Overclocking wise, our Pentium III 800EB sample didn't prove to be very overclockable. We were only able to bring it up to 866 MHz stable. It would post at 933 MHz, but we couldn't work with it. This is by no means indicative of the 800 MHz CPUs in the market. As a matter of fact, we have gotten reports of people overclocking these CPUs to well over 1 GHz without too many problems. We were not lucky enough to get one of those jewels.
Conclusion
Even though our sample wasn't very overclockable, its performance is nothing to sneeze at. At an average price of just under $300.00, it's certainly within the reach of many. Even if you are not planning to overclock it, you will definitely be satisfied with its superb performance. If you are planning to overclock it, then it might possibly be your ticket to the magical 1 GHz without the ridiculous price tag.
****Overclocking Update****
I simply couldn't accept not being able to overclock this baby past the 866 MHz mark. I mean, we are dealing with a Coppermine CPU, and those CPUs are generally very overclockable. So I decided to throw some Alpha Slot-1 cooler action on it and see if I can go higher. Long and behold, we brought it to 933 MHz with absolutely no problems. Rock solid too! I guess, the Pentium III 550E spoiled me. Here was a CPU with a stock Intel heatsink, and we were able to overlock it 290 Mhz over original speed. I guess I was expecting the same type of behavior from our 800 MHz unit. Granted 133 MHz over is not that big of a jump, but, it's still a lot better than the mere 66 MHz over I was able to attain before. I didn't even attempt to go any higher, I wanted to make sure 933 MHz was stable. Since it is stable, I'm going to try to go a bit higher. Heck, I might just write an article complete with benchmarks about it.
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