I unlocked my Palomino core Athlon 1800+ yesterday. The chip itself has "AGKGA" or something like that on it, so I imagine that's the stepping. The unlock was successful, but the darn thing didn't run well at all. Win98 forgot everything, it wouldn't POST half the time, I had to reset CMOS once, and it was generally a PITA. I wiped the traces off and went to the default (11.5x) multiplier. I just bought the processor (retail pkg w/HSF) from Newegg.com in late June. Why did I get a Palomino, not a Thoroughbred? It's running fine at 148MHz FSB and 1.84VDC at the core (per MBM5). I tried 11x, 11.5x, 12x, and 13x (didn't POST at 13x), and nothing could get the system up and stable. I'm using the Shuttle AK31A v3.1 with KT266A chipset. I suspect the mobo is the problem, as others with better mobos have Pals running close to or over 1.8GHz.
So I just say screw it. 1.7GHz is fine for me. I have plenty of cooling, cheap P/S, cheap mobo, and Kingston "ValueRAM" ($90 for 2x 256MB PC2100). I've got my mem settings as fast as they'll run with decent stability. I'll just call it a day.
FWIW--I can complete a SETI WU in under 3:30 with everything running normally. I don't have any other benchmarks done, yet.
JamesM
So I just say screw it. 1.7GHz is fine for me. I have plenty of cooling, cheap P/S, cheap mobo, and Kingston "ValueRAM" ($90 for 2x 256MB PC2100). I've got my mem settings as fast as they'll run with decent stability. I'll just call it a day.
FWIW--I can complete a SETI WU in under 3:30 with everything running normally. I don't have any other benchmarks done, yet.
JamesM
