should i unlock my xp1800 or not ?

[flexy]

hi,

my XP1800+ should be here the next days...thinking about unlocking the L1....or not.

Question: If i leave it alone...and i raise the FSB only.....does the bios then recognize the next higher cpu (eg. 1900, 2000, 2100)...or do i need to unlock/modify the multipliers to get the bios to recognize the 1800 as a higher cpu ?

I know that the L1 are very tiny...tho i dont see a big prob getting defogger kit and nailglue.....but on the other hand i think...if i can raise the FSB....say 145 and use the default multiplier 11.5.... would there be any point to mess with unlocking the bridges or should i leave the XP alone ?

(Had the impression that a big number of people did not unlock their XPs and OC with their FSB instead)


(What would be realistic [stable!] values to expect for CPU and FSB ? I have an alpha8045,,,but it has a quiet sunon 80mm 36cfm fan on it, so its not an hardcore overclocker's machine...is ~1680 reasonable ?)

greets

 

[AkumaBao]

What kind of board are you using??? Usually you would want to have a board that can overclock in 1MHz increaments, just so you don't have that big of a jump to deal with. On a 1800+ I wouldn't if you haven't done this before. That is too much money to lose for experimentation. Just have fun with the 1.6GHz, or buy a 1500+ or a 1.4GHz to try it out first. If you do a 12MHz jump without the correct cooling you could crack that CPU quick!!!

 

[flexy]

getting an nforce board.

well...unlocking itself doesnt look that difficult to me (see tomshardware)....

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I was faced with the same predicament. I unlocked both my Athlon and my Duron straight out of the box, but the idea of unlocking my XP 1800+ made my sweat too much. I decided to go with just a FSB overclock for now, get some use of it, and then probably unlock it when the 2000+ or 2200+'s come out. On the AK31, the BIOS will detect the next higher PR rating, so if you overclock the 1800+ to 1600Mhz, you will see AMD 1900+ at boot. Check my specs for my current overclock. I could go higher if I had a better PSU, but right now I'm stuck at just over 140Mhz.

 

[MichaelD]

<< I wouldn't if you haven't done this before. That is too much money to lose for experimentation >>




Wise words. It seems you already have a good grasp on overclocking fundamentals. There really isn't much to it...it's either Multiplier, FSB, or a combination of both. Multiplier is the "safest way" because it keeps your HD and your AGP/PCI speeds at their proper speeds. But a 10MHz increase in FSB isn't going to hurt anything and you WILL see very obvious increases in performance. Both in benchmarks and everyday "seat of the pants" usage.

You're right; it's not all that physically difficult to connect the L1 bridges (and fill the laser cutouts in the XP) BUT, if you have never done it before, it can be tricky. Those damn little "dots" you have to connect get reeeeeeeeealy tiny when you're trying to get the point of a sewing needle dipped in conductive ink in there! You get cross-eyed very quickly!

Just mess with FSB for now. Running 10 x 110 to get 1100MHz will net a much bigger performance increase than running 11 x 100 to get 1100MHz will. <--just an example. Your speeds will differ.

 

[arcaneman]

I took the gung ho approach when I got my Athlon XP 1700. I decided to connect the L1 bridges even though I was uncomfortable with the fact that the L1 connectors were a lot smaller than I expected. I couldn't stand the thought of my Athlon not meeting it's true potential. So I set out with some epoxy and a defogger kit and 3 hrs and some sore eyes later I had myself an Athlon XP 1900 (ok I know that my XP can go higher, but I don't wanna push my baby too hard ). So in response to your question, I'd say go for the multiplier unlocking, as I feel it gives you more stable system (sure my abit can run a 140 FSB, but i'd hate to risk a crash in the middle of an online game because of some PCI bus component crapping out). My advice to you if you're going to connect the L1 bridges is to keep a nice big bottle of acetone around as it does a very good job of cleaning up messy or screwed up L1 connection jobs (this is assuming you will use a defogger kit to connect the L1 bridges).

 

[Jen]

I feel unlocking gives the best advantage ..........this way you can get the best of both worlds fsb and multiplier


Jen

 

[johndoe52]

I'd just like to know if people are having better results after unlocking the muliplier or not. I'd like to run my memory at 166 regardless and that's a good enough oc for me for now. I'll probably be getting the 1700 possibly the 1800 if prices continue to drop. Please anyone with any experience with these post your results or even better pm me. thx.