Basic OC questions from an OC newbie

[CollinsCollector]

For reference, mobo is A7V133 with 256MB Crucial CL2 PC133 SDRAM and "retail" 1GHz/200MHz "locked" T-bird with "stock" HSF. BIOS is 1004.

This is a fairly new system and my first experience with AMD/VIA. No previous experience in OCing anything!

(1) When a T-bird is LOCKED, can the multiplier be adjusted downward, or is the multiplier not adjustable at all? (The BIOS permits adjustment, but I haven't tried it yet)

(2) Leaving the multiplier set at 10X (default), about how fast can the FSB be set before "unwanted things" began to happen? I'm currently at 108MHz and all is well.

Thanks in advance...

 

[RabeaticSquirrel]

MoBo should OC rather well, from what I hear, that board is very stable at higher FSB settings...

RAM should also OC extremely well...

if the 1GHz chip is still locked it WILL NOT OC up or down. I hate the pencil trick but if it floats your boat give it a shot. I would personally not reccommend doing anything until you replace that "retail" HS/fan.

the BIOS will permit adjustment of the FSB, however, if the A7V133 is anything like my A7V, you will need to use the board dip switches to alter the FSB, multiplier, and core V.

One thing you need to definately do is update your BIOS...

How far you can push the FSB without "funny" things happening depends totally on the quality of your components..keep going in small increments or until you get that "gut" feeling to stop.

 

[arod324]

The KT133A chipset is very good with higher FSB's. I don't know if your CPU would be able to handle the heat if you cranked it up to 1.333 (by moving the FSB to 133). What you may try to do, is to unlock your cpu, lower the multiplier, and then crank it up to 133mhz FSB. This is because this will make your entire system faster because of the higher FSB. So maybe go something like 8X133 or 9X133.

 

[CollinsCollector]

Thanks for the input, group.

I double checked the BIOS and 1004 is the latest I could find for the A7V133. Please advise if you are aware of a later version.

I'm taking the lazyman's approach to OCing at this point. In fact, with a locked processor, just raising the FSB probably doesn't even fall under the definition of OCing! But, the capability is there, so I have to try it!

Should I decide to unlock, I would use some method other than the pencil trick. And, of course, get a much better HSF.

Later......