PCA Forums

Hey, I was wondering if it would be smart to overclock my Athlon XP 1900+. It idles at about 40C and with 100% cpu it's about 47C. Do you think I could overclock it? I already know overclocking an XP processor isn't as easy as going into the SoftMenu and changing it... do you have to physically solder something? Thanks.

you can jsut up the FSB in the bios. set it to 140 or something.

Greg

But that's not OCing the cpu is it? Don't you have to unlock the cpu by solderin something to overclock?

overclock=anything faster than rated speed

you can change the fsb or change fsb/ mulitplier together

the highest overclcoks seem to be low multi/high fsb

if you're going to oc that cpu you need to improve your cooling 'cause you're gonna pop over 50C which is starting to get too hot

you may need to up cpu core. ddr, agp and whatever else voltage for stability

trying upping the fsb to 142 for starters and keep an eye on your temps

Well, i have 80mm 6 case fans, 8,000rpm cpu fan with a relatively nice sink ($25), gpu fan, chipset cooler, 92mm psu intake, 80mm psu exhaust. 11 fans total, and they're nicely positioned too... When i first build my computer, cpu idle temp was about 55C, and full load was 62C. Then i went out and got some stuff to cool it down. first i got rid of my retail fan and got my beast with some artic silver, then i got new case, large Antec one with 4 case fans. Then i put in a window with 2 case fans in it, top one for exhaust, bottom for intake. Now, on cool nights, my case temp is below 20C, and my cpu temp is below 40C. I'm thinking of getting rid of my beastly cpu fan and getting one of those slk-800's or whatever with a powerful 80mm fan (not the quietest, but will be quieter and more efficient than the beast. Anyways, i doubt i'll OC my computer cause i really don't care about OCing the fsb as much as the cpu itself, in which case i'd have to unlock my cpu, which i know i would screw up. I'd probably be better off getting a T-bird and OCing that, money wise. Actually, if you want to just see my computer, go here:

http://www.pcabusers.com/forums/showthr ... adid=21543

Your temps are fine... Crank the Vcore up to 1.85 on the KR7A and up the FSB to 140-145... It will run a little hotter but not much. What HSF do you have?

I have a Dynatron DC1206BM-L625. It's rated at 6800rpm, but it's generally around 7,600rpm, and i've seen it run at 8,100rpm before according to Winbond Hardware Doctor (came with motherboard). I have some Artic Silver on it, or whatever it's called. The bottom of the sink was a littel scratched, but it seems to be pretty good temperatures. My 6 case fans i think are all rated at 2,500-3,000rpm, but then rarely go over 2,000rpm... I'm assuming it's the motherboard telling them they don't need to spin too fast cause it's already an igloo inside there (well, 20-25C) Not to sound like a complete dipshit, but where do i up the FSB and vcore? On HWDoctor it says the high limit is 1.95V, and the low limit is at 1.55V. Mine is at 1.76-1.78. I assume in the bios, er, "softmenu" as AMD calls it? Oh, what is the Vbat? I thought it was the little battery on the m/b for controling time, but i have no real reason to assume that. The reason i ask is because it's the only thing that run towards to high side as voltage goes (low limit=2.70V, high limit=3.30V, mine=3.17V) I'm not great with this area of computers yet, but i know there's the memory bus and the front side bus... It's a no brainer what the memory bus is, but what is the fsb actually? I alway assumed it had something to do with the cpu, but yet again, i have no real reason to think that. Thanks for your help.

the Front side bus (fsb) is a better why to OC then just upinc the cor speed. as it speeds up the CPU, Ram, and chipset. as well as the agp and pci bus speeds depending where you go with it.

Soft menu is what the Mboard makers call it not amd. You can usually find these options on the top left option in the mboard bios screen.

Greg

Ah, i finally figured this out... But i really don't want to hurt any hardware... are you guys sure this will work? what is the most safe to do? All i know is my multiplier is at 12, and my fsb is currently 133.

just go ahead an nudge that fsb up to 142 - either it will boot or it won't . if it doesn't you'll just have to reset your cmos - and you'll be back at 133

Is there a jumper that does that??? What about the Vcore? does that need to be upped???

You need to head over to overclockers.com or tomshardware and read up on some basic overclocking for your processor/motherboard to better understand what you're doing.

If you want to be completely safe, dont overclock at all.
There's always the possibility of corrupting data and losing it.
Generally you aren't going to hurt hardware physically as there's lots of built in safeguards if you set it up right.

You have nice hardware that is capable of overclocking with very little risk.

good luck but do some homework

Ya, i overclocked it to 1.68GHz a while ago, but i decided 80MHz isn't going to make a difference except a VERY small bragging right. not only does 80MHz not make a difference, my brother's 1.4GHz Tbird did jsut as well on the tests as my 1.6GHz Athlon XP... I don't see a reason to overclock, unless you put $200 into water cooling, which is also a waste of time and money. It's back at 1.6 now, the temps are down about 5C, and i really don't care what it's at. I've actually thought about underclocking it and puttign on my retail fan so it's quiet again. I'll probably end up getting the SLK-800 with a Zantec Stealth fan... I'm tired of my weedwacker that i have in there now, it's too loud. My old dell was silent, i'd say this computer is about 100DBA currently...