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Overclocking

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
ATM I'm trying overclocking my CPU for the very first time

I have an Athlon XP 1800+ with the Thoroughbred Core

Got it running with a multiplier of 12.5 instead of the usual 11.5

and external speed of 152 instead of it's normal 133

This is giving a speed of 1.9 GHz instead of the usual 1.53 GHz

Any tips for overclocking, any idea how high I could go?

I have one stick of 512 KB DDR PC3200 RAM and KT400 motherboard

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    try for 4ghz :) Make sure you remove the heatsink and stare intently on the cpu core the whole time.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    noog wrote:
    try for 4ghz :) Make sure you remove the heatsink and stare intently on the cpu core the whole time.


    Reminds me of this (click)

    As for the question, BIG heatsink, fan, in fact take the side panels off your computer (if you're techy enough the panels or case should already be off as it looks more techy) and point a desk fan at it - this should help keep the temps cooler and allow you to overclock higher.

    TBH overclocking is bad imho, though i'm sure there are plenty of guides and overclocking forums you could check, as they might have a sticky on it? perhaps they might have a mine of information answering all the same questions you want answering?

    Sorry I can't be much more help beyond what i've already said in the beginning, try overclocking the bus speed first though as this will give you a much more noticeable increase rather than just overclocking the processor, which being honest, is probably still going to bottleneck at the bus anyway.

    Though overclocking the motherboard is going to stress all components rather than just the processor. You did buy yourself some decent memory? - as that's perhaps going to add to failures of your stable overclock.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ATM I'm trying overclocking my CPU for the very first time

    I have an Athlon XP 1800+ with the Thoroughbred Core

    Got it running with a multiplier of 12.5 instead of the usual 11.5

    and external speed of 152 instead of it's normal 133

    This is giving a speed of 1.9 GHz instead of the usual 1.53 GHz

    Any tips for overclocking, any idea how high I could go?

    I have one stick of 512 KB DDR PC3200 RAM and KT400 motherboard


    Depends on what you are overclocking for?

    You might be able to push for 2GHZ but I think you might you might start to see some system instabilities.

    Also overclocking seriously relates to your other components, motherboard being one. KT400 are old and not the best. I know it's Socket A so see if there is a DFI NForce 2 Mobo around. Or any other good NForce 2 as they are the best for that platform.

    Also make sure the multiplier isn't locked because sometimes it lets you select a value that is not possible.

    There's some good things on the DFI board to read, the best overclocking Mobo's money can buy.

    http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20823
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    most of the time I don't even require much processing power, I'm only doing emails and web 99% of the time but then there's that 1% where I want to resize a load of photos I just took, or enocde them into a movie slideshow and it's really slow then and just have to wait for it .. otherwise no big deal, the machine is perfectly silent that's the most important thing to me.

    just 1 fan on the CPU, no other fans.

    Seems pretty stable at 1.9 Ghz, not more I can do without a motherboard upgrade or new CPU which is only around on places like ebay.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    most of the time I don't even require much processing power, I'm only doing emails and web 99% of the time but then there's that 1% where I want to resize a load of photos I just took, or enocde them into a movie slideshow and it's really slow then and just have to wait for it .. otherwise no big deal, the machine is perfectly silent that's the most important thing to me.

    just 1 fan on the CPU, no other fans.

    Seems pretty stable at 1.9 Ghz, not more I can do without a motherboard upgrade or new CPU which is only around on places like ebay.

    There's a program called SuperPI that you should download that is a good indicator of how much more power overclocking has created.

    Try the 1M iterations of Pi test, before overclock and after.

    As you overclock you should also increase the CPU voltage and Mobo Voltage. On the best boards there are alot of options in the BIOS to change, but always leave the ones you're not sure of.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The thoroughbred B cores are good overclockers. I've got a 1700+ that is totally stable at 2ghz, and I seem to recall it was still stable at 2.1ghz. But you're going to need conductive paint, a steady hand, and a sharp knife if you want to go faster and your motherboard doesn't let you choose higher multipliers.

    http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html
    http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.ocinside.de/html/workshop/socketa/tbred_painting.html
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The thoroughbred B cores are good overclockers. I've got a 1700+ that is totally stable at 2ghz, and I seem to recall it was still stable at 2.1ghz. But you're going to need conductive paint, a steady hand, and a sharp knife if you want to go faster and your motherboard doesn't let you choose higher multipliers.

    http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html
    http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?http://www.ocinside.de/html/workshop/socketa/tbred_painting.html

    What multipler are you using?

    Mine is 12.5 at the moment

    I tried SuperPI, seem's useful thing it took 1 minute 8 seconds to compute at 1M

    What I like in my centrino laptop is the fact I can very the processor speed dynamically, so it's low when not doing much and high in a split second when it has to be.

    I just run this program and it does it all for me

    http://www.pbus-167.com/

    Is there anything like this for desktop processors? I know I can very my FSB speed in windows as Gigatbyte have an overclocking software included with the motherboard.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I do believe that you should not use the halves in Mulitpliers, always use a solid number like 12. There is a good reason for this but it slips my mind at present as it's been six months since I read everything there is to know.

    When you use that program to change settings I would just take a look at the BIOS anyway to make sure all is well...

    I do believe there are programs like this for desktops, but personally the BIOS method has always suited me well, especially if your Mobo has a very detailed one.

    I used one of these once to change the timings of the RAM from the desktop and it didn't go well at all!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What multipler are you using?

    Mine is 12.5 at the moment

    I don't remember, to be honest. Probably 14 or 15. I went back to stock speed and dropped the voltage down to 1.475v so I could get away with running a tiny fan at 7v to cool it. I've little need to huge speeds, the limit of my processing is encoding music, which is quick enough at standard speeds. I used to rent and rip DVDs, so the extra speed was useful.

    If you cut the second to bottom bridge, you'll have a base speed of 1.67ghz with a multiplier of 12.5 and stock FSB. Cutting the top and middle bridges would give you 13.5, which would be a sound starting point if you know the CPU is stable at 1.8ghz - you could then raise the FSB and see how high the CPU will go.

    I've not heard of avoiding the .5 multipliers before. Can't see why they'd be an issue, but will sit on the bench for this one. :)
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