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Overclocking an AMD Athlon XP Barton 2600+
Dud - Jan 24, 2004

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  Scared0o0Rabbit Jan 25, 2004
yes.

 Gallstaff Jan 25, 2004
ooh jeeze that doesnt seem like it would be worth it to me. Maybe you should try and get another nice setup from thermalright or something.

 gameboy900 Jan 25, 2004
Without any messy unlocking of the cpu (NOT RECOMMENDED IT CAN KILL YOUR CPU EASILY) the only thing you can (and should) do to overclock is raise your FSB speed. You will never reach 400, that's impossible. 200 is what you can acheive easily. At that rate your cpu will be around the 3200-3400+ mark. Heat shouldn't be a problem if you're running a heatsink and fan that can handle a 3200+ cpu. Raising your FSB over 200 generally isn't a good idea as it makes the system unstable. Also you have to make sure your RAM is able to keep up. For 200 FSB you need ram rated at 3200 or more.

I'm currently running the 2500+ Barton at 200FSB which makes it a 3200+ cpu. My temps are only 3-4 degrees C higher than what they would be at 2500+, even at full load. And all this with a regular Volcano 9 heatsink and fan running at half speed (bout 4200 RPM).

Unless you plan on using watercooling you won't be getting a stable system above a 215-220 FSB ever. The other more imporntant thing you can also tweak once you reach 200 is your ram settings. If you got cheapo generic ram there probably isn't much you can do. But if you got some high-quality (preferably two sticks so you can take advantage of Dual Channel) RAM you can easily lower the settings to get more out of them.

A good test for all this I found is to install 3dMark2k1, 3dMark2k3 and AquaMark3. I run each one in succession once, write down the result. Then repeat that 2 more times and average the 3 values for each program. I then use SiSoft Sandra to measure my RAM throughput (again three tests averaged). I do this for every setting change so I can see if what I did imporved any performace and by how much. The other benefit is that since these programs put ALOT of strees on your PC it will let you know fairly well if the PC is stable. If any of the programs crashes or freezes your system is not stable and you need to back off on the settings.

 Dud Jan 25, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by gameboy900@Jan 25, 2004 @ 10:00 PM



 Without any messy unlocking of the cpu (NOT RECOMMENDED IT CAN KILL YOUR CPU EASILY) the only thing you can (and should) do to overclock is raise your FSB speed. You will never reach 400, that's impossible. 200 is what you can acheive easily. At that rate your cpu will be around the 3200-3400+ mark. Heat shouldn't be a problem if you're running a heatsink and fan that can handle a 3200+ cpu. Raising your FSB over 200 generally isn't a good idea as it makes the system unstable. Also you have to make sure your RAM is able to keep up. For 200 FSB you need ram rated at 3200 or more.



I'm currently running the 2500+ Barton at 200FSB which makes it a 3200+ cpu. My temps are only 3-4 degrees C higher than what they would be at 2500+, even at full load. And all this with a regular Volcano 9 heatsink and fan running at half speed (bout 4200 RPM).



Unless you plan on using watercooling you won't be getting a stable system above a 215-220 FSB ever. The other more imporntant thing you can also tweak once you reach 200 is your ram settings. If you got cheapo generic ram there probably isn't much you can do. But if you got some high-quality (preferably two sticks so you can take advantage of Dual Channel) RAM you can easily lower the settings to get more out of them.



A good test for all this I found is to install 3dMark2k1, 3dMark2k3 and AquaMark3. I run each one in succession once, write down the result. Then repeat that 2 more times and average the 3 values for each program. I then use SiSoft Sandra to measure my RAM throughput (again three tests averaged). I do this for every setting change so I can see if what I did imporved any performace and by how much. The other benefit is that since these programs put ALOT of strees on your PC it will let you know fairly well if the PC is stable. If any of the programs crashes or freezes your system is not stable and you need to back off on the settings.


I thought the 2600+ Barton was already at 333 FSB. At any rate, thank you for your advice gameboy. Mushkin RAM is good enought to do some tweaking with right?

 Pearl Jammzz Jan 25, 2004
well, it is at 333. but it's run like DDR ram, at 2x the speed. so 333 is actually 166. if you up yer stock bus speed from 166 to 200 it'll make you have a FSB of 400. I have never messed w/ ram so I dunno about that. I have looked int othis a lot (I have an asus a7n8x deluxe w/ 2500+) and I would reccomend the Thermalright SLK900A... with sum Artic Silver.... As for a fan, my PC is right next to my bed so it needs to be quiet SO I need a quiet fan that pushes a decent ammount of air. If this is what yer setup is I would say get the Panaflo M rated fan.... If you could stand a little bit more noise (if the PC is in another room) than get the H rated Panaflo.... If noise isn't that big of an issue at all then get the U rated one.... It's by far the most powerful but also produces the most noise.

