oc'ing new XP 1800+ what to expect?

[JoshDaynard]

OK, I've been out of the oc game for a while. My last PC was an AMD K6/233 that I proudly oc'ed to 250MHz (83x3). I thought I was pretty cool at the time to achieve that blazing speed . Now I have just purchased the following components for a new rig and want to know what I can expect in the way of oc:

Coolermaster ATC-201 case
Enermax 431W PSU
Abit KR7A-RAID
Athlon XP 1800+
Alpha PAL8045 HeatSink + 4000RPM Delta Fan
2 x 256MB Crucial PC2100 DDR
2 x Maxtor Diamond Plus 60GB ATA133 (to be configured in RAID 0)
SB Audigy
Pioneer 16X DVD
3-COM NIC
ATI Radeon 8500 Retail

What kind of speeds am I likely to be able to achieve with the above hardware (without unlocking the proc)? What about memory timings, voltages, other BIOS settings for the above setup? Any advice would be appreciated as I prepare to assemble this sucker.

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Assimilator1]

hmm ,I'm not certain here but seeing as no else has answered ,I'll give my thoughts ,I would think you'd get another 100-200 MHz?

 

[billyjak]

I have a 1900 xp oc/ 1730 right now.
I unlocked it, it will go higher but I need a different fan.
You should be able to hit 1700 or better with that setup
The KR7A board rocks.

 

[JoshDaynard]

Excellent ... so do you think I can hit 150MHz FSB on this setup without doing anything too radical? Will I need to up the core voltage or back off the memory timings at that speed?

Billyjack, how hard was it to perform the unlocking? I've seen the articles but I'm feeling a little wimpy about it ... 'fraid i'll fry my proc somehow

Thanks for your advice,
Josh

 

[minendo]

ive got my XP1800+ OCed to 1610 without unlocking it. I could go higher but I would want to unlock it. I just havent had the time to unlock it. Ive been too d@mn busy with school and work.

 

[chizow]

I'm running mine on a very similar rig (8KHA+ though) at 1725mhz (11.5x150FSB). You shouldn't have a problem hitting 145FSB without unlocking the multiplier, however, above that really depends on your components, memory, PSU and temperatures. I have 2 80mm Sunon blowholes and a total of 7 80mm fans in my case, so its well-ventilated. Your results may vary. I also got my XP to POST at ~1870mhz...wouldn't boot Win2k, but it POSTed I've also unlocked my XP, but 10 and 10.5 didn't come out for me. I've gotten the FSB up to 200 and 166, just not at the speeds I want. You should be able to hit around 1700 though, but again, results will vary with your equipment as well as that particular CPUs OCability.

Chiz

 

[Tummy]

My current setup has my 1800+ running at 1694 (154*11) which I've so far found to be my sweet spot. I had it at 150*11.5 for awhile for 1725 but it wasn't 100% stable. I use a swiftech mc462 with sanyo denki fan, better cooling might get my rig higher. I've had my processor post at a whopping 2300... 200*11.5, but it froze after the memory count.

 

[Koch]

i got my 1700+ to 1644.. 12x137... i unlocked it with the deffoger kit and it was friggin hard... i was very suprised that it worked... took me at least 2.5 hours and a whole lotta care

 

[JoshDaynard]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll definitely be happy if I can get ~1700MHz out of this system with FSB increase alone. I assume this would put me in the performance league of a yet to be released stock 2000+?

To those running their XP 1800+ at 1.7GHz or higher, are you using standard core voltage or do you need to up it to run stable at these speeds? What about memory timings at the higher FSB speeds?



<< i unlocked it with the deffoger kit and it was friggin hard >>



What is the defogger kit? I have only seen the tomshardware article with all the crazy taping and conductive material which also seems friggin hard.

Anyway, my components should all arrive by Tuesday ... I'll post my results later this week.

- Josh

 

[Assimilator1]

The defogger kit(demister in UK) ,uses conductive silver paint ,it's intended for repairing rear heated windows in cars.

