OWC G4 Overclocking via dipswitches

[9Charms]

I recently purchased an OWC G4 Mercury G4 1.0 GHz 256K L2 cache upgrade card for my sawtooth. I noticed that the instructions have a chart that shows that I can "overclock" the processor all the way up to 1.5 GHz via the dipswtiches. So I cranked it to the max. Now the instructions didn't recommend I do this, but it seems to be working fine for the last couple of days.

My question is should I leave it this way? Would there be any dangers or pitfalls that I should be aware of? I mean I'm getting 50% more performance than I paid for... is it too good to be true?

The system has 4 x 256 PC133 RAM and original ATI graphics card and running Tiger.

 

[FF_productions]

It all depends on the heat. Is there anyway you can monitor it?

It reduces the life of the processor when you over-clock it (or so I heard)

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Overclocking a CPU is certain to reduce its life. However, careful overclocking (as is often done with CPU upgrades) can yield a reliable CPU.

If the computer starts crashing or shutting off randomly, you will know that you are overheating the CPU and need to turn it down.

Otherwise, it's probably fine; but bear in mind that an overclocked CPU could run 5 years, 5 months or five minutes...the only way to prevent failure is to keep an eye on heat and be conservative - knocking the speed down by 100MHz might mean the difference between long life and rapid demise.

FWIW, my OWC CPU upgrade is a 1.3GHz-rated 7455 running mildly overclocked from the factory at 1.4Ghz. It has run for a couple years now with no issues.

 

[9Charms]

I've been checking the temperature of the CPU heat sink every so often and everytime it is barely warm to the touch. The card has 2 fans built into the heat sink, so it keeps it nice and cool...

The only thing I noticed is a few spinning beach balls when I try to have too many web pages open at once. But that may be a RAM issue...

As an aside does it matter that I only have 256K of L2 cache? The more expensive cards on the OWC site had 512K of L2 or 2MB of L3.

 

[FF_productions]

I've been checking the temperature of the CPU heat sink every so often and everytime it is barely warm to the touch. The card has 2 fans built into the heat sink, so it keeps it nice and cool...

The only thing I noticed is a few spinning beach balls when I try to have too many web pages open at once. But that may be a RAM issue...

As an aside does it matter that I only have 256K of L2 cache? The more expensive cards on the OWC site had 512K of L2 or 2MB of L3.

The 2MB of L3 Cache give you a nice performance boost, that's all I know.

I've heard that if one has a 1-1.5 ghz G4 with a 2MB L3 cache that it would be equal to a 1.8-2.0 Ghz G4 with 512k of L2 cache.