Unlocking Athlon XP 2400+???

[techfuzz]

Fellow Anandtech forum readers: I call upon you to provide me with direction and instruction on unlocking an Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz). I presently have 1 ordered and in shipment due to arrive in a couple of days where upon I will be building a brand new, first ever, AMD rig in my possession. Until now I was "living" in the Intel camp but decided recently I was ready to try something new. Along came an AMD spider. I have overclocked Intel CPU's in the past starting with the original Pentium MMX, to Pentium II's and III's. I've decided to skip the Pentium IV's and try out an AMD Athlon XP. I'm going to be using an Epox 8K5A2+, 512MB Corsair PC3200C2, and a MSI GF4 Ti4200 among other things.

Link to pictures explaining the process is appreciated! Kudos to those willing to help me out.

BTW, for those few who have these 2400+, how high are you getting them and on which motherboards?

Lay it on me!

 

[JSSheridan]

The news on the 2400+ is that some boards are set up to unlock them by default, so that all multipliers are available. KT400 boards and nForce2 boards are set up in such a way. Unfortunately, I've heard that the KT333, including the Epox 8K5A2+, boards will not do this. However, there will be a couple of techniques that you can choose from that will unlock the multipliers 12.5 and down for you. One involves tieing two of the pins together, and the other is to tie the 5th L3 bridge together. I'll look for pictures and put the links in this post when I find them.

%Start Edit

Found them.

Pin mod

Picture 1

Picture 2: Close up

Guide to tieing the bridges

Picture of the bridges after unlocking

There is no advantage in filling in the gap and drawing straight across when you can simply draw around the gap without filling in the pit. This second method works as well as the first from what I've read, and is easier to undo.

There is also an article about using the t'bred in a multiprocessor system. All it requires is that the fourth L5 bridge be closed.

Story

Picture 1

Picture 2: The unlocked t'bred as a MP

%End Edit

Good luck with your new system. Let us know how it turns out. I smell a 200MHz FSB x 11 multiplier = 2200MHz coming. Peace.

 

[techfuzz]

Thanks for the great info JSSheridan! I hope to have everything deliever by next Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. So maybe late next week I can report on how well everything turns out. 200 MHz FSB would be nice, don't know how reasonable it is though. I'm still on a lowely 133 FSB with my current P3 systems! hahaha

 

[Soulkeeper]

I've got an old kt133 board
I will only have about 100mhz fsb so assuming i drop her in default i would get 1500mhz clock (xp 1800+ speed) since the 2400+ has a default clock mult of 15
My board only supports setting the clock mult to a hi of 12 (12.5 and 13 in some cases) on an unlocked cpu
i noticed that the ocinside interactive painter guide only shows a maximum of maybe 17.5 (not too sure what "reserved" is about)

so assuming that i can use a 17.5 mult after moding the bridges and a 110mhz fsb is stable then i would have around default 2400+ speeds (although on a slower fsb)

i've heard of a method though for enabling a certain bit, by moding the bridges, that adds 8 to any multiplyer you choose (ie: 12 becomes 20)

has anyone else heard of this ???
is that just the 5th L3 ?

so if i was to connect the 5th L3 would my board's 12x mult then become a 20x ??

 

[Cosmo3]

It depends on how high you want to go. I just installed a 2400+ today in that same motherboard and memory. I decided not to unlock the cpu for now so I set the fsb at 138 and all was well, then I set it back to 133 and set the multiplier at 16, stock is 15 and set the cpu at 1.7 volts and it works great. I will try higher fsb with it set at the 16 multiplier latter. Oh all you have to do on that board to go to 16 is set it at 8 in the bios and it will be 16. My temps are 36C right now after being on for over 1.5 hours and case temps are 27C. I am sure I can get it over 2200 and still keep it cool or if you want to raise the cpu voltage a bit more I am sure it will really overclock. Oh my cpu is a week 42.

 

[techfuzz]

What's the highest voltage do you think I should go up to?

Which weeks are new 2400+ chips coming from?

 

[Soulkeeper]

i wouldn't go over 2 volts
some people are reporting using higher but...
infact i might just keep it under 1.9

they are week 39, 40, 41, and 42 unless you got an earlier one like those sent to the reviewers, dunno what week those were

 

[techfuzz]

Soulkeeper, of those weeks, which ones are proving to be better overclockers than others?

techfuzz

 

[Soulkeeper]

from what i've seen over at overclockers forums the later the week the better
maybe only by 50 more mhz per week but still better
of course we can't really know
but it would make sense that later weeks are oc'n better

 

[techfuzz]

I got my chip today. No motherboard yet so I'm dead in the water until then. Here's the markings, I'm pretty sure I got a week 42 chip.

AXDA2400DKV3C
AIUCB 0242SPBW

 

[Insane3D]

techfuzz -

I have a 2400+ on the way from Newegg and I will be using it in one of my 8K5A2+ boards with some Corsair PC3200C2. I am shooting for the 2.2ghz range, with a 200mhz FSB. I have an XP unlocking kit here, so I will likely use it to close the last L3 and to get access to the 12.5 and under multipliers. I let you know how it works out..

 

[techfuzz]

My motherboard should be here on Monday. By Tuesday I'll know what my chip can do.

