't any higher it's still bottle necking the performance, like a funnel, that's why core 2's sacrificed high frequency to high bus speed, in the end the bus speed is better. i'll still give it that it's amazing that it was achieved and didn't blow up, but in the end it's still impractical.

[Goonza @ Aug 11th 2008 8:41PM]

Thats bullshits, cause a Pentium 4 isn't 65nm, it's 90nm asshole
An Intel Core 2 Duo has 65nm

[Marshall @ Dec 17th 2008 2:50AM]

No, its not. Do your reading before bursting out your ignorance and stupidity. The Pentium 4 631 based on the Cedar Mill core
runs on 65nm process.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/chart/pentium4.htm

On a lighter note, that really impressive!

[armend_celina94 @ Jan 23rd 2009 4:57PM]

this is really impressive .... but I don't think its practical at all, I mean liquid nitrogen !!!!