First let me start off by saying that I am a newbie when it comes to overclocking. I bought this CPU specifically to learn about overclocking and dealing with issues that may occur during the process. Although these are rather silly questions, but I hope you will forgive me for bothering you by asking them. 
Here's my test setup:
ASUS A7V133 (rev. 1.04)
AMD Duron 600MHz ("blue core"
256MB PC-143 "Mosel Vitelic" SDRAM
GlobalWin FOP32-1
All this is running on Windows 2000 Professional, because I heard that it's more fussy about systems running out of spec than Windows 9x. (Also, I am overclocking a new system that I built for a friend, and it gave me the opportunity to run Windows 2000 before I decide whether to format and partition my own HD.)
I started off a few days ago trying to find out the maximum FSB speed it could handle. I went from 100MHz to 105MHz, then to 108MHz, 110MHz, and even 112MHz... I've read stories of this being the limit on many KT133 motherboards, and although this mainboard comes with the KT133A chipset, I thought that it should give the same "problems" as long as a 100MHz FSB CPU is used. I was surprised to see that it ran fine: Prime95 was doing its thing quite happily in the background for hours on end, while looping Unreal Tournament and ripping a bunch of CDs to MP3 format all at the same time. It didn't seem to have a single (negative) effect on the system's stability. I ran 112MHz for almost a day, but was expecting the system to run into trouble, I guess.
Anyway... even at 112MHz, the chip was only running @672MHz. I then decided to set the FSB to 100MHz again, and mess around with the multiplier a bit. I went from 6x100MHz to 7x100MHz, with no increase in core voltage (1.55V). After almost 12 hours, I upped the pace to 800MHz, thinking my CPU could easily handle that. That was yesterday, and no problems whatsoever. Then tonight, when I tried to increase to a multiplier of 8.5, it wouldn't work: I can only set it to 8.0x or 9.0x.
I use Motherboard Monitor 5 to check the speed & temperature of my CPU, but it says that the chip is running at 808MHz. I rebooted and checked the BIOS, but the multiplier was correctly set to 8.5x. I then set it to 9.0, and this time MBM5 said it was running at 909MHz. So why does it appear impossible to choose 8.5x?
Writing this, I begin to realise that I should probably have tried 6.5x and 7.5x, also. I will do that as soon as I finish writing this message, and edit to report my results. If those settings don't work, either, then I guess I messed up unlocking my CPU? Or would it not allow me to change the multiplier at all if that was done incorrectly?
Also, I'm at 1.55V... from 600MHz to 900MHz (I admit to only having had it at 900MHz for a few minutes), should I not have to increase the voltage a little? After all, this is a 50% increase over its original speed setting. (Prime95 did display an error, but back at 808MHz, it's now all fine again.)
<edit>
So I just checked, and both MBM5 and CPU-Z (CPUID programme) say that at 6.5x, the CPU is running at 606MHz; at 7.5x, they say it's at 707MHz. I can't believe both programmes contain an error, so I assume it's either the BIOS or my unlocking skills. Any ideas?
</edit>
Here's my test setup:
ASUS A7V133 (rev. 1.04)
AMD Duron 600MHz ("blue core"
256MB PC-143 "Mosel Vitelic" SDRAM
GlobalWin FOP32-1
All this is running on Windows 2000 Professional, because I heard that it's more fussy about systems running out of spec than Windows 9x. (Also, I am overclocking a new system that I built for a friend, and it gave me the opportunity to run Windows 2000 before I decide whether to format and partition my own HD.)
I started off a few days ago trying to find out the maximum FSB speed it could handle. I went from 100MHz to 105MHz, then to 108MHz, 110MHz, and even 112MHz... I've read stories of this being the limit on many KT133 motherboards, and although this mainboard comes with the KT133A chipset, I thought that it should give the same "problems" as long as a 100MHz FSB CPU is used. I was surprised to see that it ran fine: Prime95 was doing its thing quite happily in the background for hours on end, while looping Unreal Tournament and ripping a bunch of CDs to MP3 format all at the same time. It didn't seem to have a single (negative) effect on the system's stability. I ran 112MHz for almost a day, but was expecting the system to run into trouble, I guess.
Anyway... even at 112MHz, the chip was only running @672MHz. I then decided to set the FSB to 100MHz again, and mess around with the multiplier a bit. I went from 6x100MHz to 7x100MHz, with no increase in core voltage (1.55V). After almost 12 hours, I upped the pace to 800MHz, thinking my CPU could easily handle that. That was yesterday, and no problems whatsoever. Then tonight, when I tried to increase to a multiplier of 8.5, it wouldn't work: I can only set it to 8.0x or 9.0x.
I use Motherboard Monitor 5 to check the speed & temperature of my CPU, but it says that the chip is running at 808MHz. I rebooted and checked the BIOS, but the multiplier was correctly set to 8.5x. I then set it to 9.0, and this time MBM5 said it was running at 909MHz. So why does it appear impossible to choose 8.5x?
Writing this, I begin to realise that I should probably have tried 6.5x and 7.5x, also. I will do that as soon as I finish writing this message, and edit to report my results. If those settings don't work, either, then I guess I messed up unlocking my CPU? Or would it not allow me to change the multiplier at all if that was done incorrectly?
Also, I'm at 1.55V... from 600MHz to 900MHz (I admit to only having had it at 900MHz for a few minutes), should I not have to increase the voltage a little? After all, this is a 50% increase over its original speed setting. (Prime95 did display an error, but back at 808MHz, it's now all fine again.)
<edit>
So I just checked, and both MBM5 and CPU-Z (CPUID programme) say that at 6.5x, the CPU is running at 606MHz; at 7.5x, they say it's at 707MHz. I can't believe both programmes contain an error, so I assume it's either the BIOS or my unlocking skills. Any ideas?
</edit>
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