Sup guys...heres a good artical, skim threw it first:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1009&page=2

OK - First off I have this CPU. They say they pushed it to 1.9Ghz using an average h/s & fan via setting the Vcore to 1.85v :

"Clock speed stayed around 1.9GHz (up from 1.73GHz of the native XP 2100+) with simple air cooling and a Vcore set to 1.85V. ".

Well in my BIOS I can set the Vcore to 1.85v. Does this mean I dont have to unlock the CPU? Im no expert here, as in I've never even try'ed to o/c a CPU before. But hey - If I could get my XP to 2Ghz that would be cool, just cuz its 2Ghz .
Thanks...

Heh - I read that article earlier today. Like they said, don't unlock the 2100+. Did you get the SLK800 like I said? Or just using stock?

They're actually talking about 1.9GHz as lowering the multiplier and raising the FSB, they raised it to 180MHz.

Be careful when raising your VCore, you can really mess up your CPU if you set it to high. Be sure not to use the OVERVOLT jumper on the A7V8x.

I can get my 2100+ to boot @ 2017MHz, but Windows doesn't like it. I raised my voltage to at least 1.8V. I'm not using stock cooling though

You could get your 2100+ up to 1936MHz, 149x13, pretty easily now with stock cooling I'd bet; without changing your voltage. If I were you I wouldn't go above 1.725V, but that already might be too much...

Woohooo! how cool is that. lets see I can overclock my athlon and void the warranty, shorten the life, and even possibly totally trash it for a 200mhz gain. which will only be noticable in some artificial benchmark. gosh why didnt I think of this before?:rolleyes:

I wont bother If I can only get it to 1.9Ghz...Thats only 200Mhz faster which wont make a diff. Lowering the multiplier and raising the FSB would be easy though, right?

You can't change the multiplier at all without unlocking it, which is explained at length why you shouldn't do it in that very article.

I don't overclock usually. 1733MHz is plenty fast for surfing the net and using mIRC

Yeah tell me about it - its just too bad a do alot more than surf the net and use mIRC.

there is NOTHING you do that Oc'ing is going to make a NOTICABLE difference in EXCEPT artifical benchmarks.

Me too. I just usually surf the net and use mIRC I'm not gaming or running benchmarks the whole time I'm on my machine.

First off, how does this void the warrenty of the CPU? There is no way to tell that a CPU has been overclocked, and also, with CPU's such as XP1700+ hitting 2ghz+ easily, that is a very nice speed gain which will be seen in all applications! And with cooling solutions such as Water becoming far more popular, you aren't gonna break anything unless your plain stupid..for example this bloke over at xtremesystems, hit 2710mhz STABLE with a XP1700+ ...with a homemade water-cooling! Now 2710mhz from a £40 CPU is very nice indeed....

...so yes, overclocking can be very benficial, when done right

Good point, how would one tell?

Well said.

if you call AMD I am certain that they will inform you that overclocking does void your warranty.

well now here there are two issues. one if the chip has to be unlocked by modding it then you can tell it has been overclocked.
two depends on your moral character....if your the sort that doesnt mind being a lying cheat then it wont faze you to misuse a product then return it under a warranty claim.

a 600 mhz gain woop te doo. again, even a 600 mhz gain is only going to be noticable in a artifical benchmark not in real world usage so whats the point? plain and simple in real world usuage ( not artifical benchmarks) you cannot tell a noticable difference unless you more than double what your processor speed allready is.

This is the type of thinking that makes me laugh the hardest. the overclocker who doestn want to spend the money for say a 2Ghz processor so he buys a 1.4 Ghz and overclocks it to 2Ghz and in the process usually spends MORE money on cooling solutions than it would have cost himto just buy the 2Ghz processor.

and just for the record I am not anti overclocking. if you get your jollies from artifical benchmarks then overclocking can be rewarding. BUT.......dont try to tell me that overclocking is necessary or has practical benefits. it doesnt.

iss you are completely and totally wrong.

Perhaps in the higher end of the spectrum, especially that people go all-out for cooling and then spend 6 hours a day surfing the net, yes, overclocking has no real purpose.

However, for someone like me, who cannot afford the newest hardware OR would like to push their hardware to the limit, overclocking has very practical use.