 

[justinoh]

I'm running on a XP1800+ too and have got it too 1.64Ghz (multiplier locked). I'm currently running on a Senfu Nickel/Copper cooler and I think I can go higher with a higher performing HSF. Haven't had all the time to try though. Just enjoying playing with my baby, last comp was a k6-2 500.

 

[billyjak]

It took me a few tries to get it right.
I started with quick dry nail polish to fill the pits under a magnifying glass mounted in a vice.
I used a toothpick, cut the tip on an angle to make it finer.
One dab at a time in the pits.
When it looked good after many tries get some finger nail remover to use incase you overlap.
I used defogger fluid to bridge the connections, careful here that stuff dries quickly, you can wipe it off quick thoug with the nail polish remover and go again if you have to.
It's a remarkebly small area and I do mean small.
So if your going to do this get the biggeset magnifying glass you can find, or a lighted one the TV shops use if you can find one.
I hear others are taking them in to an electronic store to get it done for a small fee.
Don't worry about the processor if you mess up it just won't ulock, unless you run the fluid over to the next set of bridges.
Take your sweet time as this process tries your patience tremendously.
Good luck

 

[Assimilator1]

I'm gonna give it a go sometime soon ,& hell are those contacts small!:Q ,definatley need a magnifying glass for that!

 

[Reap]

I only got my Athlon 1800+ to 1533@1680mhz (11.5x146)
My voltage is at 1.90 but Sandra read it as 1.86.
My board is Abit KR7A-RAID.
My Memory voltage is at 2.65 and I can get higher (mushkin high pref ram)
The question I have is if my current temp is my problem.
Right now its at 50 degrees on full load.
I can't get 3dmark to run with 147mhz bus.
Even if i increase my memory voltage.
So what I like to know is if a can get higher with my current voltage setting but with better cooling?

Thanks!

Reaperman

 

[Assimilator1]

50C is ok ,I assume you are measuring that temp whilst you are in Windows?

So what I like to know is if a can get higher with my current voltage setting but with better cooling?

That depends on what is causing you not to be able to go higher ,for instance in my case I couldn't originally go above 145MHz due to the RAM ,but after increasing the DRAM precharge to 6 from 5 I am now able to go to 152MHz (won't manage 155MHz).
Setting all the RAM to the highest latencies allowed me to go to 160MHz but there is no point me doing that as the performance gained going to a higher FSB is negated by the effective loss in bandwidth due to higher latency.But it does at least prove my CPU has got more room left to overclock & that it is worth me unlocking it
btw I tried setting a higher RAM voltage & it didn't help ,in fact it caused it to lock up earlier,just after loading the wallpaper! ,instead of just dropping out of Unreal

If your CPU cooling is holding you back then you might get more MHz.The only way you can be certain is to unlock the cpu.Then you could set a lower multilpier with a higher FSB to test to see if your other components can handle the higher FSB ,if so then you could raise the cpu multiplier .

What are you RAM settings set to?

 

[Reap]

Well I did have some problem to get over 143mhz at first.
But when i incresaed the cpu voltage I got to 146mhz.
So I don't think the memory is my problem but you never know...
The memory voltage is at 2.65 and I have tryed to set it to 2.75 but it don't help.

I'm running at:
Cas 2
Bank 4
Precharge 2
Active 5
CMD 2
DQS AUTO
Depth 4
Command rate 2(I got some bugs etc using t1 command rate)

So you don't think the temp got anything to do with it?
I really like to get to 150mhz with my current settings.

 

[flexy]

11.5 * 146 (XP 1800, still locked).... ~~ 1680

The question also should be if your OCed system runs stable....i got prime95..and the system seems rock solid even with the FSB at 146 !
Although FSB of 150 gives me a protection error already booting into windows....

I dont know if it's the XP exceeding it's sweet spot....or the FSB....anyway i am very happy running at almost 1700 and 146 FSB with normal cas2.5 ram (running at cas2) ...and i have one of these quiet sunon fans on my alpha8045....so it's definetly no hardcore overclocker's hardware setup.

