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Celeron 300A: The best CPU you could buy in 1998!

Bits und Bolts

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Was there a better CPU than the Celeron 300A? Back in 1998, the Celeron 300A was released on the same day as the Pentium II 450. The low-cost Celeron was supposed to cater to the entry- and mainstream market segments. Very quickly, end-users found out that you could overclock the Celeron 300A to 450 MHz - outperforming the flagship Pentium II 450 in certain cases! Let's travel back to 1998 and experience one of the best budget CPUs that have ever existed: The Celeron 300A

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▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Intro
02:14 The Celeron: Covington
04:02 Mendocino to the rescue
06:31 Overclocking the Celeron 300A
08:42 Charts
11:09 Overvolt without soldering
16:06 Conclusion

20 Comments

@mentalplayground 2 years ago

300Mhz @ 450Mhz those were the days.

@Leeki85 2 years ago

That 450 MHz OC was much important than a lot of people realize. It was better for gaming, but the biggest difference was with DivX playback. 450 MHz was just above the threshold of decoding 480p at 24 FPS, at which most pirated movies were distributed.
450 MHz was also fast enough to handle late 90's internet workflow with browser, communicator and WinAmp playing your favorite pirated MP3.
In Europe such CPU was also fast enough to brute force decode analog Canal+ encryption. All you needed is an analog TV card for your PC.
Such encryption was done by permutating (mixing order) of horizontal scanlines. Computers were able to decode it, by analyzing static TV logo and finding the correct permutation for each frame. Canal+ soon reduced its logo to small "+" to make decoding harder, but CPUs got 1+ GHz soon anyway.

@Zerbey 2 years ago

Back in 1998 I was pricing up a Pentium II 450 machine, and the local computer shop said to me "I don't want to sell you that". He recommended a 300A at the much cheaper price and promised I could run it at 450. Used that PC for years, and it was absolutely rock solid, and yes I played Unreal Tournament on it too!

@Shmbler 2 years ago

My friend upgraded first in 1998 to a cheap 440LX board with a Celeron 266. Just a couple months later I followed with a 440BX board and a 300A@450 for roughly the same price. Imagine how not happy he was. Not happy at all.

@jamesrdgrs 2 years ago

It was always a great feeling when you won the "Overclock Lottery". I love seeing how far you can push hardware.

@m00se-b7t 2 years ago

My bro had a 300A. He won the silicon lottery and it overclocked no problem.

@s26me 2 years ago

I really miss those old times were CPUs were actually interesting.

@msdosfloppy 2 years ago

I worked in a PC shop when these were new. The owner liked a game running in the window overnight as advertising. 4:55pm one day I didn't have a demo machine. I banged a CPU into a motherboard and started a game. The next morning I arrived and moved the mouse and the system bluescreened. Getting it on the bench, I realised I'd put a Celeron 300 in a board set to 4.5x 100MHz. Legendary CPU.

@pc-sound-legacy 2 years ago

Awesome CPU! Back then we read about the CeleronA capabilities in a PC mag and my brother bought one. It worked and we couldn't believe getting P2 performance for a bargain. Great times! Btw. UT99 was my absolute favourite shooter, soooo much fun!

@RambozoClown 2 years ago

I had a dual slot one that had a pair of Celerons at 450 MHz. It ran as a server running 24x7 at near 100% load for years.

@JeremiahTov 2 years ago

Still using my 300a to this day in my win 98 dos pc. Still going strong at 450mhz as well.

@starbuck1776 2 years ago (edited)

I built a system in 1998 with a 300a overclocked to 450 mHz and 2 Voodoo 2's in sli, as a college graduation present to myself. Still have the 300a and the Voodoo's. I might have to get a motherboard and rebuild it :)

@jamesbrown-ws3fz 10 days ago (edited)

I still have mine today!! Together with a Abit BX6,overclockers dream back then!!

@ctiborkoza8944 2 years ago

when I built a PC on an intel platform with a CeleronA more than 90 percent of the CPU went stable at 450Mhz, even on the new Socket 370 platform I was successful and everything worked without a problem

@murutattack 2 years ago

1:30 Pin bend jumpscare 😭

@dennisonseeto 1 day ago

I was lucky enough/crazy enough to have a ABIT BP6 and had Dual 300A Celerons, I could only get 433Mhz overclock on that board, but it was a beast.

I still have that board and cpus still

@IHearEverythingDude 16 hours ago

I had this.
It was my first pc

@seeindarkness 2 years ago

I remember at the time HardOCP were reviewing the Celeron 300A and were very surprised how it overclocked

@Alex.Adametz 2 years ago

It was April 1999, when my friend and I went to a local computer hardware store to buy those Celeron 300A. We've even persuaded the store manager to quick test CPUs for overclocking!! (because we told him we're going to buy 2 CPUs, not only 1). Tests were successful for the first two random CPUs from their store and we happily went home for building our PCs. We used 300A with Acorp 6ZX86 (i440ZX, AGP+PCI+ISA, Slot1, BabyAT format). Than MB was able to supply even more than 100 MHz. The CPU tested ok at 105@4.5, but I used it at 100 MHz for stability. The CPU served me flawlessly for 1,5 years and was upgraded to Celeron 600 (Coppermine) with the same 50% overclock.
Those were fun times!

@СергейД-ч4ь 2 years ago (edited)

It was my 2nd PC. Had bought it in November 1998 and have been using until summer 2003 ! :) Really great CPU!!!! I played Quake3, Blood2, Half Life, Age of Empires 2.