Stability and compatibility
In terms of stability, the CUV266 performed flawlessly under standard operating conditions, neither were there any compatibility issues noted within the limited sample of additional hardware.
Overclocking
Whether one likes it or not, overclocking is really the one domain that mercilessly pushes the hardware to its limit and even though it means running the boards completely beyond specs, it shows the margins built into the hardware. In the case of the CUV266, the margins appear to be quite phenomenal, meaning that the CUV266 was booting in to a full blown Windows at up to 170 MHz FSB, pushing the PIII 500 to a respectable 850 MHz at stock voltage of 1.6V. Increasing the core voltage only added CPU temperature but not stability. Errors did occur at this setting, but, again, it is irrelevant and, moreover, it is impossible to pinpoint them to any component since every single part in the system was running at pretty insane settings.
Up to 164 MHz, the system was running almost flawlessly, though at memory bus speed equal to FSB frequency, that is 166 MHz bus / 333 MHz data rate, without indication of pushing any limit here. Please keep in mind that the operating conditions here are equivalent to PC2700 or DDR 1.5, scheduled by the industry for not earlier than Q3-Q4 2001. The only exception was 3DMark2001, which could not be run at FSB settings beyond 159 MHz, however, knowing how much stress this particular benchmark puts onto the CPU, it is almost safe to say that a 59% overclock over the rated speed just pushed it a little bit too far for the PIII 500 used for testing.
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