I'm currently running a Duron 1100, OC'd to 1250 by 7.5*166 to match my PC2700 RAM, using MSI 6712 mobo. I want a faster chip but can't afford XP2500 or better
I've heard that the 1600 and 1800 Durons can be OCd to 2000 and 2250 respectively just by running them on 166 instead of 133 FSB, turning them into cache crippled Athlons. Also heard that the 1600 is happier than the 1800 for this. Does anyone have any information on this?
I know they have to be FSB clocked due to AMD locking the multiplier now
Also would I be better off with the stock XP2500 instead of the Duron due to the cache level? £30 odd better off? I usually run p2p network 24/7, use PC also for email, web browsing and some gaming (but not much).

if you are going to buy a new cpu i would save up for the 2500+. it's still a good cpu and wont need overclocking for a little while yet.

I would go for the 1600mhz if the choice was only between those two chips.

12*166 would bring you to around 2GHZ. Once you reach there, you can always try to unlock the multiplier & raise the speed a little bit more ( those Durons can still be unlocked, just not as easy as before ).

It's gonna be very hard to get the Ram to run above 166mhz & it's not worth running the Ram out of sync with the FSB.

If you're feeling confident, get the 1800mhz, which would reach something around 2250mhz when raising the FSB to 166mhz.

But any of the two chips should OC quite well & have decent performance even at stock speeds. But once again, nothing is garanteed.

You could stumble on a chip that will not go 100mhz above stock speed. Just keep that in mind when you purchase that item. You will not get a refund because your CPU doesn't OC well.

Cheers Guys, that pretty much confirms what I suspected. Can't afford to wait for the XP to become affordable, I can only scrape together enough at the moment because I'm building a rig for my dad and he's getting the Duron 1100 to save money Hence I need to put new chip in mine in next 2 weeks. I may try the 1800 and if it doesn't OC then I still have a decent increase over my current setup. If that is the case though, how do you unlock a Duron now - is it still the bridging system like on mine? Might have to try unlocking it to run 166 with a lower multiplier....