Stupid newbie question

[CetiAlphaV]

I have an original Athlon 550 with factory heatsink and fan running on a FIC SD-11. I was wondering if it is possible to overclock it and if so how many extra Mhz will I most likely get without having to put alot of money into it.

 

[bolomite]

There are basically two options:

1. Increase the FSB (default is 100 MHz). Now, I'm not that familiar with your motherboard, but you should be able to up the FSB in the BIOS, either incrementally (1 MHz at a time), or perhaps your board supports some preset values, like 102, 103, etc. Bear in mind that this is not incredibly effective; it will give you a little increase. For example, let's say you raise the FSB up to 110 MHz, then since your Athlon 550 has a multiplier of 5.5, your new speed will be 5.5 x 110 = 605 MHz. Again, don't expect to go too far with this, because when you increase the FSB, you also start to throw the AGP and PCI buses out of whack, not to mention your memory as well.

2. This is what I did: use a Golden Fingers device, or GFD. Around $20 for a good one. A GFD is a little circuit board that actually plugs into your CPU, but you'll have to crack open your Athlon casing to get at the connectors where the GFD plugs in. Not for the faint of heart, but it's really not that hard. This approach is more effective, because you're increasing the multiplier and keeping the FSB constant. My Athlon 650 is currently at 800 no problem, and with a little better cooling, I know it can hit 850, even 900 if I'm lucky.

Whichever method you choose, you'll have to invest in a better heatsink and fan to dissipate the added heat, ask around for advice on cooling. Hope that helps.

 

[cpars]

I had a classic 550 running at 800 stable and another at 750 stable, your chances are good. But you may need to look into some better cooling, globalwin VOS 32 and alpha make good cooling solutions for these. Worked for me anyway, oh and better check to make sure the heatsink will work with your mobo and not block power connections.