Possible to get a Sempron to OC?

[Sonikku]

I have a 2400+ Sempron Socket A cpu paired with a Abit VA20 motherboard and a gig of corsair value ram. The FSB frequency is set a 166, but is it possible to push it a little further? Some on new egg mentioned in their reviews that they were able to set the FSB to 200mhz and got a slight boost. I tried setting the FSB to 200 mhz with the jumpers on my MOBO but the monitor would not turn on, thus I set it back to 166mhz. What do I need to even get a slight OC out of this chip? Is there a program I could use? I OC my 9600XT a little with power strip.

 

[Jimmah]

I did that with an Asus kt600-x and a sempron 2400, got it to 2300 if I remember correctly. Look in your manual and see what needs done exactly, also more detail on what you did or needs done is required so maybe someone can help you.

 

[Zap]

You may need more voltage to get the setup to turn on at the higher speed. IIRC that Abit board isn't one of their "enthusiast" models, so you may be limited as to what you can do. Generally speaking some processors can overclock with minimal effort to the highest speed the manufacturer offers on the same core, meaning 2.2GHz for socket A. Jimmah said setting the Sempron 2400+ to 200MHz FSB gives 2.3GHz, which is above that. Not unheard of, but you'll most likely need better cooling and more voltage, and don't be suprised if it doesn't work that high.

 

[Jimmah]

200mhz will do the 2.2, but mine went 2.3 with more fsb and I think .05 more vcore. Like Zap said you might need more vcore to get it to post, but even then it may be flakey. Oh, isn't that the kt400 chipset? I didn't know they could do a reliable 200mhz fsb.

 

[formulav8]

It should have NO problems getting to the 200mhz fsb. I had a couple messing around with them and 200mhz fsb = 2ghz = VERY easy. At the most is you may have to bump of the voltage just a tad. Anyways, you would get a NICE 15% or so real world increase in performance.



Jason

 

[Sonikku]

Well, it'd be nice as my cpu is bottlenecking my video card. (I wish I'd gone with a socket 754, but I can't change time. ) I changed the FSB to 200 mhz by the jumpers on the board, and while the computer turned on my monitor didn't. Do I change the FSB by the jumpers, by the bios, or both? and if the latter, in what order? Do I change the voltage first? I'm still kind of new at this...

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Sonikku
What do I need to even get a slight OC out of this chip? Is there a program I could use?

No, you need a motherboard capable of providing smaller frequency adjustments than your current board. As I recall the VA20 is very value oriented and offered very little in terms of overclocking options in BIOS.

If you can change things, it will be in the BIOS, you will want to up the voltage a little at a time until it is stable at your desired frequency or you start pushing 60C, whichever comes first.

I would increase the votage first. That core has been sold by AMD with up to 1.65v stock, and people have pushed more through it when overclocking. The reasonable limit is your capability of cooling it.

 

[Sonikku]

I can't seem to change the voltage, save for the ram. However, my temps never go above 34 degrees C. with stock cooling.

 

[Concillian]

In this case you are likely hosed without a new motherboard. And it's likely not worth it to buy a new motherboard just to OC your Sempron a little. As I said, I think the VA20 is very value oriented and doesn't really cater to overclocking, it doesn't really surprise me that there aren't CPU voltage options in the BIOS.