Tough Duron Overclock on Abit KT7

[TechKnight]

Alright, I've had two of these now and two more in the boxes and I can't hit the magic number. I am using:

Abit KT7
Globalwin Heatsink & Fan
Duron 600Mhz Processor

My question is, which setting is the best for the performance? Sandra shows me the highest clock speed is it, however, people say, the higher the FSB, the faster it actually is. So, which configuration should I use?

Normal:
6 x 100Mhz = 600Mhz
CPU - 1704
FPU - 807
Integer MMX - 2015
Floating Point 3D Now! - 2795

Underclock:
5 x 100Mhz = 500Mhz
CPU - 1418
FPU - 671
Integer MMX - 1667
Floating Point 3D Now! - 2325

Overclocked:
8 x 115Mhz = 920Mhz
CPU - 2621
FPU - 1241
Integer MMX - 3121
Floating Point 3D Now! - 4300

Overclocked:
8.5 x 110 = 935Mhz
CPU - 2661
FPU - 1260
Integer MMX - 3155
Floating Point 3D Now! - 4365

Overclocked:
9 x 104Mhz = 936Mhz
CPU - 2662
FPU - 1260
Integer MMX - 3160
Floating Point 3D Now! - 4360

Overclocked: (Unstable sometimes?)
9.5 x 100 = 950Mhz
CPU - 2699
FPU - 1278
Integer MMX - 3195
Floating Point 3D Now! - 4425

*Bold denotes Sandra tests where speed exceed the Pentium II 1 Ghz processor. Also, for all you Abit users, do you set the CPU Drive strength to 3? Or do you leave it at 2? And what about the Fast CPU decode? Do you guys use Fast or Normal?

 

[crapito]

I would bet that either 8 x 115Mhz = 920Mhz or the 8.5 x 110 = 935Mhz overclocks will be fastest in most games/apps/etc. while 9.5 x 100 = 950Mhz is clearly the fastest Mhz you've listed, you have probably hit another limit (video/ram/etc) much earlier, so increasing the FSB should result in more of an overall speed system increase.

of course, you should benchmark something you actually use, say Q3A, rather than SiSoft Sandra, as Sandra is a synthetic benchmark that doesn't really relate too well to real world use.

oh, I don't remember exactly what my KT7-RAID CPU strength is set to, but I know it is the fastest.

 

[wesman2]

If your interested in gaming try the 3d mark 2000 benchmark from madonion. It can be limited by your video card, but will tell you how fast your system is at 3d graphics with different settings.

BTW, I have heard the kt7 does not overclock the FSB very well (chipset limitation), does anyone know what kind of results to expect? I know the memory is a limiting factor, but I may put it to pc100 just to see how fast the rest of the system will go.

 

[wesman2]

BTW, what are your memory settings? I would not use any FSB that forces me to reduce my memory bus speed (if you are currently using 133).

 

[TechKnight]

I'm using PC133 128MB Memory. Nowhere am I able to reach the 133Mhz Bus though. I am running 3DMark 2000 to test the performance. But, I am only using a CL TNT2 32MB Ultra card (that doesn't even support 4X) so that could be the limiting factor. I will try the 8.5 multipler with the higher bus. The important thing is system performance. I can careless if it reads 10000Mhz or something, just as long as it's squeezing every bit of juice.

 

[jebus]

i thought the tnt2 ultra DOES support 4x? I just checked nvidia's spec sheet and it says it does. Well I set my bios for 4x and everything seems to work fine.. in fact I think my fps went up a little because I changed it.

 

[TechKnight]

I think other brands of TNT2 support 4X. Heck, I have one that's only 8MB that I got from bummer and it supports 4X. But on the box on my CL TNT2, it says only 2X and I have never gotten it to run at 4X despite the BIOS settings. Doesn't even have that option on the Tweak It from CL.