Another thing that will help you get cooler temps is organise the wires in your case. Use zipties and get all the cords out of the way of the air, move em to the side of the case or however you can so it wont mess w/ the air goin through the case. You pretty much want to get air moving in and out of the case...in through the front (intake fans) and out through the back (exhaust fans). I dunno what case you have but it should have atleast 1 intake fan...either way, you might wanna get sum new intake/exhaust fans if u haven't already. Once again I reccomend the Panaflo series. I am a stifler for noise so I am getting the pussy but extremely quiet L rated Panaflo.... I have 2 intake and 2 exhaust places in my case so 4 of these puppies will more than suffice. Again if you don't mind noise much get the M rated ones (see above for link...i'm lazy by now). I wouldn't go any higher than the M rated ones though.....you get 3-4 of those runnin and u have a lot of noise. I would imagine if u got the H rated ones it'd be too much damn noise, haha.

Hope this helps you out. Look at mine and Gallstaff's "I building teh c0mptar" topics for sum more info. just do a search w/ the quoted stuff and u should be good. Well, enjoy, lata.

 Alexvrb Jan 27, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mountaindud@Jan 26, 2004 @ 03:31 AM



 I thought the 2600+ Barton was already at 333 FSB. At any rate, thank you for your advice gameboy. Mushkin RAM is good enought to do some tweaking with right?


It is at a FSB of 333. But that also means 166. As already explained, its like DDR memory... so when he said he wanted to OC it to a FSB of 400Mhz, I immediately knew what he meant. 200Mhz actual clock, 400Mhz effective. Gameboy either misunderstood, or ignored the fact that people often refer to them by their effective speeds, and this includes the manufacturers. I'm assuming he just thought that you actually meant a 400Mhz clock, which is so unachieveable its crazy.

I might be getting a Vantec Aeroflow 1/2, or maybe an Aero 7+. I mean, it'd be great to have a Thermalright SP-97, but I'm not shelling out the money for that. Add a fan and you start creeping up on lowend watercooling. Besides, I don't need to cool my Athlon XP 1800+ as much and it's easy to unlock. Any more cooling might be overkill unless I replace the motherboard.

Anyway, if you really want to OC, you can get a nice heatsink and a medium speed panaflo as Pearl Jammzz suggested. You could also use ducting if you want to pull in cold air directly. Also, it is NOT hard to unlock your CPU so you can lower the multiplier a little if needed to get the FSB up. Its not as easy as mine, I can just use a little conductive ink, but you can buy the Speed Strip product (check your CPU model # to make sure though) and then you don't need to modify the CPU yourself.

Edit: Oh yeah and Arctic Silver is up to 5 now. Last time I bought some it was AS 3. Hmm, getting pricey too, but its good stuff.

 gameboy900 Jan 27, 2004
No no I know the difference between 266 and 133 and such. I was just making sure he knew that in the BIOS of his board (which I also have) it will be the lower number used not the 400 (or 800 if you take intels propaganda) speeds you hear everyone throwing around. I've had people complain to me that their mobo wouldn't let them select 400 and only went up to like 200something.

As for cooling I'd have to say that case cooling is more important to spend money on the the heatsink and fan. For me with the side panel off I can get 2-4 degrees lower temps than with it on. I need to go and buy a couple more fans for my case as it doesn't have the best cooling. The heatsink and fan need to run just fast enough to cool the cpu down. Some have a sensor that can automatically change the RPM of the fan depending on how much cooling is needed. 99% of the time it will run on the slow speed reduceing noise alot. Then when your cpu goes into overdrive the fan kicks in to keep things cool. The most important part of cooling a cpu is getting a cooler that is rated to work on the final speed cpu you'd be running and applying the Arctic Silver (DON'T BOTHER WITH THE WHITE CRAP THEY NORMALLY COME WITH) properly. The clips on my heatsink were getting a little loose so the whole thing was starting to sag a little. I took a zip tie and attached the heatsink to my powersuppy to lift it up a bit and my temps imediately droppped 2 degrees.

 Dud Jan 27, 2004
I just realized that my FSB was only set to 100. I always wondered why Windows says my processor runs at 1150mhz. Well anyway, what about temperature ranges? Right now with all 6 case fans on full blast my CPU reads 30 C, and the motherboard is at 17. At what point should you be concerned about it getting too hot? Also it seems that you all recommend the Panaflo fans with that one heatsink over the Zalman fan Curtis suggested. Is it a lot better?

 Scared0o0Rabbit Jan 27, 2004
AS skipped over 4, because a major portion of their market is japanese, and the number 4 if I remember my japanese right can also mean death.

