overclocking newbie..need a quick answer please.

[PLow]

I was wondering what the success rate is on overclocking a 950Mhz Thunderbird using an ABIT KT7A. Im not looking to use the full 133FSB, but was wondering if I will be able to use the same 9.5 multiplier and just up the FSB around 115, getting me close to 1.1GHZ.
(I am using MICRON PC133)
Agian, Im not looking for any extreme solutions, just really looking for a small extra boost with-in tolorance. Also, using the ABIT KT7A, do I still need to use the pencil trick to adjust the multiplier? I noticed I can adjust it in the bios, but I wasnt sure if that was a true indicator of the multiplier. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Quaggoth]

crank it up about 3 mhz at a time. when it gets unstable, turn it down one at a time. HAVE PATIENCE, and test for stability thoroughly. Also, install the Via hardware monitor that should have come with your Moboso you can see what temps you are running. Don't go past 1.8V (And only go that high if you have a decent cooler). If you only have the stock HS/F, go to 1.775 only. If the temps are still pretty cool at that voltage though (110-115F), you can go higher.

Basically, set the Voltage to 1.775, then set the FSB to 107 (This will set your PCI bus to 38Mhz I think), and then crank it up slowly from there. FSB is almost always better than multiplier, so you should get that as high as it will go and still be stable, even if you have to turn down the multi. It would be nice if someone created a curve that shows where the break in benefit is when turning down the overall MHZ while turnng up the FSB. I will e-mail Anand on this.

Edit - I consider the MAX to be 1.825V, but only if you have a top 5 cooler.

 

[PLow]

Hey, cool thanks alot. As far as cooling, Im using a FOP32-1, and I also picked up some arctic silver II, because I dont trust just a thermal pad for this.

 

[Oscar1613]

since you have the abit kt7a, its probably better to leave the "cpu fsb/pci clock" at 100/33 and just use the "cpu fsb plus (mhz)" to increment the fsb to the desired speed so you dont put too much stress on your pci cards. the "fsb plus (mhz)" on the kt7a & kt7a-raid is completely separate from the pci clock, unlike most other boards. if you want to go higher than 128 fsb, then you should find the next highest fsb with the pci clock closest to 33 then use the fsb plus to get to your desired fsb.