Overclocking an AMD 2000+ Processor

[mbackof]

I am building a school-use PC (very little gaming use) for my sister using the following:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 266 FSB, 256K Cache Processor - Retail
BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" nForce2 IGP Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2700 - OEM
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST380013A-RK, Retail
Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD-RW & DVD Combo Drive, Model C523216, Retail
Enlight Beige Micro ATX Mini Tower Case with 200W Power Supply, Model "EN-7358-0PU" -RETAIL
Logitech Deluxe Desktop Bundle (Deluxe Keyboard & S69 Mouse) PS/2 104keys -OEM
Creative SBS330 2.1 Speaker -OEM

I currently have it running with an OC on the FSB to 166/333 and it is at 2600+ speeds. This is at stock voltage. The processor is running very cool at 28C at idle. I've seen it get up to 32C during use. It is one of the newer 2000+ processors with the nicer copper plate on the bottom of the heat sink. The memory is PC2700 ValueRAM running at conservative timings. I am using the onboard Geforce 4 MX video. The system boots fine each time and Windows seems to be running normally. I am going to run memtest and prime95 over the next day or so to see if it is stable. Has anyone tried an overclock like this with any success? Will this do something goofy to the onboard video?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Is that one of the XP mobile 2000+ chips?

For right now, just run memtest and Prime95 and post back with the results. If you can run Prime95 for 24 hours with no errors, then I would consider it stable.

You've got a Nforce2 board, and the PCI/AGP speed is locked on all NF2 boards. Since the speed of the AGP stays constant at 66mhz, regardless of what FSB speed you are running at, then overclocking to the higher 166 FSB speed shouldn't affect the onboard video at all.

 

[mbackof]

Nope its a Thoroughbred core, not a mobile. That was why I was asking. I know that the mobile chips are usually easy to overclock, but I hadn't read about any high overclocks on the Thoroughbred (I know it is an older chip). I'll get back to you on the memtest and prime95 results.

Mike

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, the TB core is still a good core for overclocking, and your results aren't suprising. You might be able to push it further with a Vcore increase, but then you're OC'ing the PC2700. Since you said it's going to be mainly school use only (no gaming), then I doubt you'll see any "real world" difference with speeds higher than the 166 FSB.

It sounds like you've got a good, stable chip there. Post back what you find, but your Memtest and Prime95 results should be fine.

 

[nh]

Originally posted by: mbackof
I am building a school-use PC (very little gaming use) for my sister using the following:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 266 FSB, 256K Cache Processor - Retail
BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" nForce2 IGP Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2700 - OEM
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST380013A-RK, Retail
Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD-RW & DVD Combo Drive, Model C523216, Retail
Enlight Beige Micro ATX Mini Tower Case with 200W Power Supply, Model "EN-7358-0PU" -RETAIL
Logitech Deluxe Desktop Bundle (Deluxe Keyboard & S69 Mouse) PS/2 104keys -OEM
Creative SBS330 2.1 Speaker -OEM

I currently have it running with an OC on the FSB to 166/333 and it is at 2600+ speeds. This is at stock voltage. The processor is running very cool at 28C at idle. I've seen it get up to 32C during use. It is one of the newer 2000+ processors with the nicer copper plate on the bottom of the heat sink. The memory is PC2700 ValueRAM running at conservative timings. I am using the onboard Geforce 4 MX video. The system boots fine each time and Windows seems to be running normally. I am going to run memtest and prime95 over the next day or so to see if it is stable. Has anyone tried an overclock like this with any success? Will this do something goofy to the onboard video?

The question you might want to ask yourself right now isn't "can I overclock this system?" but rather "Should I overclock this system?". Do you think she will really benefit at all from the extra speed? If so, is it worth potentially having to fix her computer if something goes wrong (say her heatsink clogs up with dust and it starts running too hot)? I personally am all for overclocking the bejezus out of my own system but other people's systems I'll leave stock. It's not worth the hassle of them thinking you might have done something that screwed up their computer (even if it didn't).

Nite_Hawk

 

[mbackof]

I always extensively test any system I build and I only overclock if the system is stable under the overclock, and the temperatures are reasonable. I would never overclock a machine for a business customer because it could be more of a support headache than a performance benefit.
I ended up running this machine at stock speed because I ran into a reboot situation under MP3 encoding with 100% processor use. The temperatures were still very low but it appears that the system could not handle the overclock. It is stable at stock speed.

Mike

 

[trexpesto]

might benefit from a small votage boost if you encounter problems. I use mine for work and gaming and have never had a problem.

 

[mbackof]

Since it is a PC for my sister, I'm not going to mess with it. If it was my machine, you better believe that I would be playing with the multiplier and/or voltage.

 

[AMCRambler]

Wow nice overclock! I couldn't get my Athlon XP 2400 to boot with a bus speed any faster than 140mhz. I've got some pretty good ram in there too. One stick of Mushkin Level 2 and one stick of Geil CL 2.5. I upgraded the processor recently to a 2700 and the ram runs fine at 166mhz so I don't think it was a memory problem. May just have been a bad chip for oc. Yeha if she's using it for school work, don't bother overclocking it. She won't notice a difference.