 Pearl Jammzz Jan 27, 2004
it's best to keep things under 45 celecius at FULL USE!. I like mine to idle at mid to upper 30's.

 Dud Jan 27, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Scared0o0Rabbit@Jan 27, 2004 @ 05:00 PM



 AS skipped over 4, because a major portion of their market is japanese, and the number 4 if I remember my japanese right can also mean death.


Four in japanese is (yon). That means death too?

I brought the FSB back up to recommended, 166 (333). It appears to idle at 35 celsisus.

 Alexvrb Jan 28, 2004
Athlons are pretty tough. You'll be fine idling around 40C, and at load around 55-65C. My friend's damaged Athlon XP runs at higher-than-normal temps (and I won't screw with it because I'm afraid the die is going to crack, its already chipped at one corner), but at full load it gets up to 70+C without stability issues. He's too cheap to get a new CPU, so I am just going to leave well enough alone (though I disabled the warning beep). I AM going to get him another intake fan though, I have a spare 80mm fan.

So whenever you get the HS/fan of your choice installed (I like Aero 7+ because of the clearance and 3.5" fan control, but there are certainly bigger and better heatsink like that SP-97 juggernaut), using some Arctic Silver 5, you're ready to go. Up the voltage a teeny bit and get the FSB moving up. Speaking of which, is your memory rated for 200Mhz operation, because synchronous RAM/FSB operation is really preferable. Would be much faster.

Rabbit: I didn't know they skipped one. LOL that explains why I didn't notice a 4. Went from 3 to 5, I thought they were just that fast!

 Dud Jan 28, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Alexvrb@Jan 28, 2004 @ 01:02 AM



 Speaking of which, is your memory rated for 200Mhz operation, because synchronous RAM/FSB operation is really preferable. Would be much faster.


Yes I bought PC3200 Ram, I figured I'd eventually overclock.

 gameboy900 Jan 29, 2004
One thing to keep in mind is that on the Asus A7N8X boards there are TWO places to read the CPU temp. One reads it from the socket, the other from the cpu itself. For me the socket temp is at about 36C and the cpu temp is at around 44C. For the socket temp case air flow makes a big difference. Under load the socket temp stays the same but the cpu temp normally jumps to around 50-52C.

If you go the the Motherboard Monitor 5 homepage they have instructions on how to properly set it up to read the CORRECT temps for these boards. Also if you have newer hard drives they have temp sensors in them too that this program can monitor. The temps that you see in the BIOS and the AsusProbe program are hardly reliable (and often wrong).

 Dud Jul 22, 2004
Does anyone know offhand what I can set this to before it blows up? Right now it is at 170x11.5 and Windows is saying it clocks at 1.96Ghz. VCore is at 1.65.

 Alexvrb Jul 23, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mountaindud@Jul 23, 2004 @ 02:45 AM



 Does anyone know offhand what I can set this to before it blows up? Right now it is at 170x11.5 and Windows is saying it clocks at 1.96Ghz. VCore is at 1.65.


As long as you don't raise the vcore too much, raising the FSB (and therefore the clock speed) won't cause it to blow up. It could cause it to become too hot or unstable, in which case you know you've pushed it too far. Try 180 x 11.5. If you have one of the chips that is locked hardcore, all you can do is drive up the FSB. But if you have an older one, a speedstrip could let you drop the multiplier enough to get full 200Mhz.

At any rate, programs like prime95 will help you figure out if you've pushed it too far after you overclock. Run it overnight or something.

 mal Jul 23, 2004
How much is not too much?

I've got a 2500 that doesn't seem to want to play nicely with a 200 FSB and I'm thinking of upping the vcore but I'm not sure how far to go with it.

 Dud Jul 23, 2004
I forgot to buy Arctic Silver . I'm not going to get too agressive until I get that stuff in there. I don't trust that white-glue that came with the cpu cooler. <_<

EDIT: I think VCore should be about 1.8 once you get up to 200. But don't take my word for it, I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'm just giving you something to go off of until someone that knows what's going on comes back.

 Alexvrb Jul 23, 2004
I don't think I'd jack it up to 1.8, but I tend to keep my CPUs around for a while. Try pushing it up a little bit, make sure all your other components are happy too.

 Pearl Jammzz Jul 23, 2004
I have a 2500+ and my vcore is at where is was stock. I am runnin mine at about 2.4ghz right now me thinks. If you just up the FSB to 200, that'll make your chip a 3200+. If you do that, and have PC3200 ram, yer all set. GREAT boost in speed. Then I just upped the multiplier one step, ran Prime95 overnight and clocked temp and everything worked fine, so I upped it a lil more, tested again, everything was fine, added sum more, etc. Till I maxed out what my BIOS will let me do. I am happy where it is now .

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