New to the athlon scene

[luderob]

Wassup everyone. I been browsing these boards and its been very helpful. A lot of knowledgable people here. I just have a couple of questions. I finally decided to upgrade my old P3 600e to something faster and more powerful. I've always been an intel guy, but I saw that the athlon was just too much of a bargain and I was on a budget. So I went and ordered a 1.33 Athlon and the Epox 8K7A mb ( i don't need the raid). I'm also gonna order some ram from crucial. My question is all regarding overclocking. What I wanted to know is in order to overclock, do I need to pencil something in? Whats the best method for overclocking an athlon? Do I change the multiplier or am I suppose to change the FSB like in Intel processors? Whats generally cosidered a safe voltage range for athlons? Also, I'm guessing stock HSF won't cut it? Should I get the alpha? Also, am I gonna have to fiddle with any memory things? I did a search on epox, and a couple of them were talking about memory timings and a bunch of other wierd things. Well, I'm hoping I have a very smooth install and trasition. My other components are SBLIVE, Linksys Network card, SCSI card (for cdrw) and a tnt2 (the tnt2 is gonna get tossed real soon!). Thanks for all the help.

 

[Insane3D]

The 1.33ghz Athlon should be unlocked so the pencil trick will not be needed. A good HSF is the Taisol copper bottom and it is pretty reasonable. As for overclocking, a combination of multiplier and FSB will yield the best results. As far as a safe voltage, 1.75v is default, and up to 1.9v or so should be safe with good cooling. I like to follow these steps for installing a Tbird/8K7A setup.

1. Format HD and install OS
2. Install the latest 4-in-1 drivers, except the AGP driver.
3. Install AMD's latest AGP driver.
4. Install video card, soundcard, and remaining hardware drivers.
5. Update OS

If you need any help setting things up, feel free to send me a private message when you are setting everything up.

 

[Scouzer]

<< Wassup everyone. I been browsing these boards and its been very helpful. A lot of knowledgable people here. I just have a couple of questions. I finally decided to upgrade my old P3 600e to something faster and more powerful. I've always been an intel guy, but I saw that the athlon was just too much of a bargain and I was on a budget. So I went and ordered a 1.33 Athlon and the Epox 8K7A mb ( i don't need the raid). I'm also gonna order some ram from crucial. My question is all regarding overclocking. What I wanted to know is in order to overclock, do I need to pencil something in? Whats the best method for overclocking an athlon? Do I change the multiplier or am I suppose to change the FSB like in Intel processors? Whats generally cosidered a safe voltage range for athlons? Also, I'm guessing stock HSF won't cut it? Should I get the alpha? Also, am I gonna have to fiddle with any memory things? I did a search on epox, and a couple of them were talking about memory timings and a bunch of other wierd things. Well, I'm hoping I have a very smooth install and trasition. My other components are SBLIVE, Linksys Network card, SCSI card (for cdrw) and a tnt2 (the tnt2 is gonna get tossed real soon!). Thanks for all the help. >>



Insane 3D beat me damn

Oy, too many questions! I'll try here

1) You shouldn't need to pencil anything, my understanding is most 1.2ghz and later processors are already unlocked
2) Personally I would jack up the FSB until it won't go any higher stable, then fiddle with the multiplier, as raising FSB increases the whole system's performance.
3) Stock HSF probably won't cut it, correct
4) You might be able to get a higher FSB if you put your RAM to CAS3 but its your choice
5) Remember to get the latest VIA4in1s from Viahardware or else you may have problems with the SB Live! Make sure you don't install the AGP driver in it though
6) Get the AMD AGP Miniport driver as Insane3D mentioned and I forgot
I think I answered all I know...

 

[luderob]

Dam, I love this forum already. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the help, I let you guys know if anything strange comes up.