Cyberstorm MK3 060 overclocking

[cloverskull]

I have a BFG9060 with a rev 6 060 which runs at 100MHz. I would like to instead use a CSMK3 (for SCSI, CVision, etc) but am not thrilled about reducing to 50MHz.

Would it be possible to use a 50MHz oscillator in the 3rd oscillator position, but have jumper #5 set for 040? My thought process is that this would double the clock of the 50MHz for the 060. Would there need to be some sort of additional voltage mod to make this work?

I'd like to keep SCSI and everything else working, so if it's not possible to do something like this I'll likely just keep it at 50MHz or potentially 60MHz.

Thanks!

 

[matt3k]

You can over clock it to about 66 Mhz and keep everything running as it should.

I do offer you a very big admonition however... MKIII that have been overclocked have a much greater chance to terminally fail and you will lose the card. I did this, and well now I'm using a warp engine at 80MHz with zero issues. The scsi is a bit slower and pickier than the MKIII, but the card is absolutely bullet proof.

If you do up it to 66, make absolutely sure it has adequate cooling constantly. I still would never do that again to the mkIII... I would pick up a WE, get really fast ram for it and run it at 100MHz, ram access speeds willl be faster than the MKIII and you won't have to worry about the card...

 

[fitzsteve]

I'd advise against overclocking the CSMkIII this is now very old, expensive hardware, once you cook the CPLD you cannot replace it. It's possible to overclock the CSPPC Async i.e keeping the bus at 50mhz I'm not sure if that's also possible with the Cyberstorm MkIII. I'd recommend keeping it at 50mhz and considering a PCI/PPC solution if your setup allows.

 

[Boing-ball]

Overclocking guide here for the PPC version.

72MHz CSPPC – iKod.se

www.ikod.se

 

[Xanxi]

Yeah don't overclock historical accelerators from Phase 5 and if you want high speed use cheaper BFG9060 which won't be limited by the EDO RAM.
If you wan't 100 MHz + onboard RTG, wait for Warp4060.

 

[sax]

You can overclock CSPPC/MK3 maximum 72-74 MHz with good RAM. In this case you have to use cooling on the RAM control chips!
I don't recommend using it above 50 MHz, because it raises the clock of everything, including the CVPPC! It speeds up a lot, but it's not worth it.

Warpengine: my warpenineem had no problem with 100 MHz. It was hard to find good RAMs, but I finally managed. I think it handles the RAM differently than CSPPC, actually the RAM didn't go at 100MHz but the 060 (rev. 6) did. Anyway, it was fast, that's for sure!

I have an idea to pull the CSPPC to 100MHz (safely) but I don't have the time / knowledge to build the necessary HW.

 

[DarrenHD]

I would second what fitzsteve said. It's expensive, old and relatively rare (and very good) hardware. I would not overclock it, even though you could.

 

[A4000Bear]

I was able to overclock my CSPPC/MK3 to 80MHz, using a Rev 6 060. I also have an earlier version, with different firmware that couldn't quite get to 80 MHz, though it was good at 75. It should be noted that the board does get very hot, even with extra cooling, so in the end I chose to fit a 'turbo' switch, allowing normal operation at a modestly overclocked 55MHz, and 'turbo' at 75/80MHz (for those occasions when you want to show off). The turbo switch can be operated 'on the fly' without any crashes.

Details can be found here: https://a4000bear.neocities.org/overclock/csppc