Example.

I wanted to have a computer that I would have to watch DIVX movies on. I didn't have any pentium 2 class cpu or board at the time (celeronA+, p2, p3), all I had was a k6 box. It was clocked at 400mhz and could not play movies reliably without skipping/pausing. Now I could have either forked over the cash for a new rig that could play movies reliably, or possibly even piece one together for only $100 or so total (board, cpu, ram, etc).

However, instead, I overclocked.

Rather then spend an obscene amount of money on cooling though, I simply modified the existing one by sanding it down, getting a cheap (cheap) thermal goop tube, putting a $4 fan to exhaust air from the case, and brought the cpu up to 522mhz. I made a few other changes as well, a slight FSB overclock, a few memory tweaks.

Viola, I could watch all the movies I wanted at full speed without skipping or the audio getting out of sync.

Total cost? $11. Total gain? Extended the life of the system by another year rather then having to purchase a new one.


Another example.

I do a lot of compiling. I ended up installing gentoo on my p3 several times, from base (stage1, I never use precompiled binaries and I always bootstrap). Originally it took around 4 hours to do bootstrap, build system, compile kernel. This normally wouldn't be too bad except that i was doing it so often. Then, when I started to get into things like compiling KDE3, it would take OBSCENELY long - 9 hours sometimes. It was taking way too much time.

But again, I couldn't afford to buy a newer system.

So, with a very simply case mod that cost me only the time to do it, I then took that box from 100mhz FSB to 120mhz FSB, from 1ghz p3 to 1200mhz.

I shaved almost an hour off the time it took for base install, and MORE then 3 hours of time off of the KDE compile.

That was just one of many applications.


And yet another example.

I used to be a lot heavier into gaming.. recently not as much. However, I was having difficult achieving a constant framerate in UT. At certain points it would dip low - way too low - low as 10fps. I couldn't live with that if I was playing a very fast-paced game over the net. I couldn't afford a better video card, but with some software tweaks, a CPU overclock of about +10%,, then an overclock of the video card memory core, I never saw 10fps again, it was now dipping to maybe 25fps or 30.

Months, even years later, all those systems are still healthy and still functioning.

Don't ever for one minute tell me overclocking has no purpose, no point. Sure, maybe with the highest end systems we don't currently have a need for massive OC, but as more demanding software is released, I will be spending the time modifiying my own system with things I can do at minimal cost, rather then forking over more and more money to get the "biggest and best".

well soul I would say you are an exception in what you describe I can see overclocking. but we both know that this is not the "norm" most overclockers are not trying to overcome the limitations of their current system in order to acheive a practical benefit. most are doing it so they can achive a higher benchmark score to brag about. or just to say hey, my 1.4 is running at 2 Ghz!.

an example being what has so far been discussed in this thread. what can a system with 1.4 Ghz overclocked to 2 Ghz do that a standard 1.4 Ghz cant? what Os or applications currently available and comonly used taxes the capabilities of a 1.4 Ghz?

in short overclocking is not commonly the realm of people with obsolete hardware trying to improve their systems performance for practical reasons.

I overclocked an AMD 486 DX4-SE 100mhz to 160mhz

It was enough to make it run windows 2000 smoothly and be able to play mp3s without skipping

I overclocked my wife once, she did the ironing in half the time, and all it cost me was £7.00 ( for a very, very large whip )

Rick,

you make some valid points. I hadnt really considered the encoding thing. but I did specify COMMONLY used and since DVD burners arent common in most folks computers.....( Quibble....Quibble )

my views about what "most" overclockers do is based on what I see on the net and read at overclockers sites. most of their motive for overclocking seems to be based on a desire for a higher 3D mark score instead of playing a game smoother or encoding faster. AND from the specs I have read on many systems it is pretty obvious that for what they spent on their high end cooling solutions they could have just as well bought a faster CPU and got the same results.

I am not against overclocking even if it is just for the heck of it. I enjoy tinkering with hardware too. but if I can acheive the same results with a stock cooled CPU that I can with a cheaper CPU+ primo cooling hardware. and the end result I spend as much or more than buying a faster CPU I fail to see the point.