 

[Reap]

Well like I said my system works fine with 147mhz bus just that 3dmark crash.
Its rock stable with 146mhz bus.

flexy whats your full load temp?

 

[Reap]

I tried to run my system at 147mhz with cas2.5 and Active to Precahrge(tras) at 5.
But I still get the same problem with 3dmark.

So my problem must have something to do with my processor or cooling.

Please help me!

 

[Assimilator1]

Have you tried precharge at 6?

 

[Reap]

Sorry I did mean 6.
So yes...
Still don't work.
I'm almost sure that the cooling or the processor is my problem.

 

[Zclyh3]

What do you mean by "unlocking your CPU" and how would you do this? Also, after installing your desired heatsink and fan, how do you configure it to overclock?

 

[Zclyh3]

Oh yeah..and what the hell is RAID, what parts do you need with it and how do you configure it? Can RAID be faster then a SCSI 29190N card that transfers 160MB/sec?

 

[JokerF15]

check out the CPU database @ Overclockers for what to expect on the XP1800+

ram will probably start skimping @ 150mhz (cas 2). just change the timings...crucial ram usually oc's pretty high. Good quality stuff.

Loctite rear defogger repair kit to unlock the XP. Ur gonan need Super GLue or something non-conductive to fill the pits.

GEt a magnafying glass or something cuz those pits are SMALL as hell!

-JokerF15

 

[JoshDaynard]

<< What do you mean by "unlocking your CPU" and how would you do this? >>


As you probably know, CPUs run at a certain 'multiple' of the system bus speed. So, for an Athlon XP 1800+ running at a stock 1533MHz, and the Front Side Bus (FSB) running at 133MHz (the stock setup), the CPU has a multiplier of 11.5 (133 x 11.5 = ~1533). So ... there are two ways to overclock your CPU, either increase the bus speed or increase the multiplier (or both of course). The bus speed can be controlled by the motherboard and there's nothing AMD can do to stop you from increasing it's speed to increase your processor speed. The downside is that increasing the bus speed also makes your memory and PCI/AGP bus speeds increase and the components on those buses may or may not be able to handle that increased speed. The only way to overclock your CPU without overclocking your other components (which are usually less overclockable) is to change the CPU multiplier. Unfortunately, AMD 'locks' the multiplier on the chip by disconnecting some bridges (I'm not an expert on this clearly), so you cannot change the multiplier on a stock AMD Athlon XP. On the Thunderbird Athlons, I believe you could simply use a lead pencil to 'draw' in the connections thereby unlocking the multiplier. On the XPs, it's much more difficult (AMD probably caught on to that game). You actually need to fill in the gaps with some conductive material and bridges are so tiny this is apparently very difficult (i've yet to try). Hope that answers your question.


<< Oh yeah..and what the hell is RAID, what parts do you need with it and how do you configure it? Can RAID be faster then a SCSI 29190N card that transfers 160MB/sec? >>


RAID = Redundant Array of Indpendent Disks. While a full discussion of RAID is way beyond me and out of scope here, RAID is used to increase performance of drives (via higher overall throughput by 'striping' data across multiple drives that can be read simultaneously) or to increase data integrity (by mirroring data from one drive to another for fail-over purposes), or both (striping and mirroring). While the theoretical limit of SCSI-160 may be 160MB/sec, a single SCSI drive cannot achieve that type of throughput (that I know of). In an IDE-RAID 0 configuration like I plan to have, I will have two ATA-133 drives with striped data that is likely to have an overall higher throughput than a single SCSI-160 drive (and at a much lower cost I might add). All you need to setup a RAID configuration is a RAID controller card (or built-in RAID controller on the motherboard) and multiple hard drives (preferably of the same make and model). Note that SCSI RAID configs are almost ubiquitous in the server world and would outperform a similar IDE-RAID setup due to the higher overall throughput potential of the SCSI protocol (and the fact that SCSI drives are generally faster). However, you need some serious $$$ for a SCSI RAID setup. Hope that helps.

- Josh