So what do I do with this free PIII coppermine box I just got?

[InvisGreenMan]

I just got a PIII given to me for free. It is a Costa Rica 866/256/133/1.65V SL43J.

Intel Spec Finder

It came with an ASUS CUV4X motherboard, ATI all in wonder, 256Mb ECC PC133, 40Gb drive, Audigy SB LIVE, CD-ROM, CD-RW, etc.

1) I have seen that there are a lot of people that get at least 1GHz out of the coppermines. What are my odds?
2) Is the ASUS an ok board for O/Cing? Will it get this processor to 1GHz.
3) I am going to replace the ATi with my Nvidia GeForce2 and run linux for the O/S since linux does do too well with ATI. Will this machine make an ok firewall and/or fileserver? Maybe e-mail server?
4) I am willing to put $50 into this system if anyone has any great upgrade ideas.

Thanks!

[Foxie3a]

That's a good motherboard, and a good chip. You'll be happy with the performance you'll be getting out of it. Maybe sell the AIW and use that money to get more RAM since you are interested in making into some kind of server. Definately a nice computer for free.

[[XC] serlv]

I just got a PIII given to me for free. It is a Costa Rica 866/256/133/1.65V SL43J.

Intel Spec Finder

It came with an ASUS CUV4X motherboard, ATI all in wonder, 256Mb ECC PC133, 40Gb drive, Audigy SB LIVE, CD-ROM, CD-RW, etc.

1) I have seen that there are a lot of people that get at least 1GHz out of the coppermines. What are my odds?
2) Is the ASUS an ok board for O/Cing? Will it get this processor to 1GHz.
3) I am going to replace the ATi with my Nvidia GeForce2 and run linux for the O/S since linux does do too well with ATI. Will this machine make an ok firewall and/or fileserver? Maybe e-mail server?
4) I am willing to put $50 into this system if anyone has any great upgrade ideas.

Thanks!

To answer the question in the title...join the XS D20L team. We could use the help! Here if you are curious and/or interested.

[Kunaak]

sell it and improve your current PC.

[InvisGreenMan]

Sell it! Hah, think of the cash if I sold all my old computer components!

serlv - I'm a folder!

The memmory says ECC. Do PIII's need ECC PC133?

[i found nemo]

nah, mine has non ecc ecc i think is only for server apps, tha's the only place benifite is noticeable i think

[jaguarking11]

For 50bucks you can get a tualatin core celeron in the 1.0 or 1.1 range and a socket 370 converter that allows tualatin chips on any socket 370mobo and oc it to 133fsb.

you will find that a tualatin celeron is a mutch higher performing chip. Most people including me (used to own several tualatin chips) and the celeron has 256k on die cache and mhz per mhz the tualatin celeron performs the same as a p3 copermine.

Btw the tualatin chip is a .13micron chip vs the .18 on the coppermine.

Also you can make a media center machine with that setup. I dont see why the system wont be able to play movies and run media center aps on it. Btw there is a free media center that can use any remote and just about any tv tuner card. Only down side is that it needs a fully up to date 2k os or xp os.

Good luck