Overclocking an Athlon XP 1700+ to 2000+ ?

[BobSnob]

I am considering overclocking my Athlon XP 1700+ (on a ECS K7S5A m/b) but consider anything less than 1660GHz (133x12.5 = XP 2000+) to be not worth the effort. Nor do I want to be burdened with huge cooling issues. So my first question is am I likely to be able to o'c my chip to 1660 and do so without a big increase in temp? I'm currently running at 43C idle - see my page here. All being well...

The next question is where can I buy conductive paint or equivalent? I've tried my local auto store but their defogger repair kits are epoxy based and I want to keep the o'c easily reversable.

Is a 2000+ different from the 1700+ or are there 1700+'s out there that could have been 2000+'s but for sales reasons they were hobbled? My guess is that they are all made the same and then are tested for performance and then rated. What I don't know is what happens when production makes more higher performance chips than can be sold. Are they marked down?

That's enuff questions for now I think!

 

[Theslowone]

Try here for the good stuff, and here on how its done.

You do know its going to take a little bit more then a defogger kit, and it is not reversible? The tbirds were reversible but the xp is actualy cutting the cpu.
And yes they will sell a 2000+ as an 1700+ or whatever lower then it, if they start to run out. This was very apparent with the original athlons. They had 750 labeled on the insides of the 550 cpus.

 

[hoomza444]

hmm....good luck getting a 1700+ to 2000+ speeds.......although they both use the same core, you are going to have to check to see what markings you have on your chip.....the only way you can possibly attain taht speed with a 1700+ is if your 1700+ is from the same batch as the 2000+, i.e. same markings. check out www.overclockers.com, they have a list of various setups and the speeds that people got. i personally have a 1700+ and most i have gotten it to is 19xx........ at 1944 it is stable with out even increasiong the voltage past 1.775...but anything past taht is pushing it. i have the xp-333 by the way. also, you are going to have got get an unofficial overclocker's bios for that board as i am pretty sure you can't change hte multiplier with that board.



<< You do know its going to take a little bit more then a defogger kit, and it is not reversible? The tbirds were reversible but the xp is actualy cutting the cpu. >>



also, you can reverse it if you do it right. rather than using epoxy based glue, use some regular super glue. put tape between the things, etc....then you won't have to cut anything. you can just take alcahol and it will come off. believe me...i HAVE reversed it....

 

[DaSinical1]

BobSnob,
Its do-able but there is a risk. Despite what hoomza444 says, unlocking the xp and locking it to a higher multiplier is not reverseable. You have to cut some bridges and lock other ones. But, I got my 1700+ to go 1725MHz by hardlocking my 1700+ to a 12.5 multiplier and upping the fsb to 138 using chfsb. BTW: I also have the K7s5a so I know for a fact that there is no other way to change the xp multiplier short of extreme mods to the motherboard. But, to tell you the truth, I really don't see any improvement from when it was running at stock speeds. With a cpu that powerful, your bottleneck in gaming would be your video card way before it was your processor. But, good luck if you do decide to mod your processor. BTW: my chip can hit 133x12.5 pretty easy, it wasn't until I tried to go up to 1725MHz that I had to modify the vcore.
Mark

 

[BobSnob]

I recently upgraded from a Celeron 900 to the XP 1700+ and don't notice a big difference in day-2-day stuff. However as soon as I start to encode avi's (using DivX) there is a super boost in speed. No more over-nighters!

 

[Jman13]

Good luck, but with idle temps at 43C, you may not get far...depends on the chip. I'm using the stock HSF, and so my temps aren't great either (32C idle, but 47C load). I was very easily able to overclock my chip to 1800+ levels (1540) at default voltage. I got it up to 1606MHz, and it stayed stable at that speed with stock voltage for about 2 hours, then SETI locked it up. So I boosted the voltage....and it locked up after only 25 mintues. Boosted it to 1.80V, and it locked right after boot. So, it seems to me that my chip just doesn't like 1606 due to heat. I'll probably get a better HSF and use some AS3 in a few months, and it'll likely be fine at 1606, but until then...I'll keep it at 1540. Good luck.

 

[Theslowone]

hoomza444
I don't doubt you can lock the mult. again but the fact that it will never look like the original is what I was getting at. It almost sounds, not saying you do, like he wants to unlock it and if it doesn't work make it all like new again.

 

[BobSnob]

I don't care what it looks like, just as long as I can easily put it back to 1460 @1.75v . I tracked down some Loctite defogger repair paint so I'll be trying it this evening. Fingers crossed.

 

[Theslowone]

Btw your mummy looks cool, I was thinking of doing something like that too, to get rid of this delta fan.

 

[hoomza444]

well.....in my personal experience...i was able to get it back to new. i used regular super glue to fill in the pits...i jsut taped both sides and put a strip on. then i used the defogger kit and conenct EACH BRIDGE seperately. using tape to seperate it. it was a long process but atleast id idn't have to cut into the board at all. and i know that it is reversible because the compound from the defogger kit can be removed with acetone or alcohol. i messed up trying to get them connected just right a bunch of times and had to redo it, and it came off with no problem. and as for teh super glue, it peels right off if you lay it on thick enough. i know this because one time while i was rubbinb it with alcohol to clean the brdges so that i can redraw them, the super glue peeled off and i had to redo it.

so despite what you guys may think, it is possible to do it without having it irreversible.....you don't HAVE to cut anything. and like i said....i use teh iwill xp-333 so i didnt have to hardlock any multipliers since i can control multipliers through the bios. and also, like i siad, you CAN get an *unofficial* overclocker's bios for the ecs board that should allow you more overclocking options....but it is risky.....and you could possibly be better off hardlocking it to set multipler.

*edit*
oh yeah, my intention when i did it was to be able to bring it back to original spec. if thigns didn't work out. since o/c does void warranty.....if i had any problems down the way i didn't want to run into trouble, so basically yah, i can take my chip get some acetone rub off teh compoound pull the glue out of the pits, clean off the thermal compound on the chip, and it would look basically like new....just me $0.02 take it for what you want

 

[BobSnob]

I tried and failed miserably. The main problem occurred right at the start when I cut a track between the L3 bridges. As I discovered, the top of an Athlon XP is a layer of perferated copper coated in a layer of brown paint. The exposed bridge points rise from a layer below the copper layer thru very tight masks in the perferated copper. I managed to flake off paint while cutting the track in such a way that it was virtually impossible not short the bridge points to the copper layer. I'm still not quite sure how it happened but had I to do it again here's what I'd do...

I wouldn't do it. However, if there was a gun to my head here's what I'd do...

I wouldn't do it. However, if the gun was loaded and cocked and there was a luntic finger on the trigger here's what I'd do...

I wouldn't do it. I'd die rather than wreck another Athlon XP that I owned. However, if it was someone else's cpu here's what I'd do...

I wouldn't do it. It's just not worth the hassle and the risk. I can see where it's easy to connect zapped bridges: fill the hole with superglue and paint a track over the top... but disconnecting connected bridges is another matter, especially if you are planning a possible undo. That top layer of paint flakes off too easily. I think I'd investigate "blowing the bridges" by passing 12V at high amps thru them but I wouldn't put a knife near them.

So now my XP is stuck at 12.5 x 100 = 1250MHz and needless to say I'm a bit winded. (My cpu runs nice and cool now). This is the setting with no L3 bridges connected. I've tried upping the FSB to 133 but it wouldn't post. I upped the core voltage to 1.85 and it would post but not boot. What I need now is some way to change the FSB to maybe 4x30 .