Insane3D, let me know what week chip you get.

techfuzz

 

[mrman3k]

Okay, please correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that the 333MHz FSB T-breds will be factory unlocked so that in any mobo that allows the multiplier adjustments, the proc can have its multiplier set.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
Okay, please correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that the 333MHz FSB T-breds will be factory unlocked so that in any mobo that allows the multiplier adjustments, the proc can have its multiplier set.

If this is true. I'm game for one of them.

 

[mrman3k]

I thought that was what I read on amdmb.com

 

[techfuzz]

So far it looks like all Tbreds are coming unlocked with respect to their higher multipliers. According to what I have read and have seen with my 2400+, the L1 bridges are all closed. Only the 5th L3 needs to be closed to allow lower multipliers (5 up to 12.5 I think?).

techfuzz

 

[johncar]

Originally posted by: techfuzz
So far it looks like all Tbreds are coming unlocked with respect to their higher multipliers. According to what I have read and have seen with my 2400+, the L1 bridges are all closed. Only the 5th L3 needs to be closed to allow lower multipliers (5 up to 12.5 I think?).techfuzz

Don't "assume" your mobo needs the 5th L3 mod as newer mobos do not need it, get all multipliers...just some early ones do. Best to research your mobo/bios/model, or just try it without the mod and see what it does re Multipliers....then do the mod if system doesn't post/boot, doesn't give you Multipliers you want,etc.
John C.

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: johncar

Originally posted by: techfuzz
So far it looks like all Tbreds are coming unlocked with respect to their higher multipliers. According to what I have read and have seen with my 2400+, the L1 bridges are all closed. Only the 5th L3 needs to be closed to allow lower multipliers (5 up to 12.5 I think?).techfuzz

Don't "assume" your mobo needs the 5th L3 mod as newer mobos do not need it, get all multipliers...just some early ones do. Best to research your mobo/bios/model, or just try it without the mod and see what it does re Multipliers....then do the mod if system doesn't post/boot, doesn't give you Multipliers you want,etc.
John C.

I put together my new rig tonight and as it stands, I am not able to change the multiplier on my Epox 8K5A2+/2400+ except for higher than 15. To get those lower multipliers it looks like I'm going to have to close the 5th L3 bridge as I suspected. I have no problem running it at 145MHz/1.7V right now though. I was able to get it to post around 150+ but it needed some tweaking and I didn't have the patience to play with the voltages.

As an added bonus I'm running my MSI Ti4200 at 315/600 without any problems what-so-ever.

techfuzz

 

[randomlinh]

as i understand it, closing that last l3 bridge (is it 4th or 5th? i haven't looked to count, but it is the last one, right?) will disable anything higher than 12.5x. is there anyway to get 13-14x?

btw, current asus a7n8x bios doesn't allow for the lower mulitpliers

 

[JSSheridan]

lnguyen, sorry, but no. If you short the 5th L3 bridge, multipliers of 13 and higher cannot be used. I wish that were not the case, but it is unfortunately. Peace.

 

[Anubis]

Good luck with your new system. Let us know how it turns out. I smell a 200MHz FSB x 11 multiplier = 2200MHz coming. Peace.

This is cool and all but i know peopel who got XP 1600+ runnin at 210x10.5 = 2205 MHz. hopefully these new chips will be able to OC like that baby

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: TheEvil1

Good luck with your new system. Let us know how it turns out. I smell a 200MHz FSB x 11 multiplier = 2200MHz coming. Peace.

This is cool and all but i know peopel who got XP 1600+ runnin at 210x10.5 = 2205 MHz. hopefully these new chips will be able to OC like that baby

Not a chance really, since these chips are built on .13 micron instead of .18 it's getting harder and harder to squeeze much out of them. Some of the best overclocks right now with these 2400+ chips are in the 300-400 mHz increase range.. But that is TOPS!

 

[OverclockTHIS]

Originally posted by: techfuzz

Originally posted by: TheEvil1

Good luck with your new system. Let us know how it turns out. I smell a 200MHz FSB x 11 multiplier = 2200MHz coming. Peace.

This is cool and all but i know peopel who got XP 1600+ runnin at 210x10.5 = 2205 MHz. hopefully these new chips will be able to OC like that baby

Not a chance really, since these chips are built on .13 micron instead of .18 it's getting harder and harder to squeeze much out of them. Some of the best overclocks right now with these 2400+ chips are in the 300-400 mHz increase range.. But that is TOPS!

Not really...with proper cooling, you can crank a 2400+ up 700-800 mhz...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4687

And its beats the snot out of P4 running at 1 gig higher then it...

 

[randomlinh]

blah, i think i got a dud cpu 166x12.5 seems to initially be only viable@1.75v. 1.65 gave me instant errors in prime. Can't go for a higher bus, memory limited (wasn't really planning to OC...). This is on an asus a7n8x. Couldn't get any further in prime with 133x16@1.75(2.128ghz) either.. so i think it's not a happy oc'er. Oh well, all i was hoping for was using a 166fsb.. all this talk of them hitting high speeds got me hooked

 

[SFang]

I am having 163X12.5 at default voltage now, actually auto voltage. My CPU is not limiting me at all, only the memory. After I bump up the memory voltage, it solved all the unstable problems.