Athlon 64 Overclocking

[lexxmac]

I'm beginning to wonder if the FSB on A64 can run much higher than are people thinking. The FSB on A64 chips is an on-die link, linking the cpu core and the internal northbridge. Since the memory and Hypertransport speeds are derrived from the FSB speed, you should hit the ceiling on the ram or chipset first. Considering that the multipliers on the hypertransport speed are changeable, I could easily see an 800MHz or 1GHz FSB if you could use a 1x hypertransport multiplier and find RAM that could go that fast. I know there is G-DDR(1) floating around that can do 800Mhz (1600 effective). The question is, if sufficient RAM could be found, and the HT multiplier set to 1x, is there any reason the FSB on CURRENT A64 chips couldn't reach over 800MHz?

 

[Falloutboy]

thier no reason why it can't but memory is the biggie thier won't be any memory that fast out for a while. ddr2 666 is going to be the fastest when thats released. the reason you see video memory that is faster is that is so close to the core its alot easier to ramp up the speed. also thier isn't a very high availability of 1ghz+ ddr2 memory

 

[lexxmac]

here's a PCB card you could make to get the ram close to the cpu:

http://base2.us/a64e.jpg
(excuse the really fast photoshop-ing)

You could get 16 DRAM ICs on this, 8 on top 8 on bottom, and have pins on the underside and a socket on the top. Cost effective and suitable for mass production? Hell no! But still, I'd think it would be awesome to be able to have an 800MHz FSB. Aside from the cost of the PCB and buying some RAM ICs and sockets, I think that this could be done.

 

[Falloutboy]

but then you couldn't upgrade your ram. would you want to upgrde your cpu everytime you want to upgrade your ram?

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy525
but then you couldn't upgrade your ram. would you want to upgrde your cpu everytime you want to upgrade your ram?

The ram used by video cards is also extremely expensive.

 

[lexxmac]

Well, the upgrade limitation had me baffled... for about 5 minutes. Solution is to use a SODIMM. I'm betting that if you could make the trace lengths that short, you should be able to acheive some astounding clock speeds. I'll post photoshop-ed picks later.

EDIT
Here it is :
http://base2.us/a64e2.jpg

 

[FiberoN]