pointless to try to O/C an athy 1Gig ARGA?

[io333]

With my K7S5A I also ordered from NewEgg a 1Gig Athy. I wasn't really planning on O/Cing so I dodn't really care about the stepping, but I'm bored now 'cause the system is just too perfect, so why not mess with it?

Anyway, it seems to me that my chip is quite a bit older, and I'm wondering if there's any point at all in trying to O/C the poor old thing. On the chip it says:

AMD Athlon
A1000AMT3C
ARGA0123EPAW
95421130071
1999AMD

My temp is alreay 49-51 Celcius at idle (in a cheap poorly venting case and a Volcano2), but I don't care about the temps right now cause it's stable as a rock and I'm not O/Cing at all. But before I go to all the trouble of modding the case & maybe the HSF to get my temps down for an O/C, I was wondering if it's maybe just pointless with the stepping I have?

Any opinions valued...

-------------------------
K6-3+450ACZ@600@2.0v
VA503+1.2aEO037
64x2 Micron CAS3
WD102A 10G DMA33
DMax40 20G DMA33
DiamondSpeedstarA90 S3Savage4 16M
Smartlink 5634BTS 56K ISA
Ensoniq AudioPCI
Mitsumi 4804TE burner
Linksys 10/100 to P75@100

 

[evilhomey]

http://www.athlonoc.com/stepping2.php

ECS k7s5a ? Gd board huh ?
I just got one too!!

The link above it to an article on Tbird Steppings ... Your ARGA 9 should hit 1300

Gd LUck !

 

[Wind]

Although it says tht it should hit 1.3 Ghz...but ARGA stepping normally is not a good O/Cing chip.

 

[HarveyFish]

If you are concerned about it being "pointless" then you shouldn't be overclocking in the first place. You have an Athlon 1 gig, for chrissakes.

Now, if you are a REAL overclocker you'll just keep the side of your case open, get some loctite fluid, a pin, and a magnifying glass and lock those bridges up. Do it right and start playing with your multipliers on the board and see where you can go. If heat is a problem then either strap a larger fan on the heat sink or start ventillating that baby.

These days my box does little more than surf the web with the occasional video editing project. Theoretically I could stay at the default rating of my Duron 650 but instead I run it maxed out at 1 gig. Why? Because I can!

 

[io333]

Thanks all for the replies. I ask 'cause I prefer just straight chip o/cing while leaving the bus not o/ced 'cause I'd rather just hurt one thing instead of all things. I'm using an ECS mainboard though, without any multi options, so any o/c I shoot for would have to be by cutting/crossing bridges which is a real PITA. With the info provided above, it looks to me like a good o/c that will probably work without any difficulty would be 1.2Gig, so I think I'll try for that.

 

[Vrangel]

I have 1.0 ARGA and it tops at 1.2 regardless of cooling and voltage.
I overclock by changing multiplier only. There was a thread few weeks ago
where ARGA owners shared their experience. Range is 1.15-1.25.
Only one guy got it to 1.25

On the other hand you dont need expensive cooling. All you need is to keep it under 55C
I got temp below 40C but it didnt help a bit.

 

[Slaimus]

I think ARGA is from Austin fab, which use aluminum interconnects. The Morgan core Duron from Austin fab also seems to top out at 1.2gig, so maybe this is the limit of aluminum interconnects.

EDIT: spelling