Overclocking Amd Cpu's


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I see here an there a lot of posts on regarding AMD overclocking. Since i regard myself an AMD freak :D my personal expirience might help.

AMD Processors have one good and one bad thing in my opinion. The good is that you can unlock their multiplier and the bad thing is that you can't push the FSB very much, (unless you reduce the multiplier). In my case (i got an Athlon Tbird 1.4) is very easy to unlock the multiplier by connecting the L1 Bridge. However in XP processors the process is more complicated as you got to use a special material (i cant remember the name in English) in order to unlock the multiplier.

In any case, both Tbirds and XP's wont manage to work more (leaving the multiplier unchanged) with more than 145Mhz (+12Mhz) FSB.

I managed to reach the speed of 1610 Mhz (+210Mhz) by increasing the multiplier by +1 (from x10.5 to x11.5) and the FSB from 133 to 140. Thus, 140x11.5=1610Mhz. It is noticable that the more you increase the multiplier of the processor the less you can push the FSB and run your Machine. At 141 FSB the Pc wouldnt boot.

Therefore, immidiately two ways are introduced:

1) Low adjusted FSB and high adjusted Multiplier

2) High adjusted FSB and low adjusted Multiplier

Although the 1st combination eventually better worked for me, I tried the second as well, by reducing the multiplier from x10.5 to x10 and increasing the FSB from 133 to 155 thus 10.x155=1550 Mhz. Notice, that the system got unstable either with 156 FSB or 11x multiplier. Therefore i talk only in terms of stability (Regarding running system stress-out benchmarks [sandra 2002/Pc Mark 2002])

Going one step further, i reduced the multiplier even more (and subsequently i further increased the FSB Speed) to x9.5 and the FSB to 160 (again in 161 i had system instability). The result was a speed of 1520Mhz (9.5x160 FSB)

Therefore i noticed that decreasing the multiplier wasn't leading to anywhere as the ratio of lowering multiplier to increasing FSB was negative. So eventually (after lots of tries and errors) i managed to get the highest speed of 1610 Mhz (11.5x140 FSB)

The Importance of Mobo

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Doesn't take lots of thought to realise the importance of Mobo in overclocking. I am currently running my Athlon on the award winning mobo of 2002 (according to Tom's Hardware) GIGABYTE 7VRX with Apollo Via KT333. Gigabyte has a very neat utility (EasyTune III) that allows you to overclock the FSB within Windows. Thus you avoid the boot ups and the loading up process of Windows that stressing out the system. Adjusting FSB can also be achieved through Bios. However there are other very good quality mobos such as the Asus,Epox,Abit,MSI that perform outstandingly.

The Importance of Memory

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Memory is one of the most important factors on overclocking. Cas 2 memory modules and brand cnamed hips on the memory sticks are of Major importance. It is essential that same memory modules regarding the size and the type, must be used. Among the top Memory manufacturers are Samsung,Corsair,Kingston and Crucial.

The Importance of Cooling

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By increasing the multiplier of the CPU, the core temperature will rise eventually. Is essentially therefore to have a good cooling device attached on your CPU. A copper based heatsink will be the best sollution for dealing with the higher temps of the CPU.The are other costly sollutions of cooling such as WaterCooling or Peltiers so if u got few hundred $$ to spare go for em :)

The Importance of Voltage

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More speed demands more power ! Increased core CPU speeds require more voltage from the system. You can adjust the core voltage through your BIOS settings (+0.5v/+0.75 and so on). By increasing the FSB the whole system stretches out. Memory among others needs more voltage to deal with the higher FSB speeds. Again there is an option in the BIOS that deals with the Mem Voltage (2.5v/2.6v/2.7v/2.8v)

Conclusion

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Overclocking depends upon numerous factors and not only the CPU. The best result will be achieved after lots of tries and errors. The are potential dangers that user must be cautious about such as burnt CPUs,Mem's,V.Cards or even the mobo it self. Therefore is necessary to take each step slowly.

Good Luck !

Amd 1400@1610Mhz Picture

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  • 2 weeks later...

thats good work!

but for xps you need to unlock the chip by filling the gaps between the level one gaps with a non conductive material(ie crayon or superglue).Once the gaps are filled you neeed some conductive silver paint to connect the L1 bridges together

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