TBred A's: Personal Experiences

[KingofFah]

If I were to listen to everything I have read on the rev a on this forum, then I could reach the conclusion that the rev a tbred is extremely inconsistent in its overclock. To negate that, I could say that different people used different cooling setups, and I hope that is all it is.

I would like to read what people's overclocks have been with these chips, so please leave your overclock and specs relevant to the overclock if you do not mind.

I was set on buying it, and then I read another post that made me uncertain once again.

Thanks

 

[BurningDog]

they overclock well if you get a lower one

meaning , the higher tbred a's hit the same wall the lower ones do, so there is no reason to spend the extra money

highest i've got w/a 1700+ is 2ghz @ 1.9vcore w/a thermaltake volcano6cu

 

[Jeff7181]

Check profile for specs... core voltage is 1.600... temps are as follows...

Idle:
Case = 82 degrees F
CPU = 107 degrees F

100% CPU load
Case = 84 degrees F
CPU = 114 degrees F

Room temp is about 72
Click here to see my stuff... computer stuff that is...

 

[Elcs]

Depends on Stepping as well I suppose.

According to at least one person on these boards, my supplier sells RIRGA steppings and I cant find any place on this planet to get me a decent collection of RIRGA overclocks.

 

[KingofFah]

Yeah I know, they are all the same. I will be getting a 1700.

Jeff7181, I can do that with the same temps on my AGIOA1600. Are you sure that there is not a problem?

 

[KingofFah]

If I can do 171FSB stable on my AGOIA 1600 pal, then should I still get a tbred A? The limiting factor on my overclock is not the CPU for quite sometime.
133-171: Stable
172-174: Works, but any intense memory application will run for a few minutes than have memory errors (it is generic CAS2.5 2700 DDR running CAS2 2-5-3, so I am getting what I paid for)
175-183: Posts, windows shows a blue screen during boot and says that there is a problem with the hardware or its drivers. I assume this is due to the AGP/PCI going out of spec (mostly the NIC).
184: Very unstable, freezes while in BIOS sometimes, will not boot windows.
185+: Video is not displayed, power off and have to wait 10 seconds for the BIOS to reset the DDR/CPU frequencies to default.

I believe the memory is the problem with my overclocking, so I see little reason to buy a tbred A. The little reason I can think of with the tbred A is to change the multiplier to 11X171 or 11.5X171, what do you think? I am leaning towards just waiting another month or two to get a tbred B, then overclock that to 2200MHZ+. On a side note, I have noticed something weird about my hhc-002 hsf. When I overclock more the RPM on the fan increases. I had no idea this HSF did this. It changed from an RPM rate of about 6800-7200 to 7600-8000 (I got used to the noise, or I have lost some of my hearing ). I should easily be able to do 12.5x171 with the tbred B, right?

 

[Jeff7181]

No problem, I'm using cheap RAM... the $40 PNY stuff you get at Best Buy and only running at 1.600 volts. And yes, get a Thoroughbred, but make sure you use a copper heatsink, or a heatsink with a copper base. Reason being, it runs A LOT cooler IF, and only if you have a heatsink capable of transfering the heat. An aluminum heatsink won't be good enough unless you have a monster of a fan. My temps with a Palomino at 1540 Mhz was 113 idle and 120 under load. And both temp specs I gave are with a cheap 70mm, 4500 RPM fan that came on a Generic heatsink that I origionally bought for an Athlon 1.2 Ghz T-Bird.
Oh... and it's the AIUGA stepping... from newegg.com. Hopefully soon I'll be getting some better RAM... I'm looking for a reasonable price on a single 512 DDR333... so far it's hard to find them under $150

Realistically... unless you intend on taking either of the CPU's to their absolute max, using very high voltage, there's no reason to switch. Most people consider 1.750 volts high for a Thoroughbred. There's people who brag that they got their XP1700 T-Bred to run at 2.1 Ghz... nevermind that it won't boot windows at that speed at any less than 2.0 volts. Which is an insane vcore to run a T-Bred at.
I switched to the T-Bred for a couple reasons...
1 It was a gift =)
2 I wasn't confident enough to unlock the multiplier on my Palo XP1700, and the T-Bred is unlocked up to 12.5
3 The Palo XP1700 wouldn't run a FSB any higher than 144 even with the DRAM at 333 CAS2.5 (which it now runs stable at)
4 I knew the T-Bred would run cooler

 

[KingofFah]

I have the HHC-001 HSF. Pure copper. I really have changed my mind, though. I am going to buy a tbred B when they are out at 1800 speeds. I can overclock that by quite a lot.

 

[Jeff7181]

Yeah, if you already have one running at about 1.7 or 1.8, no sense in getting one that will do the same thing, but run cooler. Like I said, mine was a gift, so it didn't cost me anything, and I couldn't get these speeds out of my old Palo core CPU.